Mission Goals and discoveries¶

Basically, the main goal of these probes is space exploration and discovering. Meanwhile, several missions are defined as listed below:

• Exploration of the solar system
• Exploration of the outer limit on sun’s sphere of influence
• Search for Heliopause boundary
• Search about the outer limits of the sun’s magnetic field and the outer flow of the solar wind
• Measurement of the interstellar fields, particles and waves unaffected by the solar wind

Accomplished Missions and discoveries

Since 39 years travelling, Voyager 1 & 2 accomplished most of their goals. Below there are several examples about these discoveries.

• Active volcanoes and complex cloud forms in Jupiter’s moon
• Complex discoveries about Saturn’s ring
• 10 additional moons discovered around Uranus
• 3 complete rings and 6 unknown moons around Neptune
• Exploring the outermost edge of the sun domain’s and beyond
• In 1980 Nov. 12, Voyager 1 Began the trip out of the solar system
• 2012 Aug. 25 Voyager 1 entered the interstellar Space

Otherwise, Voyager 1 has enough electric power and thrust to operate until at least 2020, after deactivating some On-board subsystems such as the On-board camera which was deactivated 25 years ago.

But by 2025, almost instruments sending worthwhile information will be turned off. Then the probes will keep traveling across stars. And in 296000 years, Voyager 2 will pass 4.3 light-years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
Experts assume that the eternal destination for these probes may be the Milky Way.

References

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/index.html
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/timeline.html
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html
http://www.pics-about-space.com/voyager-1-interstellar-space?p=3#img11403093170901988392
http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2013/09/14/voyager-is-sending-us-the-sounds-of-interstellar-space/jcr:content/image.img.2000.jpg/1379358328424.cached.jpg.dimg.jpg/2513bcc-1.cached.jpg