Ran across this article about Voyager 1 this morning. The probe has nearly reached the end of the sun's influence and crossed into interstellar space and it's still sending back data. It has traveled further than any other man made object (though at some point that record will shift to newer and faster probes).
I've been reading about the Voyager missions and the most interesting part is just how far it has exceeded it's official mission specs. In the early 70's some researchers at JPL figured out that there would be a rare planetary line up later in the decade. A probe launched in a small window of time in 1977 would be able to reach Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and possibly Pluto. This same lineup wouldn't occur again for another 176 years.
They asked Congress for funding but the price tag was too high. So the engineers quietly decided to get sneaky. They wanted two different probes but the mission would be much less ambitious. Instead of visiting five planets, they would just get two. Congress said yes.
But (and here's the sneaky part) they decided to build the probes as long lasting as they could. They thought that if the probes were still running well they could simply continue on to the other planets. They didn't want anything that would wear out after a few years. Then they crossed their fingers and sent them up.
That was nearly 34 years ago and both of them are still going strong. The data they send back uses cutting edge 8 track technology. Your home computer has a much better processor. So does your phone! But we're still getting good data.
Each has a plutonium power plant and they expect them to run until at least 2025. They'll continue out after that of course, silent messengers from the human race. The JPL guys should be very proud, very proud.
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