Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 was part of a mission initially intended to study Jupiter and Saturn. However, the probe far exceeded the original goals.
After completing its planetary flybys, it continued its trajectory towards the ends of the solar system until, in 2012, it crossed the heliopause, the limit at which the solar wind stops dominating the interstellar medium.
That crossing, confirmed by NASA in 2013, marked its entry into interstellar space and turned Voyager 1 into a living testimony of the technological reach achieved in the 20th century.
Increasingly complex communication
Table of Contents
The new milestone planned for 2026 stands out not only for its distance, but also for its operational implications. As pointed out by technological media New Atlas and the scientific journal Popular Sciencewhen the spacecraft reaches the light-day mark, communication between Earth and the probe will require about 24 hours to send a signal and another additional day to receive the response.
This delay illustrates the challenges of keeping active a mission that operates beyond the solar environment and with systems designed almost five decades ago.
Technology from the 70s, but still current
Despite extreme limitations—1970s electronics, declining energy sources, and an environment of high-energy particles—the probe continues to send back scientific data.
According to the technological environment Interesting Engineeringits instruments can still measure interstellar particles, magnetic fields and cosmic rays, although with reduced capacity.
NASA has prioritized keeping essential systems operational to extend the mission as long as possible, probably into the early 2030s.
The most distant human object
The achievement of reaching the distance of one light-day also has a strong symbolic component. In more than 45 years no other spacecraft has surpassed Voyager 1, and no current mission is planned to reach it in the short term.
In other words, for decades it will remain the most distant human object ever sent into space.
It carries a message for possible future civilizations
Its future trajectory, however, will be silent: once its energy is exhausted, the probe will continue moving at more than 60,000 km/h towards the Oort cloud, a region of comets located about 300 light years from its current position.
It will not send any more data, but it will continue traveling like a time capsule, carrying on board the Golden Record, the collection of sounds and images selected by astronomer Carl Sagan and his team as a message for possible future civilizations.
Edited by Raquel MartÃnez Guillen, with information from Interesting Engineering, New Atlas and Popular Science.
