Nasa reveals plans for probes that will travel 92BILLION miles from Earth – 7 times further than ever before
NASA has announced plans for two probes that will travel further than any man-made objects in history.
The unnamed spacecraft will reach a staggering 92billion miles from our planet following their launches, set for 2030.
That's seven times further than the record set by Nasa's Voyager 1 and 2 probes, currently the furthest machines from Earth.
Both launched in 1977 and now sit just beyond the edge of the Solar System, or about 13billion miles away.
Proposals for an unnamed pair of probes were unveiled by Nasa last week at a space conference in Washington D.C.
"This is humanity’s first explicit step into interstellar space," said Dr Pontus Brandt, a physicist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Put forward by Dr Leon Alkalai, who works at Nasa's Jet Propulsion laboratory in California, the two probes would weigh 800 kilos.
That's a little more than your average dairy cow, allowing the vessels to sail for great distances on little fuel.
To help them along on their journey, the probes would gather momentum by performing close passes of huge space objects.
These flybys would take advantage of the gravity of the Sun or Jupiter to slingshot the probes at speeds well over 100,000 mph.
Scientists hope to use the missions to study a the mysterious outer regions of the Solar System and beyond.
They're keen to find out more about how space radiation enters our star system, and how solar radiation leaves.
Experts will submit the project for consideration by Nasa at the end of 2021.
It's not clear whether or not the space agency will choose to fund the mission.
If selected by Nasa, the probes could fly as early as 2030, researchers said.
"It’s time we have a vision we can actually execute," Dr Ralph McNutt, a physicist at the Applied Physics Laboratory.
"Up to now, people haven’t thought about this as an engineering problem. They kick the can down the road, saying: 'Well, we just need a little bit more new technology'."
The plans were unveiled last week at the 2019 International Astronomical Congress.
The news comes almost a year after Voyager 2 became only the second man-made object ever to enter interstellar space.
Nasa's deep space probes
Going where no machine has gone before...
Juno
- Launched: 5 August 2011
- Mission: Study Jupiter from its orbit
- Distance from Earth: 365million miles
New Horizons
- Launched: 19 January 2006
- Mission: Study Pluto. Now sent to outer Solar System
- Distance from Earth: 4.1billion miles
Voyager 1
- Launched: 5 September 1977
- Mission: Study Jupiter and Saturn. Now sent to outer Solar System
- Distance from Earth: 13billion miles
Voyager 2
- Launched: 20 August 1977
- Mission: Study the gas giants. Now sent to outer Solar System
- Distance from Earth: 13billion miles
According to Nasa, mission scientists were able to determine that the probe crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere on November 5, 2018.
This boundary is called the "heliopause" – where hot solar winds meet the cold and dense "intestellar medium".
Twin probe Voyager 1 crossed this boundary back in 2012.
But Voyager 2 is arguably more exciting, because it carries a working instrument that can provide brand new observations.
Specifically, it will measure the density and temperature of interstellar plasma, giving us new insight into a world beyond our solar system.
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In other news, Nasa recently uncovered 18 Earth-sized planets lurking outside our Solar System – and one offers hope for life.
Watery ‘Super Earths’ may hide ‘unfathomably deep’ bottomless oceans – with alien life lurking inside.
And, an ‘alien’ grain of dust fired at Earth by ancient exploding star has been found buried in Antarctica.
What do you think Nasa will find in deep space? Let us know in the comments...
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