What about Australia?
You might be thinking “space has no impact
on Aussies, why should I care?”. You should
care because we’re all affected by space,
regardless of how much – or little – our
governments invest in it. We have no
control over whether an asteroid hits
us or not, nor if the only place to mine
resources is on a moon far away. So
care, at least a little bit.
Australia, and Canberra specifically, is
home to a critical piece of NASA’s Deep
Space Network. The Canberra Deep Space
Communication Complex, run by the CSIRO
on behalf of NASA, is one of three NASA
deep space communications facilities that
communicate with spacecraft beyond Earth’s
orbit. Located strategically across the globe
(the others are at Goldstone, in California’s
Mojave Desert, and near Madrid, Spain)
they ensure that no matter when or where
a spacecraft needs to be talked to, there is
always a communication centre within reach.In Australia we have a unique vantage
point on space due to our isolation. We
happen to receive a lot of the most
important signals, including the first
communication from Neil Armstrong
after landing on the moon: “The Eagle has
landed”. We also do a lot of the talking
to Voyager. We have been tracking and
communicating with the two Voyager
spacecraft since their launch, making
us an integral part of their success.one of relief, joy and incredulity after
witnessing these well-rested thrusters
pick up the baton as if no time had
passed at all,” said Todd Barber.
The plan going forward is to switch
to the backup thrusters in January.
To make the change, Voyager has to
turn on one heater per thruster, which
requires power – a limited resource for
the ageing mission. When there is no
longer enough power to operate the
heaters, the team will switch back to
the attitude control thrusters.
The thruster test went so well,
the team will likely do a similar test
on the thrusters for Voyager 2, the
twin spacecraft of Voyager 1. The
orientation thrusters currently used
for Voyager 2 are not yet as degraded
as Voyager 1’s, however. Voyager 2
is also on course to enter interstellar
space, likely within the next few years.
With a few more years of life
added to the mission of Voyager 1, the
spacecraft will continue at the very
frontier of human space exploration.
And there could not be a more
important time for this. Each year
we are getting closer and closer to
sending our first humans to live on
a different planet. We are no longer
edging our way curiously there, we are
taking giant leaps and bounds towards
the reality.
We are on the verge of becoming an
interplanetary species within the next
decade or so, and will soon be relying
on all the data and information we
have collected from around the solar
system to support our new lives and
endeavours. Our first stop as a species
will be Mars, with both national
agencies and the private sector
investing heavily to send humans
there in the 2020s. But after Mars,
who knows where or when the next
stop will be? We might be content
with Mars for a few thousand years,
or, more likely, we will continue to
expand throughout the solar system.
Voyager 1 collected data and
information on the giant planets
and their moons that we will use as
we continue to explore and expand
throughout the solar system – where
we might find life, or water, or even
other resources that we have grown
dependent on for normal human life.
Where might be habitable for a future
generation or too hostile to consider
supporting human life?
Missions like Voyager will enable
us to more easily and cleverly expand
throughout the solar system, without
further multi-decade probe missions.
Voyager has done the hard yards and
given us a wealth of information about
some of the most curious places in the
solar system, so we have a pretty good
idea of where to look for water and
resources as we expand.
But for those who like to think long
term, the second phase of Voyager’s
mission might be the most exciting
part of its mission – travelling into
the abyss of space, hoping to find
intelligent life. Equipped with all the
information intelligent life would
need to find us on Earth, this is both
exhilarating and terrifying. Sending a
message to aliens that are intelligent
enough to understand it could bring
us technological advances that enable
us to leapfrog normal timelines,scientific knowledge that could change
the way we think about life and
endless opportunities to expedite our
journey into the universe as a species.
But, given our experiences with
humans throughout history, and how
hostile we have been to natives when
colonising ‘new worlds’, there is an
element of fear that another intelligent
species might act the same. Many
hope that a successful intelligent
species would have resolved the need
to be so violent, but all we can do is
hope.
Voyager 1 will continue to travel
even further away from home planet
Earth. After 2025 when it would have
depleted its power, and the last of its
instruments will be powered down,
Voyager 1 will continue to drift into
outer space, with no communication
or direction from humans.
Who knows where it will end up, or
who will find it?Solange Cunin founded and is the CEO of Cuberider,
which provides innovative STEM programs for
Australian high school students. Under her
leadership, and at the age of 23, Solange led
Cuberider to place the first Australian payload to
ever go aboard the International Space Station, in
December 2016.An image of Saturn taken by
Voyager 1.JPL/NASAAn artist’s rendering of NASA’s
Mars 2020 rover. Part of its
mission is to “gather knowledge
and demonstrate technologies
that address the challenges of
future human expeditions to
Mars,” NASA says.NASAVoyager