Year End of specific capabilities as a result of the available electrical power limitations
2007 Termination of plasma subsystem (PLS)
2008 Power off Planetary Radio Astronomy Experiment (PRA)
2010 Terminate scan platform and Ultraviolet spectrometer (UVS) observations
2015 Termination of Data Tape Recorder (DTR) operations (limited by ability to capture 1.4 kbit/s data using a 70 m/34 m antenna array. This is the minimum rate at which the DTS can read-out data.)
2016 approx Termination of gyroscopic operations
2020 Start shutdown of science instruments (as of 2008-03-18 the order is undecided but the Low-Energy Charged Particles, Cosmic Ray Subsystem, Magnetometer, and Plasma Wave Subsystem instruments are expected to still be operating)
2025–2030 Can no longer power any single instrument.



Heliopause


Voyager 1 is currently within the heliosheath and approaching interstellar space.
As Voyager 1 heads for interstellar space, its instruments continue to study the solar system; Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists are using the plasma wave experiments aboard Voyager 1 and 2 to look for the heliopause, the boundary at which the solar wind transitions into the interstellar medium.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory believe that Voyager 1 entered the termination shock in February 2003. Some other scientists have expressed doubt, discussed in the journal Nature of November 6, 2003. In a scientific session at the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans on the morning of May 25, 2005, Dr. Ed Stone presented evidence that Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock in December 2004.
The issue will not be resolved until other data becomes available, since Voyager 1's solar-wind detector ceased functioning in 1990. This failure has meant that termination shock detection must be inferred from the data from the other instruments on board.
However, in May 2005 a NASA press release said that consensus was that Voyager 1 was now in the heliosheath. Scientists anticipate that the craft will reach the heliopause in 2015.
Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth in the Universe, traveling away from both the Earth and the Sun at a relatively faster speed than any other probe.

Current status

Location and trajectories of Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, as of July 7, 2007. Note Voyager 2 is farther than Pioneer 11 and only appears closer here due to its -55 degree declination, and that Voyager 1's position is drawn too far away.
As of May 9, 2011, Voyager 1 was about 117.012 AU, or about 10876944888.684 miles or about 0.00183 of a light-year from the Sun. The Magnitude of the Sun From Voyager 1 is -16.4, or the dimmest as seen from any of the 5 space probes leaving the Solar System. Radio signals traveling at the speed of light between Voyager 1 and Earth take 16.12 hours to cross the distance between the two. (To compare, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun, is about 4.2 light-years distant = 265 thousand AU) Voyager 1's current relative velocity to the sun is 17.060 km/s, or 61,452 kilometres per hour (38,185 mph). This calculates as 3.599 AU per year, about 10% faster than Voyager 2. At this velocity, 73,600 years would pass before reaching the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, were the spacecraft traveling in the direction of that star. Voyager 1 will need about 7800 years at its current velocity to travel one light year, therefore 40,000 years will pass before coming anywhere near other stars or planets. Voyager 1 is predicted to enter the interstellar medium between 2012–2015, though some scientists say it will be in 2014. Voyager 1 is still the farthest man made object in the universe from Earth.
As of May 3, 2011, the spacecraft is at 12.41° declination and 17.169 hours right ascension, and is at an ecliptic latitude of 34.9° (the ecliptic latitude changes very slowly), placing it in the constellation Ophiuchus as observed from the Earth. NASA continues its daily tracking of Voyager 1 with its Deep Space Network. This network measures both the elevation and azimuth angles of the incoming radio waves from Voyager 1, and it also measures the distance from the Earth to Voyager 1.
Voyager 1 is not heading towards any particular star, but in about 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis. That star is generally moving towards our Solar System at about 119 kilometers per second.

From Wikipedia


Images:

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