13 June 2013. RIA-Novosti Infographics. Voyager Spacecraft: 35 Years of Flight in the Cosmic Expanse

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“I think that we probably need to send something out there, because the only way to that we’re ever going to find out anything… is to try whatever we can. Anyway, for me, it’s better to be destroyed by aliens than to never know that they exist!”

Abigail Harrison

Minnesota high school student, aspiring cosmonaut

For 35 years, NASA interplanetary probes “Voyager 1” and “Voyager 2” sent to earth valuable images of the most-distant planets of the Solar System, and became the first spacecraft to reach previously-unknown regions of space. Our RIA-Novosti infographic gives you some of the most-relevant information about the spaceships and their research programme. NASA launched unmanned space probes “Voyager 1” and “Voyager 2” in 1977 within 16 days from the launch site at Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral FL USA) in a space research programme to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. To fulfil this mission, the ships were built with an expected lifespan of five years. However, in the course of the flight, when the craft met their planned objectives, it appeared possible that they could manage a close flypast of two more giant planets… Uranus and Neptune. In the summer of 1989, “Voyager 1” became the first spacecraft to explore this planet. “Voyager 2” flew over Neptune next, with a flight-path some 4,950 kilometres (3,076 miles) above its north pole. As the probes flew through the Solar System, NASA reprogrammed many of their functions, so, the “Voyagers” eventually possessed greater resources than those with which they started. Their five-year life span stretched out to twelve years or more. As a result, they examined all the giant planets of the Solar System, 48 of their natural satellites, the system of rings, and their magnetic fields.

Aspiring cosmonaut Abigail Harrison on the Voyager mission and on the need to send space probes beyond the solar system

On why “Voyager 1” may be the first and the last messenger of mankind in the universe, read this article by Ilya Ferapontov

More about the “Voyager” space exploration programme

27 May 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/infografika/20130527/939732712.html

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20130528/181388804/Voyager-Spacecraft-Lost-in-Space-for-35-Years.html

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27 November 2012. RIA-Novosti Infographics. Doomsday Calendar

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Almost every year, according to various predictions, mankind awaits the end of the world. The notorious preacher Harold Camping predicted the coming of the apocalypse; he said that the world would end 21 May 2011. Based on many years of Bible study and the use of mathematics, Camping suggested that the world would end on 21 May 2011 at 06.00. Besides this, the list of prospective dates of “doomsday” included 22 September 2012… on this day, was supposed to be the “energy end of the world”, a man-made global catastrophe. According to the calculations of NASA scientists, with the National Academy of Sciences, strong solar flares would send out an electromagnetic pulse that would fry almost all electrical and electronic equipment, leading to a disaster causing the deaths of millions of people. According to the predictions of the ancient Mayans, 21 December 2012 would be the end of our civilisation as we know it. On this day, according to an ancient treatise, something unusual happens in the solar system… the so-called “Galactic Alignment“. Earth, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn will all be in line with the Sun. Because of the unusual proximity of the Earth to the Sun, a chain reaction would begin, heavy streams of energy would saturate the atmosphere, and the Earth wouldn’t be able to withstand the shock.

23 May 2011

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20110523/164176187.html