Hubble will be mapping the zones the probes will enter. Voyagers 1 and 2 are heading to different parts of the local interstellar cloud, which contains a potpourri of materials left over from super novae, space debris, stars and other “neighbourhood” things. Wesleyan University in Connecticut has a plan to use Hubble to explore the tracks of the Voyagers to map the areas they’ll travel through.
It’s an interesting evolution of the original idea of the Voyagers. Even when the probes are no longer functional, they’ll still be helping to explore space. The other bottom line, however, is more important; this will also be the first intensive study of these regions.
To give some idea of the distances:
In 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will approach within 1.6 light years of a star called Gliese 445. Voyager 2 will pass within 1.7 light years of another star, Ross 248. This is next door in interstellar terms. The two Voyagers, which travel at 38,000 miles per hour, will pass through no less than three separate interstellar clouds in 90,000 years. These clouds are known to be differently composed, with different chemical profiles.
Regional exploration is a good basic first move for exploring outside the solar system. It’s a practical option which will become a lot more efficient in much less than thousands of years. Probes are relatively cheap; they can do a lot of useful work without putting too much strain on the logistics of space travel. The “Starshot” idea of a micro interstellar probe is a good example of the new thinking derived from the success of the Voyagers.
The two probes have decades of electrical power left. Who knows, someone may figure out a way to send power to them, and prolong their lives. While they’re functional, however, they’ll be able to act as cross-references for Hubble and other data collected from back home.
That’s another very useful principle for future probes. Good as current external stellar profiling is, it’s very valuable to be able to prove findings derived from these sources. Calibration of telescopes and other data isn’t easy. A good working range of metrics from the probes won’t hurt at all and will help to ensure that their readings are accurate.
Meanwhile – Let’s hope we can go and get the Voyagers sometime soon. They deserve better than to become space junk.
