Voyager 1 has already crossed it, and is now heading for the heliopause, but since so few operational spacecraft have reached it, it's really intersting. Apparently, it could even cross it twice!
http://www.physorg.com/news115405331.html
GW_Simulations - 28/11/2007 12:21 PMOut of interest, where are Pioneers 10 and 11?
Latest update on the voyagers
Voyager Mission Operations Status Report # 2007-10-26, Week Ending October 26, 2007
Command Transmission & Verification Operations
Voyager 1 command operations consisted of the uplink of a command loss timer reset on 04/18 [DOY 108/2230z]. The spacecraft received the command.
Voyager 2 command operations consisted of the uplink of seven bracketed command loss timer resets sent on five-minute centers using 1.0 Hz steps on 10/20 [DOY 293/0022z]. The spacecraft received two of the seven commands sent.
Sequence Generation Operations
Start sequence development of abbreviated B138 mini-sequence due to the lack of DSN allocations.
Data Return Operations
Voyager 1 Data Processing and Operations:
There were 63.5 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 1 of which 11.8 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no real-time or schedule support changes made or significant outages during the period.
Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. One frame of GS-4 data was recorded this week. A second frame of GS-4 data was recorded on October 20. 98.2% of twenty-six frames of GS-4 data was recovered from a playback on October 24. The EDR backlog is 1 days.
Voyager 2 Data Processing and Operations:
There were 40.4 hours of DSN scheduled support for Voyager 2 of which 7.3 hours were large aperture coverage. There was one schedule support change made on 10/24 [DOY 297] when 4.0 hours of DSS-34 support was replaced by 7.5 hours of DSS-43 coverage released by MSGR and SIRTIF to support a MAGROL maneuver. The total actual support was 43.9 hours of which 14.8 hours were large aperture coverage. There were no significant outages during the period.
Science instrument performance was nominal for all activities during this period. The EDR backlog is 2 day.
Flight System Performance
Voyager 1 performance was nominal during this report period. Activities included X-Band high power and DTR playback of PWS data on 10/24 (DOY 297) and turning ON Gyros B&C and CCS timing test on 10/26 (DOY 299).
Voyager 2 performance was nominal during this report period. Activities included X-Band high power and a MAGROL on 10/23 (DOY 297) followed by X-Band low power on 10/24 (DOY 297).
PROPELLANT/POWER CONSUMABLES STATUS AS OF THIS REPORT
Spacecraft
Consumption
One Week (Gm)
Propellant
Remaining (Kg)
Output
(Watts)
Margin
1
7.36
27.53
284.5
31
2
46.18*
29.22
285.9
33
*MAGROL 07-297/0500
RANGE, VELOCITY AND ROUND TRIP LIGHT TIME AS OF 10/26/2007
Voyager 1
Voyager 2
Distance from the Sun (Km)
15,608,000,000
12,590,00,000
Distance from the Sun (Mi)
9,699,000,000
7,823,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Km)
15,700,000,000
12,620,000,000
Distance from the Earth (Mi)
9,756,000,000
7,842,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Km)
19,346,000,000
18,325,000,000
Total Distance Traveled Since Launch (Mi)
12,021,000,000
11,387,000,000
Velocity Relative to Sun (Km/sec)
17.118
15.553
Velocity Relative to Sun (Mi/hr)
38,291
34,791
Velocity Relative to Earth (Km/sec)
42.596
41.949
Velocity Relative to Earth (Mi/hr)
95,284
93,838
Round Trip Light Time (hh:mm:ss)
29:05:00
23:23:12
Need to know more?
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/weekly-reports/index.htm
Da5id - 28/11/2007 5:04 PMThis site shows current positions http://www.heavens-above.com