Key Takeaways:
Voyager 1 launched September 5, 1977, on a direct 546-day trajectory between Earth and Jupiter. The Jupiter flyby placed the craft on a 618-day path to Saturn, and the Saturn flyby threw the craft out of the ecliptic plane on an escape trajectory. More than 12 years after launch, with the craft 40 astronomical units (AU, where 1 AU is the average Sun-Earth distance) from the Sun, engineers pointed Voyager 1’s camera system back at the solar system. From a position 22 AU above the ecliptic plane, the craft recorded some impressive images, including the famous “pale blue dot” photo of Earth. Voyager 1’s Saturn encounter could have been modified such that the final Voyager orbit would have passed over the poles of the Sun with an orbital period of 181 years.
A typical planetary camera captures a 4° or 5° field. To get the entire solar system in one field of view would mean the craft would have to be 90° to the ecliptic plane with a 75° field of view; this would take 31 years after its Saturn encounter (provided it follows a modified Voyager 1 trajectory). At the point when the craft is 90° to the plane, it would be 38.4 AU above it. — John D. Anderson, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (retired), Pasadena, California