There are currently five space probes beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. They are a marvel of aerospace engineering, both in their design and in the planning of their missions.
The exploration has always been a necessity for human beings. It was first on our own planet, where new worlds and lands were discovered, bringing a wealth of knowledge to mankind. The world became smaller and smaller until today we can say that we know almost all of it, at least as far as the surface is concerned.
Once we thought we knew everything about Earth, it was time to take the leap to exploring our Solar System, where each of the planets presented difficult challenges while also offering new opportunities. Exploring our planetary environment has provided detailed knowledge of some phenomena that directly or indirectly influence our own planet.
Finally came the most important challenge, that of leave our Solar System and explore space beyond the Kuiper Belt. The five space probes currently engaged in this exciting adventure are moving thousands of kilometres away from our planet every day. Some of them will no longer connect with us, nor will they send us data on what they see or hear, but they carry a message for anyone who has the chance to meet them. Others of the probes continue to send back data and are giving us an insight into an environment that until now was only intuited in a theoretical context..
Irrespective of the contribution of each of these vessels to human knowledge, one of the most outstanding aspects has been all the engineering that has been necessary to overcome the number of challenges required for them to reach their destination along a specific route located at distances that escape our everyday logic.
These five probes, Pioneer 10 y 11, Voyager 1 and 2 and New Horizonsare as a whole the greatest aerospace engineering prodigy and that's considering that the first of them, Pioneer 10, was launched into space in 1972. Impressive.
Let us imagine for a moment what any of these missions entails. After building the spacecraft, it must be successfully launched into space and directed towards the orbit of a planet which, after a gravitational acceleration manoeuvre, launches it at a specific moment onto an approach route towards another planet... and so on. How many calculations must be made to predict something like this and carry it out successfully?
In the infographics that we published this month, we explain what the five probes mentioned are like, the content of their missions and some curious details about each of them. We hope you enjoy it.
