A historic moment is about to come in the world of human history and space science, which hardly anyone could have imagined a few decades ago. American space agency NASA's oldest and most distant spacecraft 'Voyager 1' has once again come very close to creating history. Presently this spacecraft is standing at a distance of about 1 light year from our Earth. It will become the first and only object in human history to achieve this milestone. When this spacecraft was sent into space in 1977, hardly any scientist would have guessed that it would survive decades after its assigned mission and would be crossing the boundaries of our solar system and taking a deep dive into interstellar space. Today, astronomers, space lovers and NASA scientists around the world have their eyes fixed on every single and data signal of Voyager 1, because this spacecraft is introducing us to the unheard secrets of the universe. The historic flight of the year 1977 and the journey of Voyager 1 so far. This journey of Voyager 1 is as exciting and miraculous as a sci-fi movie. NASA had launched this spacecraft into space on 5 September 1977. Its original objective was to closely study the planets Jupiter and Saturn and their satellites. After solving the mystery of these two giant planets, this vehicle moved ahead of its planned path and crossed the gravitational pull of our solar system and finally in the year 2012, it crossed the last boundary of our solar system i.e. Heliopause and entered the interstellar space. Despite traveling such a long distance in space, its onboard instruments and radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) are still providing energy to operate. Being billions of kilometers away from the Earth, its radio signals take more than 22 hours to reach us, but despite this, this spacecraft is continuously sending our scientists precious information about the remote corners of the universe. What is this magical figure of distance of 1 light year and its significance? In the language of science, Light Year is the distance that light travels in one year. Since the speed of light is approximately 3 lakh kilometers per second, the distance of 1 light year is extremely huge on a cosmic scale. Voyager 1 has currently reached such a tremendous distance from Earth that even our Sun's light takes a long time to reach. According to scientists, when a man-made object approaches a distance of 1 light year, it means that we have registered our presence in that untouched region of space where the reach of human imagination was limited till now. At this distance the influence of the Solar System's solar winds completely ends and pure interstellar space begins. Voyager 1 continues to study this region's plasma density, cosmic rays and magnetic fields, helping space scientists understand how our solar system interacts with the rest of the Milky Way. Technical challenges in space billions of kilometers away and the passion of Voyager 1. It is not easy for any machine to undertake such a long and difficult space journey. Voyager 1 has faced several serious technical and hardware challenges over the years. Sometimes there was a problem of data corruption in its computer system, sometimes its thruster jets stopped working, after which NASA scientists, sitting millions of kilometers away from the Earth, sent remote patches to its software code and repaired it again. This NASA engineer team is no less than magic in the history of space science, which is keeping half a century old technology alive even today. However, scientists also believe that the plutonium power source of the spacecraft is gradually weakening, and in the coming few years all its instruments will become silent forever, but by then it will have become immortal in the history of the universe by becoming the messenger of mankind. A Symbol of Human Intelligence in the Universe: The Unique Story of the 'Golden Record' Voyager 1 is not just a scientific instrument or a piece of metal, but it is also a living message of our civilization to the universe. Along with this, a 'Golden Record', a gold-plated copper disc, has been added, on which sounds of the earth, music, greetings in different languages, sounds of birds and winds and more than 115 photographs depicting human life and culture are recorded. If ever in the future any advanced alien civilization (Extraterrestrial Civilization) or space travelers find this vehicle, then this record will tell them that in a small corner of this universe there was a planet named Earth where intelligent life resided. This journey of Voyager 1 is not only a technological success of NASA, but it is the greatest testament to human curiosity, hunger for discovery and our never-ending will to know the universe.
