Voyager 1 Flyby Geometry
                                             Voyager 2 Flyby Geometry



    Introduction


    The two Voyager spacecraft were equipped with an enabling scan platform, a challenging limited computer and eight-track digital tape recorder. The dual spacecraft mission was designed to take advantage of a planetary alignment that occurs every 175 years. Although Voyager’s goal was to explore Jupiter and Saturn and their environments, different options were reserved for the 2 crafts. Voyager 1 was targeted to Jupiter, Saturn and Titan while the Voyager 2 trajectory allowed it to continue on to Uranus and Neptune.

    The Voyager 1 encounter with Titan spanned the time period between 1980-08-27 to 1980-11-15 with closest approach occurring at 1980-11-11 at 9:41 at a distance of 6490 km from the planet. The Voyager 1 radio occultation experiment began at 10:45.

    The less favorable Voyager 2 closest approach was at 666,190 km and the encounter spanned the period from1981-06-24 to 1981-08-25.

    Titan Achievements


    Among the Voyager observations at Titan were:
    • A radio occultation of Saturn
    • UV and IR spectra of the atmosphere
    • A futile effort to image surface features and cloud dynamics
    • A search for a magnetic field
    • Studies of the of Titan’s interaction with the solar wind and Saturn’s magnetosphere


    References


    Voyages to Saturn NASA SP-451 1982

    See Space Sciences Reviews Volume 21 Issue 2, Nov. 1977 for details on instrumentation

    Lindal, G.F., et al., The atmosphere of Titan: An analysis of the Voyager 1 radio occultation measurements, Icarus, Volume 53, Issue 2, p. 348-363, DOI 10.1016/0019-1035(83)90155-0

    Kunde, V.G., et al C4H2, HC3N and C2N2 in Titan's Atmosphere, Nature, 292, 686-688, 1981.

    Useful Documents


    Mission Overview
    Spacecraft Description
    Voyager 1
    Voyager 2
    A list of pertinent references

    Also See Space Science Reviews 21 (1977 – Issue 2) 77-101

    Understanding the Instruments and Archived Data

    ISS - Narrow and wide angle cameras with filters in a 280-640 nm range (red blind)
    IRIS - Infrared Interferometric Spectrometer
    UVS - Ultraviolet Spectrometer
    PPS - Photopolarimeter
    MAG - Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer
    LECP - Low Energy Charged Particle Detector
    PLS - Plasma Spectrometer
    PRA - Planetary Radio Astronomy Investigation
    PWS - Planetary Wave Spectrometer
    CRS - Cosmic Ray System
    RSS - Radio Science System

    Other Useful Products for Interpreting the Data

    Locating Voyager Publications
    Geometry in "SPICE" format may be obtained at the NAIF node