SCIENCE SPACE SPECIAL : VOYAGERS 1 & 2

Voyagers 1 & 2, twin spacecraft that inspired a generation of cosmic wonderers, were launched in 1977. After decades of exploring the outer solar system before charting the unknown frontier of interstellar space, the two spacecraft are showing signs of age.

Early in the journey, the pair swooped past Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager 2 later visited Uranus and Neptune.

But perhaps the missions most famous gift to the world was a photo taken of Earth, a tiny pixel against the expanse of space, leading the famed astronomer Carl Sagan to coin the phrase ''Pale Blue Dot.''

I recent years, the robotic explorers have each blinked in and out of contact with NASA Communication with Voyager 2 was purposefully shutdown in 2020 for 2 months, then lost by accident for a couple weeks in 2023 before it was restored.

Voyage 1, on the other hand, gave mission specialists a scare last year when it stopped sending data back to Earth. Instruments on both spacecraft have been shut down to conserve power.

But NASA isn't giving up on them yet. When they are eventually interred in the space between the stars, it would be an apt resting place given how the duo has ventured where no other spacecraft had gone before.

The World Students Society thanks Michael Roston and Katrina Miller.