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From: eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Voyager, on to Uranus.
Message-ID: <1065@ames.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 20:53:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.1065
Posted: Wed Jul 31 20:53:47 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Aug-85 13:16:53 EDT
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Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
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> > 
> > The more important question (at least to me) is, where is it going to?
> > I worked on Voyager back around 1976, and I asked one of the researchers
> > once, "What star is going closest to?  And how close will it get?"  I
> > got a "We'll get back to" type of response.
> > 
> > So again, nine years later, "Where's it going?"
> 
> Nowhere.  It is not pointing anywhere near the nearest stars.  By the time
> it gets very far all the stars will have moved.  We have no idea where it
> might end up, but odds are that it will never pass close to another
> planetary system.
> -- 
> 

Ah, found it!
Sorry Ethan, this is not entirely true.  While it is true that there is no
deliberate target, someone at JPL [sorry, forgot to copy his name down,
he deserves the credit] calculated the motions of local stars to 100,000
years.  Both Voyagers will pass to around 1 Light-year (approx) of the
star AC +79 3888 in about 40,000 years.  AC +79 3888 is currently 17
light years away and is expected to be about 3 light years away by that time.
[The velocity is left as an excercise to elementary school students...]. ;-)
After Neptune encounter of V 2, a decision will be made whether to use the
remaining manuveuring fuel to improve the current trajectory for a
closer encounter with AC +79 3888.

--eugene miya
  NASA Ames Research Center
  {hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!aurora!eugene
  emiya@ames-vmsb