Voyager

[doctor100]

Voyager was launched in the seventies. If you scan the news, you'l find it's using plasma waves to accelerate as it leaves the solar system-or if you prefer, an exo-solar system acceleration technique. It gains speed, and is predicted to continue to do so several more times still.

The Voyager was a collection of cultural achievements, a "golden record" of embassy.

In what direction was it launched?

[Tailsteak]

Up.

[Deepbluediver]

Up.

That implies that earth has a top and a bottom; I prefer to think that it was launched "outward".

[doctor100]

Into the infinite directions of empty space?

[crayzz]

In what direction was it launched?

Relative to what point? It all get's messy when you don't have an effectively universal point of reference, but an objective direction can be found from any arbitrary point, with some work.

[RyukaTana]

Relative to the point it was launched. The question states pretty clearly what the relative point is, and given gravity is still a thing at the launch point, 'Up' is a valid answer.

[snowyowl]

It was launched on a trajectory that took it past Jupiter and Saturn, since it was going to take pictures of them. Currently, it is travelling in the direction of the constellation of Camelopardalis.

This is from Wikipedia. Also, the plutonium that powers Voyager 1 is running out, and it will die completely sometime around 2025.

[crayzz]

I had considered finding out the answer relative to where the launch point is now (having moved about a 30th of a light-year since then). I don't think free astronomical model software is that user friendly; way to much work for mere curiosity.

[doctor100]

I just saw a clip with Niel degrasse, fellow said that on it's trajectory&speed, voyager would take 40,000 years to reach the nearest star.

That's roughly the amount of time since fire was first used, or 15 times as the history of writing.

Is it at all reasonable that one of our most advanced space engineered devices has no destination. that seems improbable to me-especially considering it's content.

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And if I can add another piece too. . . Voyager is the farthest from earth-it can barely take a picture of our solar system-no launch by Earth has ever come remotely close to the distance needed to take a photo of the galaxy-

[JustinReilly]

Voyager's purpose was to take advantage of a couple of rare orbital alignments to explore the outer solar system on the cheap. Their trajectories out of the solar system are the result of those orbital alignments, the probes didn't have enough delta-v on board to significantly affect their trajectories after the fly-bys. They're far from being our most advanced devices put into space, they're just the ones we threw the furthest. Cassini, New Horizons, several of the Mars probes, the solar observers, and many of the telescopes we've put up are far more advanced than Voyager, which were just re-purposed Mariner probes.