voyage mission cnrs

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Marché missions CNRS du 1er mai 2017 au 22 février 2022

• Le titulaire du lot n°1 transport (agence de voyages) est la société FCM Travel
• Le titulaire du lot n°2 (hébergement France) est la société Rydoo (ex iAlbatros).

Mesures sanitaires gouvernementales : en France, les vols intérieurs et les trains de longue distance (TGV, Intercités) seront soumis à obligation vaccinale. Le pass n'est pas exigé dans les transports du quotidien (TER, RER, Transilien, métros et bus). International : vérifier la conformité des visas et autorisations d'entrée pour tout pays en correspondance, pas uniquement pour le pays de destination. www.diplomatie.gouv.fr  

Billets Air France : tous les billets émis jusqu'au 28 février 2022 sont 100% modifiables et remboursables sans frais et sans justificatifs jusqu'au jour du départ, pour tout voyage jusqu'au 30 juin 2022.

SNCF : répartition des billets entre tarifs flexibles (Pro Seconde ou Business Première) ou tarifs semi-flexibles qui regroupent les anciens tarifs loisir et Prem's. Ne pas modifier un billet envoyé dans le circuit de demande de validation de l'outil (supprimer la réservation puis la refaire). Les e-billets de TER sont téléchargeables sur l'outil.

1) Avant la réservation

Profils voyageurs : avant toute réservation ou après souscription à une carte de transport, pour mettre à jour le cas échéant le ou les profils du voyageur, utiliser la rubrique "Gestion des profils" dans SIMBAD ci-dessous à droite. Ne pas modifier le profil dans l'outil de réservation en ligne qui reçoit les mises à jour depuis SIMBAD. Manuel pour modifier un profil voyageur ou donner des habilitations (chargé de voyages, valideur) : voir Intranet - partir en mission.

Si b esoin de conseils préalables sur l'itinéraire ou le séjour : via e-mail dédié FCM (transport) / Rydoo (hébergement) ou contact téléphonique (coordonnées sur l'Intranet - partir en mission ).

2) Choix du canal on-line ou off-line et réservation

Réservation on-line :  icône ci-dessous à droite "Transport / hébergement". A privilégier pour les voyages simples en train ou avion (itinéraires aériens directs), hébergement individuel.

Réservation off-line avec un conseiller voyages : icône ci-dessous à droite "Demande de devis" (formulaire obligatoire). A utiliser dans les cas suivants : réservations multi-passagers ou multi-étapes rail, voyages aériens complexes (avec correspondance(s)), départs sous 24h, chambres à occupation double ou réservations multiples simultanées de nuitées, billet de TER SNCF non remboursable.

Après retour de devis : réutiliser l'objet d'origine avec le numéro "SIMBAD devis" ou le numéro de ticket FCM/Rydoo dans les échanges, y compris en cas de modification d'un billet après émission. Ensuite, "répondre à tous" lors de la commande.

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The mission of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) is to leverage all fields of sciences to tackle current global challenges.

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The CNRS has over 80 years experience of basic research, exploring living creatures, space, materials and human societies and can leverage all fields of science to understand current global challenges in all their complexity, in conjunction with organisations in the field.

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The Voyager missions

Highlights Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in 1977 and made a grand tour of the solar system's outer planets. They are the only functioning spacecraft in interstellar space, and they are still sending back measurements of the interstellar medium. Each spacecraft carries a copy of the golden record, a missive from Earth to any alien lifeforms that may find the probes in the future.

What are the Voyager missions?

The Voyager program consists of two spacecraft: Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Voyager 2 was actually launched first, in August 1977, but Voyager 1 was sent on a faster trajectory when it launched about two weeks later. They are the only two functioning spacecraft currently in interstellar space, beyond the environment controlled by the sun.

Voyager 2’s path took it past Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1985, and Neptune in 1989. It is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus or Neptune, and has provided much of the information that we use to characterize them now.

Because of its higher speed and more direct trajectory, Voyager 1 overtook Voyager 2 just a few months after they launched. It visited Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980. It overtook Pioneer 10 — the only other spacecraft in interstellar space thus far — in 1998 and is now the most distant artificial object from Earth.

How the Voyagers work

The two spacecraft are identical, each with a radio dish 3.7 meters (12 feet) across to transmit data back to Earth and a set of 16 thrusters to control their orientations and point their dishes toward Earth. The thrusters run on hydrazine fuel, but the electronic components of each spacecraft are powered by thermoelectric generators that run on plutonium. Each carries 11 scientific instruments, about half of which were designed just for observing planets and have now been shut off. The instruments that are now off include several cameras and spectrometers to examine the planets, as well as two radio-based experiments. Voyager 2 now has five functioning instruments: a magnetometer, a spectrometer designed to investigate plasmas, an instrument to measure low-energy charged particles and one for cosmic rays, and one that measures plasma waves. Voyager 1 only has four of those, as its plasma spectrometer is broken.

Jupiter findings

Over the course of their grand tours of the solar system, the Voyagers took tens of thousands of images and measurements that significantly changed our understanding of the outer planets.

At Jupiter, they gave us our first detailed ideas of how the planet’s atmosphere moves and evolves, showing that the Great Red Spot was a counter-clockwise rotating storm that interacted with other, smaller storms. They were also the first missions to spot a faint, dusty ring around Jupiter. Finally, they observed some of Jupiter’s moons, discovering Io’s volcanism, finding the linear features on Europa that were among the first hints that it might have an ocean beneath its surface, and granting Ganymede the title of largest moon in the solar system, a superlative that was previously thought to belong to Saturn’s moon Titan.

Saturn findings

Next, each spacecraft flew past Saturn, where they measured the composition and structure of Saturn’s atmosphere , and Voyager 1 also peered into Titan’s thick haze. Its observations led to the idea that Titan might have liquid hydrocarbons on its surface, a hypothesis that has since been verified by other missions. When the two missions observed Saturn’s rings, they found the gaps and waves that are well-known today. Voyager 1 also spotted three previously-unknown moons orbiting Saturn: Atlas, Prometheus, and Pandora.

Uranus and Neptune findings

After this, Voyager 1 headed out of the solar system, while Voyager 2 headed toward Uranus . There, it found 11 previously-unknown moons and two previously-unknown rings. Many of the phenomena it observed on Uranus remained unexplained, such as its unusual magnetic field and an unexpected lack of major temperature changes at different latitudes.

Voyager 2’s final stop, 12 years after it left Earth, was Neptune. When it arrived , it continued its streak of finding new moons with another haul of 6 small satellites, as well as finding rings around Neptune. As it did at Uranus, it observed the planet’s composition and magnetic field. It also found volcanic vents on Neptune’s huge moon Triton before it joined Voyager 1 on the way to interstellar space.

Interstellar space

Interstellar space begins at the heliopause, where the solar wind – a flow of charged particles released by the sun – is too weak to continue pushing against the interstellar medium, and the pressure from the two balances out. Voyager 1 officially entered interstellar space in August 2012, and Voyager 2 joined it  in November 2018.

These exits were instrumental in enabling astronomers to determine where exactly the edge of interstellar space is, something that’s difficult to measure from within the solar system. They showed that interstellar space begins just over 18 billion kilometers (about 11 billion miles) from the sun. The spacecraft continue to send back data on the structure of the interstellar medium.

After its planetary encounters, Voyager 1 took the iconic “Pale Blue Dot” image , showing Earth from about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) away. As of 2021 , Voyager 1 is about 155 astronomical units (14.4 billion miles) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is nearly 129 astronomical units (12 billion miles) away.

The golden records

Each Voyager spacecraft has a golden phonograph record affixed to its side, intended as time capsules from Earth to any extraterrestrial life that might find the probes sometime in the distant future. They are inscribed with a message from Jimmy Carter, the U.S. President at the time of launch, which reads: “This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.”

The covers of the records have several images inscribed, including visual instructions on how to play them, a map of our solar system’s location with respect to a set of 14 pulsars, and a drawing of a hydrogen atom. They are plated with uranium – its rate of decay will allow any future discoverers of either of the records to calculate when they were created.

The records’ contents were selected by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan. Each contains 115 images, including scientific diagrams of the solar system and its planets, the flora and fauna of Earth, and examples of human culture. There are natural sounds, including breaking surf and birdsong, spoken greetings in 55 languages, an hour of brainwave recordings, and an eclectic selection of music ranging from Beethoven to Chuck Berry to a variety of folk music.

Learn more Voyager Mission Status Bulletin Archives Experience A Message From Earth - Inspired by the Voyager Golden Record Neptune, planet of wind and ice

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Voyager turns 45: What the iconic mission taught us and what's next

Can the first probe to visit Neptune and Uranus make it to its 50th anniversary?

Forty-five years ago, on Aug. 20, 1977, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Titan III-Centaur rocket, embarking on a "grand tour" of the solar system that would include visits to the Jupiter and Saturn systems and would make it the first spacecraft to visit the ice giants Uranus and Neptune and their moons.  

Voyager 2 is now 12.1 billion miles (19.5 billion kilometers) away and still sending back data on the distant and unknown heliopause, and scientists are beginning to wonder how long the iconic space probe can keep going. 

Designed to take advantage of a once-every-176-years alignment in the 1970s that made it possible for spacecraft to take gravity-assist slingshots from planet to planet across the solar system , the Voyager mission consisted of two probes. Voyager 2 was the first to launch, with Voyager 1 following two weeks later. Both carried the famous " Golden Record ," a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc containing sounds and images portraying the diversity of life and culture on Earth . 

Now over 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion km) away, Voyager 1 is the farthest artificial object from Earth. But Voyager 2 is arguably more iconic because of its incredible multidecade tour of the giant planets. 

Related: Celebrate 45 years of Voyager with these amazing images of our solar system (gallery)

Voyager's "grand tour"

Though it launched second, Voyager 1 was so called because it was to reach Jupiter and Saturn first — in March 1979 and November 1980, respectively — before exiting the plane of the planets where it took the famous "Pale Blue Dot" photo . Voyager 2 visited four planets: Jupiter in July 1979, Saturn in August 1981, Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune in August 1989. 

"Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 provided tremendous legacies for planetary exploration," Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist and physicist at Cornell University who is working on the Juno , Europa Clipper and James Webb Space Telescope missions, told Space.com. "Not only in what they accomplished in terms of science, but also demonstrating that it was really possible to explore the outer solar system with a couple of spacecraft."

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What did the Voyager probes reveal?

Voyager's discoveries are the stuff of legend among planetary scientists, many of whom still rely on the unique images from the spacecraft's wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras. The probes spotted volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io , discovered that Jupiter's Great Red Spot is an Earth-size storm and found that the gas giant has faint rings. They studied Saturn's rings ; saw the giant moon Titan's thick, Earth-like atmosphere; and revealed the tiny moon Enceladus to be geologically active. 

Voyager 2 alone then visited Uranus and Neptune. The spacecraft's first-ever images of Uranus revealed dark rings, the planet's tilted magnetic field and its geologically active moon Miranda. Neptune, meanwhile, was also discovered to have rings and many more moons than scientists initially thought. We also got to see Triton , a geologically active moon that is orbiting "backward" and, like Pluto , is now believed to be a captured dwarf planet from the Kuiper Belt .  

Voyager as a catalyst 

In addition to making groundbreaking discoveries, the Voyager mission helped scientists determine what merited deeper exploration. The mission revealed Jupiter to be an incredibly complex planet, thus spurring NASA to launch the Galileo mission in 1989 and the Juno mission in 2011. The Voyager probes' work also helped to inspire the iconic Cassini mission to Saturn.

"Voyager 1's close flyby of Titan was the catalyst for the wonderful Cassini mission to Saturn and its Huygens probe," Lunine said. The Huygens probe landed on the surface of Titan in 2005 and sent back an incredible video . 

Voyager 2 has also been a catalyst for investigations into the role of the ice giant planets — not only in the solar system but also in distant star systems, since most of the exoplanets found so far are roughly the size of Neptune and Uranus. 

Voyager and NASA today 

NASA has spent decades following up on the Voyager missions, and those efforts continue today. The space agency's Dragonfly mission will reach Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in 2034, while Europa Clipper will study Jupiter's ocean moon, first imaged by Voyager, starting in 2030. In April, the National Academies Planetary Science Decadal Survey recommended that NASA send a $4.2 billion Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission to unveil the mysterious ice giant planet and its moons in the 2040s. 

It's the latest mission that's a direct consequence of Voyager 2's brief visit to the Uranus system in January 1986. "Voyager 2's flyby of Uranus was a bull's-eye — it went directly through the plane of the moons' orbits because of the orientation of Uranus' axis to the sun ," Lunine said. That made it unlike flybys at other planets, where the probes were able to visit one moon after another. "Voyager 2 got very brief images from these moons, so they're largely unexplored," Lunine said. 

Ariel and Miranda, in particular, are thought to be ocean worlds and so would be specifically targeted by the Uranus Orbiter and Probe. "It's been 45 years since the launch of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, and here we are now finally talking about a Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission," Lunine said. "It seems like a long time because these missions take so long to conceive of, fund, build, launch and execute, but it all comes from the intriguing peeks that we got from Voyager 2." 

How long will Voyager last?

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 still communicate with NASA's Deep Space Network (which itself was created to communicate with Voyager 2 at Uranus and Neptune), receiving routine commands and occasionally transmitting data to Earth. "We are still getting data from Voyager," Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator for the Voyager 1 and 2 probes and the Voyager Interstellar Mission, said during a news conference held at COSPAR 22 in July. "We're looking forward to getting data for probably another five or six years."  

— What's next for NASA's Voyager 2 in interstellar space?

— Scientists' predictions for the long-term future of the Voyager Golden Records will blow your mind

— NASA's twin Voyager probes are nearly 45 — and facing some hard decisions  

Around the mid- to late 2020s , the probes' scientific instruments will be entirely switched off, and eventually, the spacecraft will go cold and silent — but their journeys into interstellar space will continue indefinitely. "My motto is, I want to be here after Voyager passes on," said Krimigis, who is in his 80s. "But I'm not sure that's going to happen."  

In around 300 years, Voyager 1 and 2 will enter the Oort cloud , the sphere of comets surrounding the solar system. About 30,000 years later, they'll exit the neighborhood and silently orbit the center of the Milky Way for millions of years. 

Their scientific work may be almost over, but the Voyager spacecraft have only just begun their journeys into the cosmos.

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Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jamie is an experienced science, technology and travel journalist and stargazer who writes about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar eclipses, moon-gazing, astro-travel, astronomy and space exploration. He is the editor of  WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com  and author of  A Stargazing Program For Beginners , and is a senior contributor at Forbes. His special skill is turning tech-babble into plain English.

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Voyager, NASA’s Longest-Lived Mission, Logs 45 Years in Space

This archival image taken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on March 23, 1977, shows engineers preparing the Voyager 2 spacecraft ahead of its launch later that year.

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

NASA’s twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection.

Yet the Voyagers remain on the cutting edge of space exploration. Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, they are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space – the galactic ocean that our Sun and its planets travel through.

The Sun and the planets reside in the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and the outward flow of solar wind (charged particles from the Sun). Researchers – some of them younger than the two distant spacecraft – are combining Voyager’s observations with data from newer missions to get a more complete picture of our Sun and how the heliosphere interacts with interstellar space.

NASA’s Solar System Interactive lets users see where the Voyagers are right now relative to the planets, the Sun, and other spacecraft. View it yourself here . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“The heliophysics mission fleet provides invaluable insights into our Sun, from understanding the corona or the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, to examining the Sun’s impacts throughout the solar system, including here on Earth, in our atmosphere, and on into interstellar space,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the Sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can.”

The Voyagers are also ambassadors, each carrying a golden record containing images of life on Earth, diagrams of basic scientific principles, and audio that includes sounds from nature, greetings in multiple languages, and music. The gold-coated records serve as a cosmic “message in a bottle” for anyone who might encounter the space probes. At the rate gold decays in space and is eroded by cosmic radiation, the records will last more than a billion years.

45 Years of Voyager I and II

Launched in 1977, NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft inspired the world with pioneering visits to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Their journey continues 45 years later as both probes explore interstellar space, the region outside the protective heliosphere created by our Sun. Researchers – some younger than the spacecraft – are now using Voyager data to solve mysteries of our solar system and beyond.

This archival photo shows engineers working on vibration acoustics and pyro shock testing of NASA’s Voyager on Nov. 18, 1976. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Voyager 1 acquired this image of a volcanic explosion on Io on March 4, 1979, about 11 hours before the spacecraft’s closest approach to the moon of Jupiter.

Neptune’s green-blue atmosphere was shown in greater detail than ever before in this image from NASA’s Voyager 2 as the spacecraft rapidly approached its encounter with the giant planet in August 1989.

This updated version of the iconic "Pale Blue Dot" image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images.

This illustrated graphic was made to mark Voyager 1’s entry into interstellar space in 2012. It puts solar system distances in perspective, with the scale bar in astronomical units and each set distance beyond 1 AU (the average distance between the Sun and Earth) representing 10 times the previous distance.

This graphic highlights some of the Voyager mission’s key accomplishments. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full image details

This graphic provides some of the mission’s key statistics from 2018, when NASA’s Voyager 2 probe exited the heliosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full image details

Beyond Expectations

Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, quickly followed by Voyager 1 on Sept. 5. Both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first. Together, the probes unveiled much about the solar system’s two largest planets and their moons. Voyager 2 also became the first and only spacecraft to fly close to Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989), offering humanity remarkable views of – and insights into – these distant worlds.

While Voyager 2 was conducting these flybys, Voyager 1 headed toward the boundary of the heliosphere. Upon exiting it in 2012 , Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of cosmic rays, or energetic particles created by exploding stars. Voyager 2, after completing its planetary explorations, continued to the heliosphere boundary, exiting in 2018 . The twin spacecraft’s combined data from this region has challenged previous theories about the exact shape of the heliosphere.

Voyager 1 and 2 have accomplished a lot since they launched in 1977. This infographic highlights the mission’s major milestones, including visiting the four outer planets and exiting the heliosphere, or the protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the Sun.

“Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager’s deputy project scientist at JPL. “This is the first time we’ve been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions.”

The Long Journey

Over the years, the Voyager team has grown accustomed to surmounting challenges that come with operating such mature spacecraft, sometimes calling upon retired colleagues for their expertise or digging through documents written decades ago.

Each Voyager is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing plutonium, which gives off heat that is converted to electricity. As the plutonium decays, the heat output decreases and the Voyagers lose electricity. To compensate , the team turned off all nonessential systems and some once considered essential, including heaters that protect the still-operating instruments from the frigid temperatures of space. All five of the instruments that have had their heaters turned off since 2019 are still working, despite being well below the lowest temperatures they were ever tested at.

Get the Latest JPL News

Recently, Voyager 1 began experiencing an issue that caused status information about one of its onboard systems to become garbled. Despite this, the system and spacecraft otherwise continue to operate normally, suggesting the problem is with the production of the status data, not the system itself. The probe is still sending back science observations while the engineering team tries to fix the problem or find a way to work around it.

“The Voyagers have continued to make amazing discoveries, inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at JPL. “We don’t know how long the mission will continue, but we can be sure that the spacecraft will provide even more scientific surprises as they travel farther away from the Earth.”

More About the Mission

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/voyager

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-808-2469

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Publications, voyager - a space exploration mission like no other, leland langston sr. engineer, ground communications system for the apollo lunar landing project; lead system engineer for the data storage system on the viking mars lander project and voyager outer planets mission; texas instruments fellow. (retired), published: 29 aug 2017.

CTN Issue: August 2017

A note from the editor:

Usually I come up with a (I like to think) cute title for the email announcement for the CTN article, but this time I’m afraid I am too in awe of the topic to do so. So I will stick with what our author, Leland gave to me. It is with a certain amount of childhood excitement that I’d like to present a comms engineering slant on the now 40 year old and still going Voyager mission, told by one of the engineers who was there. For me Voyager is one of those moments in time that any self-respecting engineer would sell their back teeth to have been part of. The sheer challenge of communication over such distances using, what now is, such primitive technology, to achieve one hell of a phone call at some quite decent data rates would make the bravest of us quiver. Before the mission launch all the engineers got their names engraved on a plaque on the probe and it is now leaving the solar system. I don’t think 5G will ever provide that level of satisfaction unfortunately! And by the way, when this article talks about free space loss, it really means free space….. Maybe there are some other Voyager engineers out there who will want to add their comments?

Alan Gatherer,  Editor-in-Chief

Voyager - A Space Exploration Mission like no other

Figure 1: Leland Langston, System Engineer, Voyager Data Storage Subsystem, Texas Instruments

Figure 2: Texas Instruments Voyager Engineering Team, 1975

Pre-Launch History of the Voyager Program

The world changed on October 4, 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1.  It weighed only 83.6 kg. (183.9 pounds), and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth. I was in high school and remember listening in awe to the “beep, beep, beep” on my home-built short wave receiver.  The event catalyzed the U.S. commitment to space exploration that continues today.  There are few national programs that result in the dividends returned on investments such as this--for the United States and for the world at large. Electronics was still mostly based on vacuum tube technology and the transistor had been invented only about nine years earlier.  The world’s first commercially produced digital computer, the Univac 1, had been delivered to the census bureau only six years before, and used 5,200 vacuum tubes. Four years later, on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. Such was the state of technology and the political atmosphere in the U.S at the beginning of the Space Age.  Some astrological believers called this time the “…dawning of the  Age of Aquarius ”. Although an astrologically motivated term, it is a very real astronomical phenomenon that will occur in the not too distant future, affecting how we view the stars and constellations surrounding our solar system, and in this context it has in fact begun.

The U.S. embarked on several unmanned space exploration programs in the ‘60s.  The first successful interplanetary mission (U.S.) was the Mariner 2, launched in August 1962. It successfully flew by Venus and returned significant new science data.  Then followed 8 more Mariner spacecraft culminating in 1973 with Mariner 10 (also called Mariner Venus-Mercury) with a total cost of only $554 million. Mariner 9 orbited Mars and was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. It returned significant science data including the best close-up images of Mars that had been obtained at that time.   At this time, all deep space missions had been confined to the inner planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars).  It was then that NASA began considering a program to explore the outer gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) to complete a study of all major planets. The concept of the Grand Tour began in 1964, when Gary Flandro of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) noted that an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune would occur in the late 1970s that would enable a single spacecraft to visit all of the outer planets by using gravity assists. This particular alignment occurs once every 175 years.  By 1966, JPL was promoting the project, noting it would allow a complete survey of the outer planets in less time and for less money than sending individual probes to each planet. JPL began promoting it with a December 1966 article penned by Homer Joe Stewart, head of JPL's advanced mission planning.

Voyager can be said to have begun in 1965 as a Grand Tour, an extensive, if not grandiose, planetary mission planned in the midst of shrinking NASA and Federal budgets, at a time when NASA sought to define its mission in the post-Apollo era. This mission was estimated to cost over $1 billion when the entire NASA budget for 1972 was only slightly over $3 billion in 1972. It was truly a “big science” project. In response to social and political pressure on the Federal budget stemming largely from the Great Society programs and the Vietnam War, as well as the conservative fiscal policy of the Nixon administration, the Grand Tour mission was downsized. Congressional pressure, combined with internal competition from the recently approved Space Shuttle program, led to the decision to cancel the Grand Tour project in December 1971; it was replaced by a proposal to visit only two planets using a pair of Mariner-derived probes. The Mariner Jupiter-Saturn project was approved in early 1972, with an estimated cost of $360 million. The probes would be built by JPL, with the intention that they would last long enough to complete the original Grand Tour of the four giant planets, but be advertised as missions to only Jupiter and Saturn to reduce estimated total project costs. It was initially called the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn (MJS) mission.  In March 1977, just a few months before launch, NASA held a competition to rename the project; it then became known as Voyager. Thus was the auspicious beginning of the Voyager project. As a young engineer fresh off of the Apollo project and the Viking project, this was a “dream project” for me.  It is one of the highlights of my career.

Spacecraft Design Summary

Voyager carried twelve science instrument subsystems. These are:

• "CRS – COSMIC RAY SUBSYSTEM".
• "ISS NA – IMAGING SCIENCE SUBSYSTEM – NARROW ANGLE".
• "ISS WA – IMAGING SCIENCE SUBSYSTEM – WIDE ANGLE".
• "IRIS – INFRARED INTERFEROMETER SPECTROMETER AND RADIOMETER".
• "LECP – LOW ENERGY CHARGED PARTICLE".
•  "MAG – TRIAXIAL FLUXGATE MAGNETOMETER".
• "PLS – PLASMA SCIENCE EXPERIMENT".
• "PPS – PHOTOPOLARIMETER SUBSYSTEM".
• "PRA – PLANETARY RADIO ASTRONOMY RECEIVER".
• "PWS – PLASMA WAVE RECEIVER".
• "RSS – RADIO SCIENCE SUBSYSTEM".
• "UVS – ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROMETER".

These twelve instruments are arranged as shown in Figure 5.  In addition to the nine instruments shown on booms, three are contained in the 10-sided polygon bus housing electronics.  This bus also houses seven engineering subsystems including the data storage subsystem, the flight data subsystems, the telemetry modulation/demodulation subsystem, the attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem, the radio communications subsystem, and the power supply subsystem. The primary antenna is the 3.7 meter diameter high-gain antenna.  This antenna supports both S-band and X-band communications.

The physical characteristics of the spacecraft are summarized as follows. The mission module after injection weighed 825 kilograms (1,819 pounds) including a 117-kg (258-Ib.) science instrument payload. The propulsion module, with its large solid-propellant rocket motor, weighed 1,207 kg (2,660 lb.). Launch weight of the spacecraft was 2,066 kg (4,555 lb.).

Communications Subsystem Operation

Communications with the Voyagers is by radio link between Earth tracking stations and a dual-frequency radio system aboard the spacecraft. The uplink operates at S-band only, carrying commands and ranging signals from ground stations to one of a pair of redundant receivers. The downlink is transmitted from the spacecraft at either S-band or X-band frequencies.

The flight data subsystem, one of the three on-board computers controls the science instruments and formats all science and engineering data for telemetry to Earth. The telemetry modulation unit of the modulation demodulation subsystem feeds data to the downlink. The flight command unit of the modulation/demodulation subsystem routes ground commands received by the spacecraft.

Only one receiver is powered ON at any one time, with the redundant receiver at standby. The receiver operates continuously during the mission at about 2113 megahertz. (Different frequency ranges have been assigned to the radio-frequency subsystem of each spacecraft.) The receiver can be used with either the high-gain (dish) or low-gain (Omni) antenna. (Voyager 2's primary receiver failed on April 5, 1978, and the spacecraft is operating on its backup receiver.)

The S-band transmitter consists of two redundant exciters and two redundant RF power amplifiers, of which any combination is possible. Only one exciter-amplifier combination operates at any one time. Selection of the combination is by on-board failure-detection logic within the computer command subsystem, but with ground-command backup. The same arrangement of exciter/amplifier combinations makes up the X-band transmitting unit.

One S-band and both X-band amplifiers employ traveling wave tubes. The second S-band unit is a solid state amplifier. The S-band transmitter is capable of operating at 9.4 watts or at 28.3 watts when switched to high power and can radiate from both antennas. X-band power output is 12 watts and 21.3 watts. X-band uses only the high-gain antenna. (S-band and X-band never operate at power simultaneously.)

When no uplink signal is being received, the transmitted S-band frequency of about 2295 MHz and X-band frequency of 8418 MHz originate in the S-band exciter's auxiliary oscillator or in a separate ultra-stable oscillator (one-way tracking). With the receiver phase-locked to an uplink signal, the receiver provides the frequency source for both transmitters (two-way tracking). The radio system can also operate with the receiver locked to an uplink signal while the downlink carrier frequencies are determined by the on-board oscillators (two-way non-coherent tracking). Only the 64-m (210-ft.) antenna stations of the Deep Space Network can receive the downlink X-band signal.

The high-gain antenna, with its 3.66-m-diameter (12 ft.) parabolic reflector, provides a highly directional beam. The low- gain antenna provides essentially uniform coverage in the direction of Earth. After the first 80 days of the mission, all communications -- both S-band and X-band -- have been via the high-gain antenna.

Because of the extreme distances from the sun, and hence low light intensity, the Voyager spacecraft required a different primary power source.  Voyager was one of the first spacecraft to use Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) as the primary power source. The power source was the Pu238 isotope of Plutonium with a half-life of 87 years.  Three RTG modules produced approximately  2,400 watts thermal, but the efficiency of the thermocouples is very low, and only about 160 watts of electricity was produced by each module to yield less than 500 watts at mission start.  Because the Plutonium decays to produce half power after 87 years, the power output has steadily decreased to only about 300 watts after 40 years.  The voltage from the RTGs is DC and varies over time.  Hence power conditioning was used to convert the output to a 2400 Hz square wave tightly regulated voltage which was distributed to each electronics package. Each electronic subsystem then converted this voltage to the voltages required by the subsystem.

Downlink Telemetry

Data telemetered from the spacecraft consists of engineering and science measurements prepared for transmission by the flight data subsystems, telemetry modulation unit and data storage subsystem. The encoded information includes voltages, pressures, temperatures, television pictures and other values measured by the spacecraft telemetry sensors and science instruments. See Figures 7 and 8 for some images received from Voyager.

Because spacecraft maneuvers during encounters prevented the antenna from being continuously pointed toward earth, as well as the rate at which data was collected during the planet and moon encounters was too high for real-time transmission, this data was stored on a digital tape recorder for later play-back at a much lower rate.  The data storage subsystem consisted of a digital tape recorder and associated electronics.  The tape recorder consisted of a belt driven mechanism powered by a servo-controlled brushless DC motor. (This was one of the first designs using a brushless DC motor.) The tape was a little over 1000 feet in length and stored data using Miller encoding to yield approximately 6700 bits/inch packing density.  The recorder had nine parallel tracks--eight data tracks and one tachometer track that was used for servo control of the brushless DC motor. The tape could store approximately 650 Mb (80 MB) of data (although only 536 Mb of data storage capacity was deemed reliable over the mission lifetime). Data was typically recorded at 115 kbps, and could be played back in non-real time at data rates of 57.6; 33.6; 21.6 and 7.2 kbps with the lower rates used at the greater distances (e.g., from Neptune). These are the actual  information rates ; the information was encoded for error correction using a rate 1/2, constraint length 7 convolution code before transmission.  (The difficult task of decoding was done on the ground using a Viterbi decoder.)

The received signal-to-noise (Eb/No) ratio was near the noise threshold when the spacecraft was near Neptune, even with a system noise temperature of 25oK. The rate 1/2 error correction code resulted in a Bit Error Rate of approximately 10-5.  The link budget calculations (approximate) are shown in Table 1.

The success of Voyager is measured in terms of the data returned as well as its record for longevity. The Voyager 1 spacecraft entered interstellar space in August 2012, 35 years after launch.  Quite remarkable for a system designed for a four-year mission in the ‘70’s when the state of the art for integrated circuits was MSI with the highest level of integration being a 4-bit counter, and the imaging device being a Vidicon imaging tube!  And like the bunny in the battery commercial, “It keeps going and going and going”.

Figure 6: Photograph of one of the Multilayer PCBs for Voyager

Figure 7: Montage of the four outer planets taken by Voyager

Figure 8: Montage of the four gas giants and some of their moons photographed by Voyager

• Freeman, Roger L.,  Radio System Design for Telecommunications , second edition, John Wiley and sons, New York, 1997, ISBN 0-471-16260-4.
• Spilker, James L.,  Digital Communications by Satellite , Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1977, ISBN 0-13-214155-8.
• Roddy, Dennis,  Satellite Communications , Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2001, ISBN 0-07-137176-1
• Fisher, Sharon, “NASA’s Voyager Used 8-Track Tape to Go Into Space”, SEP 30 2013,  http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/
• NASA News Release, “Voyager Backgrounder, October 1980.
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “Voyager Instruments,  https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft/instruments/
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Voyager program”,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program
• Butrica, Andrew J., Chapter 11, “Voyager: The Grand Tour of Big Science”,  https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4219/Chapter11.html
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “Galleries of Images Voyager Took”,  https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/images-voyager-took/

Statements and opinions given in a work published by the IEEE or the IEEE Communications Society are the expressions of the author(s). Responsibility for the content of published articles rests upon the authors(s), not IEEE nor the IEEE Communications Society.

Interstellar Messengers

Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft ever to operate outside the heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields generated by the Sun. Voyager 1 reached the interstellar boundary in 2012, while Voyager 2 (traveling slower and in a different direction than its twin) reached it in 2018.

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Lunes glacées, habitabilité, vie… Les objectifs ambitieux de la mission européenne Juice vers Jupiter

La sonde spatiale européenne Juice s'apprête à décoller ce vendredi, pour un voyage de huit ans vers Jupiter et ses lunes glacées, avec une quête et beaucoup d'espoir: trouver des environnements extraterrestres favorables à la vie.

De la vie sur Jupiter? Ce vendredi, la sonde spatiale Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) de l' Agence spatiale européenne (Esa) va s'élancer à bord d'une fusée Ariane 5 depuis la base de Kourou, en Guyane, en direction de la plus grosse planète gazeuse de notre système solaire. Le voyage était initialement prévu jeudi mais a été reporté à la dernière minute.

L’objectif: explorer l'environnement complexe de Jupiter en étudiant plus précisément ses trois lunes glacées (Ganymède, Europe et Callisto) pour percer certains mystères jamais élucidés lors des deux précédentes missions en 1979 (Voyager 1) et dans les années 1990 (Galileo).

"Le système de Jupiter peut être un archétype pour les exoplanètes. C'est le genre de mission qui prend beaucoup de temps à développer mais qui apporte des informations extraordinairement essentielles", se réjouit auprès de BFMTV.com Athéna Coustenis, chercheuse au CNRS et membre du comité scientifique de la mission.

L'espoir autour des lunes glacées

Après plusieurs années à graviter autour de la Lune et de la Terre, à survoler Vénus et à parcourir des centaines de milliards de kilomètres, la sonde Juice arrivera en 2031 aux abords de Jupiter. Elle survolera ensuite la lune Europe deux fois, la lune Calisto 21 fois, puis se mettra en orbite autour de Ganymède, une première pour une autre lune que la nôtre.

Le véhicule, grâce à dix instruments scientifiques de pointe, pourra ainsi explorer les océans de glace qui se cachent à l’intérieur de la seule lune du système solaire possédant un champ magnétique. Les chercheurs espèrent y trouver la preuve d'une présence d'eau liquide, absente de la surface malgré des photographies encourageantes de geysers.

À la recherche d'habitabilité

Même si d'importantes découvertes devraient être réalisées au cours de la mission Juice, la sonde spatiale européenne ne mettra pas fin à des dizaines d’années de recherche de vie dans l’espace. Les experts sont formels, pour une raison technique.

Le directeur du pôle science de l'agence explique: "Nous ne cherchons pas la vie, nous n’avons pas les instruments. Seule la sonde Viking, dans les années 1970 sur le sol martien, en était équipée."

Mais, si Juice ne peut pas trouver de traces de vie, elle est bien à la recherche de conditions d’habitabilité, c’est-à-dire les conditions favorables à l'émergence de la vie et son développement.

"Dans les années à venir, les missions spatiales ont toutes pour objectif d'étudier les conditions d'habitabilité, rappelle la chercheuse Athéna Coustenis. Sur Mars, et malgré une soixantaine de missions, aucune ne nous a donné d'indication de vie. Mais cette fois-ci, nous avons espoir de trouver des conditions favorables à l'émergence de la vie."

À l'heure actuelle, les scientifiques préfèrent prévenir le public: en aucun cas il n'est question de trouver des conditions favorables pour que nous y habitions en tant qu'humains. Pour illustrer ce propos, Nicolas Altobelli prend l'exemple de la Terre.

Coopération Esa/Nasa

À quelques heures de son lancement, grâce au dernier voyage d'Ariane 5, la mission est l'un des projets les plus ambitieux de l’Esa, une "fierté européenne" selon Athéna Coustenis.

D’ailleurs, la compétition entre les agences devrait se transformer en une coopération, puisque la mission Europa Clipper de la Nasa, dont le départ est prévu en 2024, arrivera vers Jupiter - et plus précisément la lune Europe - en 2030, soit un an avant Juice.

Il faudra donc attendre au minimum huit ans avant de pouvoir exploiter les premières données, qui se poursuivront jusqu’en 2035.

"Il ne faut pas être pressé. Les missions du système solaire externe prennent deux générations. Les étudiants en astrophysique d’aujourd’hui s'occuperont d’exploiter le travail de ceux qui ont développé la mission", résume Nicolas Altobelli.

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Ukraine will get F-16 fighter jets from the Dutch and Danes after the US agrees to allow transfers

Russian air defences shot down a Ukrainian drone over central Moscow early Friday and some fragments fell on an exposition center, officials said. (Aug. 18)

FILE - A Romanian Air Force F- 16s military fighter jet, left, and a Portuguese Air Force F- 16s military fighter jets participating in NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission operate over the Baltic Sea, Lithuanian airspace, on May 22, 2023. The United States has given its approval for the Netherlands to deliver F-16s to Ukraine, the Dutch defense minister said Friday, Aug. 18, 2023 in a major gain for Kyiv even though the fighter jets won’t have an immediate impact on the almost 18-month war. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)

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Police officers stand guard at the scene of the wreckage of a drone at the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo)

A Ukrainian soldier loads a shell onto an attack helicopter in eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

Ukrainian attack helicopters fly over a sunflower field in eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

A Ukrainian soldier offloads a rocket propelled grenade from a trailer in eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

A Ukrainian soldier hides in a trailer from a landing military helicopter in eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

The Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship, Joseph Schulte, crosses the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. The cargo ship, Joseph Schulte, safely reached the coast of Istanbul on Friday, after sailing down a temporary corridor that was established by Ukraine for merchant shipping, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. It was expected to dock at Istanbul’s port of Ambarli. (Cagatay Kenarli/DIA Images via AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United States has given its approval for the Netherlands and Denmark to deliver F-16s to Ukraine, officials in Washington and Europe said Friday, in a major gain for Kyiv, even though the fighter jets are unlikely to affect the war any time soon.

It was not immediately clear when the first F-16s might enter the conflict, but Ukrainian pilots will first have to undertake at least six months of training on the aircraft , according to officials.

Ukraine has long pleaded for the sophisticated fighter to give it a combat edge. It recently launched a long-anticipated counteroffensive against the Kremlin’s forces without air cover, placing its troops at the mercy of Russian aviation and artillery.

Even so, Air Force Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. air forces in Europe and Africa, told reporters in Washington he did not expect the F-16s to be a game-changer for Ukraine. Getting F-16 squadrons ready for battle could take “four or five years,” he said.

But in eastern Ukraine, attack helicopter pilots welcomed the news. They said Russia has a clear advantage in the skies, but the introduction of better fighter jets could dramatically shift the balance of power Kyiv’s way.

Ukrainian air forces supporting infantry are using decades-old Soviet-era planes, which are vulnerable to air-to-air missile attacks from Russian fighter jets, Capt. Yevgen Rakita, a spokesman for the 18th Army Aviation Brigade, told The Associated Press.

“A modern war cannot be won without aviation” capabilities, Rakita said.

In making the decision on F-16 deliveries, Washington aims to ensure warplanes can be provided to Ukraine as soon as its pilots complete training, according to a U.S. administration official who was not authorized to comment and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sent a letter to his Dutch and Danish counterparts earlier this week, offering formal assurance that the U.S. would fast-track approval of all requests from third parties to transfer F-16s to Ukraine.

Danish Defense Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen said Friday that the training of Ukrainian pilots is starting this month.

A coalition of 11 Western countries — the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom — pledged in July to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s.

Denmark will hand over some of its F-16s only after receiving its new F-35 jet fighters. The first four F-35s are due to be delivered on Oct. 1.

Washington’s blessing for the plane donations to other countries is needed because the aircraft are made in the United States.

Ukraine’s Western allies have at times moved slowly on granting Kyiv the military support it has requested.

President Joe Biden’s authorization last May for allies to train Ukrainian forces on how to operate the warplanes, and eventually to provide the aircraft themselves, was preceded by months of debate in Washington and quiet talks with allies, officials said.

The administration had concerns that the move might escalate tensions with Russia. Also, U.S. officials argued that learning to fly and logistically support the advanced F-16 would be difficult.

Though delivery is likely months away, Washington says the F-16s — like the advanced U.S. Abrams tanks — will be crucial for Ukraine’s long-term security.

Ukraine has been relying on older aircraft, such as Russian-made MiG-29 and Sukhoi jets. F-16s have newer technology and targeting capabilities. They are also more versatile, experts say .

In other developments:

— Russian air defenses stopped drone attacks on central Moscow and on the country’s ships in the Black Sea, officials said Friday, blaming the attempted strikes on Ukraine. It was not possible to verify the claims.

— A Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship that set sail this week along a temporary Black Sea corridor established by Ukraine for merchant shipping safely reached the coast of Istanbul on Friday. The voyage was closely watched to see whether the Russian navy would allow the Joseph Schulte container vessel to pass unmolested.

Kullab reported from eastern Ukraine and Olsen from Copenhagen. Aamer Madhani and Ellen Knickmeyer contributed from Washington and Jim Heintz from Tallinn, Estonia.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Theater of Conquest: Moscow (Level 4 City Event)

The new Warpath game-mode Theater of Conquest: Moscow (Level 4 City Event) is coming soon with tons of new activities, maps, and rewards!

Theater of Conquest: Moscow

• New snowing city level 4 – Moscow
• Kremlin: This strategic place is the pinnacle of Glory in Moscow, and rests in the heartland of this territory.
• Forts: Forts enable either an attack DMG or DMG Resist Buff for Alliance Members. 4 Forts provide attack buffs and another 4 forts provide resist buffs.
• Settlements: Alliances can capture these to allow its members access to more exclusive Arms EXP and Ammo on the Black Market.
• Blockhouses: These defensive fortifications activate troop durability or troop firepower buffs (Four Blockhouses for each buff).
• Arms Factories: These Factories provide Alliance Members with a 5-star unit every 2 days after 12AM UTC.
• Gold Deposits: Collection sites where commanders can mine Gold.
• New achievement demonstration – seasonal medals, and so many more!

Theater of Conquest: Moscow Participation Processes:

The event takes place in 5 stages: Preselection, Matching, Warm-up, Conquest, and Reward!

Preselection Phase

Alliances in the same server undergo an intense contest for 8 days to decide who will qualify for the Conquest: Moscow.

The top 32 Alliances will be qualified for Conquest: Moscow. The number will vary due to different active player numbers in different servers.

The qualified Alliances will be locked that player cannot join or leave the Alliance, and the Alliance cannot disband. The locking state continues until the end of Conquest: Moscow.

Matching Phase

Your Adversaries will be selected from the qualified Alliances. Groups will be formed with 8 Alliances in each to enter the Conquest.

The matching will only take place within the same server for now.

Warm-up Phase

A Warm-Up Round is held before entering the Battle of Moscow, where alliances contend for alluring buffs.

Conquest Phase

The Warm-Up Round then closes as the War in Moscow kicks off. Alliance Members representing their League in the War can then enter Moscow to fight in the War.

Every 8 Alliances will be assigned into one match for the fights, but only one will win.

While the Conquest: Moscow is in progress, participating Commanders can move into Moscow from cities around the world for free, and can spend 1 Entry Permit to move back to the original city during this phase.

Reward Phase

After the Conquest Phase ends, all Commanders who participated will earn the new officer: Ivan Andreyevich Volkov (Winter Huntsman) , and his beloved dog Shemyaka.

The higher rank you and your Alliance have, the more rewards you will get.

Alliance leaders will be able to assign extra rewards to those who perform the best during Conquest: Moscow.

Download & Play Warpath PC

Avoid lags and battery-draining when doing prolonged combats. Bonus: Play multiple accounts easily !

Download & Play Warpath on PC

• Saint Petersburg
• Golden Ring
• Moscow tours
• Siberia and Arctics
• North Caucasus
• Guided tours
• Tour packages
• Tips for tourists travelling to Russia
• Useful apps to download
• Visa and registration
• Restaurants and bars
• Packing tips
• Transport in Moscow

Visit Moscow Tours

Saint Petersburg - Karelia 9 days - 8 nights

Moscow - Saint Petersburg tour package 8 days/7 nights

Moscow - saint petersburg 5 days/4 nights.

Moscow - Saint Petersburg 6 days/5 nights

Sochi tour 8 days/7 nights

Altai tour package 11 days/10 nights

Murmansk 4 days/3 nights

Happy New Year tour package- best price 8 days/7 nights

Baikal tour package 7 days/6 nights

Christmas tour package- best price 5 days/4 nights

Moscow tour package 4 days/3 nights.

Special Winter Edition Tour 8 days/7 nights

Saint Peterburg tour package 4 days/3 nights

Moscow-Kazan-Saint Petersburg 9 days/8 nights

Moscow-Suzdal-Saint Petersburg 9 days/8 nights

Moscow-Saint Peterburg tour package 8 days/7 nights BEST DEAL (15th of MAY-22d of MAY only)

Moscow-sochi tour package 6 days/5 nights.

Moscow - Velikiy Novgorod - Saint Petersburg tour package 9 days/8 nights

Moscow-Saint Petersburg-Baikal lake 14 days/13 nights

Moscow-Saint Petersburg-Sochi tour package 10 days/9 nights

Moscow-Altai tour package 14 days/13 nights

Moscow-Murmansk-Saint Petersburg 11 days/10 nights

Saint Petersburg - Karelia 8 days/7 nights

Moscow tour package 5 days/4 nights including tank riding and Stalin Bunker visit

Moscow-Saint Petersburg tour package 7 days/6 nights including tank riding and Stalin Bunker visit

Magic Ice of Baikal Lake - 7 days / 6 nights

SPA tour package Grozny (Chechnya) 4 days - 3 nights

Hiking tour package Dagestan 5 days - 4 nights

Suzdal and Vladimir Tour

Moscow Kremlin Tour

River Cruise Tour

Driving Tour around Saint Petersburg

Peterhof Tour

Moscow Driving Tour

Moscow in 1 Day (Walking tour)

Welcome to visit moscow tours.

We provide authentic, informative and memorable tour packages and city tours, at very competitive prices. Visit Moscow Tours are available not only in Moscow, but also in other cities: Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Suzdal and Sergiev Posad.  We also organise customised individual programs tailored just for you.

Our guests come in large groups, small private groups, as couples or as single travellers. We take care of and treat our guests with respect in a friendly and warm family environment. We show people our beautiful cities with passion and deep knowledge of their history, culture and traditions.

Our guides are extremely hospitable, helpful and well-informed. They are simply the best because only by providing the best services can we make the world fall in love with Russia. And we are very happy when our guests say that they will definitely come back to Russia and that they will tell all their friends how great Russia is! That is what inspires us to put even more dedication and hard work into our tours, knowing that what we do is positive and meaningful.

Our classic tours include tours of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, two main Russian cities.

Moscow is a big and busy  megalopolis and Russia’s capital city, where more than 12 million people live and work. Our capital city is happening place; it is mysterious, elegant, luxurious, fashionable, clean and bright, with its unique legends, traditions and events. It is with great pride that we show the Red Square and the Kremlin, our Underground and Tretyakovskaya Gallery, among other stunning attractions.

Saint Petersburg is our second capital,  the second largest city in the Russian Federation. This wonderful city has a strong and lively aristocratic spirit, uniquely Russian royal architecture, magnificent museums and theatres. Saint Petersburg bears the royal heritage of Russia, which can be felt in its air, its streets, parks, monuments, museums and citizens.  In Saint Petersburg tours, we will take you to the Hermitage, Peter and Paul Fortress, Faberge Museum and Orthodox Cathedrals. We’re sure you will love it!

If you have a few more days to spare, venture into the dreamy Russian countryside in Suzdal or Sergiev Posad. Suzdal is a small town with a population of about ten thousand people, situated on less than 15 square kilometres. This tiny area is home to 53 historic cathedrals, five monasteries and a kremlin. Church domes are visible like mushrooms from anywhere and everywhere in the town like in a fairy tale. No wonder Suzdal is called the ‘Town Museum”.  It is definitely worth visiting!

Just try any of Visit Moscow Tours’ tour packages or any individual city tour, and we promise that you will want to come back to Russia again.  Russia is huge with countless amazing places to visit. There are so many unique experiences to be had and energies to be felt that one tour is definitely not enough to explore this vast land. It is also a very safe destination to travel, and we have a tradition of warm hospitality. Our people adore and take care of visitors as our own guests, and even if they do not know your language very well, they still try to be helpful and hospitable.

Our guides will show you the most interesting attractions and historical places, taking you on a journey to the past to enjoy stories of medieval times, the Romanov monarchy, the Soviet Era. And of course, we will show you the contemporary life of our country through authentic local experiences.

We look forward to meeting you soon!