Tiny Voyager, Mighty Mission

Coming 23rd February 2027!

The tiniest voyager on the greatest mission there has ever been

In September 1977, almost fifty years ago, two probes were launched into space – Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.

Their missions were to explore the outer planets – Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus – and they did so, brilliantly. But then they headed towards deep space, further and faster than any human-made thing before them. This is the story of Voyager 1.

Tiny Voyager started life during Lockdown. My friend Joan Haig ran a wonderful project to create a free ebook for children stuck at home. I tried to imagine the opposite – the furthest away anything could be – and wrote a little story called Stepping Out about Voyager. In researching it, I fell in love. Voyager 1, a tiny explorer no bigger than a car, is twenty-five billion kilometres away. It has crossed the heliosphere and reached interstellar space. And it is still – after almost fifty years – talking to us and sharing what it sees. Voyager's story is everything I adore about science. It's breathtaking, wonderful, a triumph of engineering and science and the sheer thrill of exploration. It is hope.

“My power is fading,” I wrote. “Soon I will lose contact with Earth. It is forty thousand years to the next star.” And then:

“I am not afraid.”

And now, thanks to the folk at Moon+Bird, I'm getting to share Voyager's story as a non-fiction picturebook, to be illustrated by the wonderful Shane Tolentino and released worldwide in time for Voyager's 50th anniversary. Details will be coming soon, and I cannot wait to share its adventures!