HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The science is dazzling enough: the discoveries made and the measurements gauged by Voyager 1 as it hurtles toward the outer reaches of the solar system.

But to Gary Zank, this is more than mere science.

A eminent scholar who is a space physicist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Zank invoked the name of Magellan to offer perspective on Voyager 1 - the tiny spacecraft launched 35 years ago last week, still zipping along and sending data back to Earth.

"It's like the moon landing," Zank said Friday in an interview with The Times in a second-floor conference room of the Cramer National Science Space and Technology Center. "It's something that's only going to happen once in all of our lifetimes."

Zank's enthusiasm is a given since he's been following Voyager 1 on a near-daily basis for decades. His passion, however, can be infectious.

"There was always something new and important," Zank said of the journeys of explorers like Magellan. "Sometimes, it had commercial value. Other times, it was purely cultural or other times it was extraordinarily interesting scientifically.

"In some sense, we didn't know when we were going through those journeys, we didn't know what we would find out and discover."

Now Voyager is doing the same thing.

"Voyager is like one of those," Zank said. "To my mind, it's like one of the most remarkable if not the greatest voyage of scientific discovery we've ever embarked on."

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977. Though traveling in different directions, both are still sending back data.

What makes Voyager 1 unique, however, is that it is approaching the edge of the solar system. It's possible it could leave the solar system and travel into what Zank described as the "pristine" interstellar medium. In other words, to be completely free of the solar system and the sun's influence.

Voyager 1 already has traveled farther than any spacecraft in history. Remember how Pluto has long been considered the solar system's outpost? Zank said Voyager 1 is more than three times beyond Pluto -- the distance between Earth and Pluto.

Another perspective: Zank said it takes signals between Voyager 1 and Earth - traveling at light speed - 17 hours to be received.

More details: Some of the electronics on Voyager that have endured during the span of six U.S. presidents were made by Huntsville-based SCI Inc. - the company founded by the late Olin King that's now known as Sanmina-SCI.

Along the way, scientists have been enthralled by the pictures and data Voyager has transmitted back to Earth.

"For the first time (Voyager) went through Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, those pictures and measurements that were made, we'd never seen anything like this," Zank said. "It redefined everything we knew about the outer planets and the gas giants. It's continued in that vein.

"Everything it finds seems to be unexpected, something we didn't anticipate. It's just a discovery. In some sense, culturally and scientifically, it's been perhaps the most extraordinary scientific mission we've ever had in terms of range and breadth."

As for the future of Voyager 1, there is no consensus. Some scientists believe the tiny spacecraft is on the brink of breaking through the heliosphere where Voyager is currently traveling. Once clear of the heliosphere, Voyager 1 will be clear of the solar system.

Zank, however, said he believes that achievement is still five or six years away. Then a hydrogen wall barrier that has built up on the edge of the solar system must be cleared - something that, Zank estimates, won't happen until at least 2022 and possibly not until 2027.

Only then would Voyager 1 have a view of "pristine" outer space.

By then, Voyager 1 will have long exhausted its nuclear power system and lose contact with Earth.

"Oh, definitely, I'll be very happy to be wrong," Zank said of the opportunity to get that pristine view beyond the solar system. "It will also mean I've got a lot of thinking to do about why I went wrong. But that's another good project to work on at that point."

Follow me on Twitter @paul_gattis or email me at paul.gattis@htimes.com

Corrected today, Sept. 9, 2012, at 3:05 p.m. to reflect that Voyager 1 is nearing the edge of the solar system, not the Milky Way.