Becoming Interstellar – a Review of "The Farthest: Voyager In Space"
Review of “The Farthest: Voyager In Space” – Becoming Interstellar
“In 1977 the twin Voyager spacecraft left planet Earth bound for the outer reaches of our solar system – and beyond. What they discovered changed our way of thinking about how worlds are built and broadened our notions of where life might be found. The story of this audacious project is told in the captivating new documentary “The Farthest” which is airing on PBS this week. The film itself is weaved together rather artfully – not unlike the sounds and images that were placed on the now-famous “Golden Records” that each spacecraft carried. The story is narrated mostly by people who were there. Indeed its like listening to the crew of a ship of discovery recount the days of wonder that they experienced.”
I agree. When we say “people who were there”, of course physically they are still on Earth, but with effective sharing of the experience, the Voyager team has provided a sense of discovery to us, the public, that is as meaningful as if they, and by extension we, were there.
Back when I had to wait for the next edition of Nat Geo to see the pictures. Good point on it transcending generations.
…and Life magazine before that!
A message in a bottle, in a very, very large sea.
I remember those totally awesome pictures and almost torn out those pages from Aviation Week magazines university library (I didn’t as I know others will want stare at the photos for an hour or so). I remember KQED devoted the whole day covering Pioneer Saturn flyby, all the scientists debating “we have F and G rings, but some have doubts. We will try to enhance to determine if there is a H ring.” Then comes Voyager showing a bizillion rings… so much for finding the H ring.
Speaking of records, vinyl is making a comeback so perhaps if Voyager had options like we have nowadays, well definitely not use a DVD.
If the Oort cloud is taken to be part of the solar system then Voyager is not in interstellar space.
It would be good to design some missions to explore the Oort cloud.
Might be better than spending money on sending people to Mars.
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