The U.S. spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched 16 days apart in August and September 1977. Both missions took advantage of a once-every-175-year planetary system, which allowed them to go to all the solar system’s gas planets. system.
PBS (The Public Broadcasting Service), the American public broadcaster and tv distributor, last month released a documentary commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the Voyager mission, Farthest: Voyager in spacewhich will be streamed online.
Here is the network’s coverage of the event:
The twin spacecraft – each with less computing power than a cellphone – used slingshot trajectories to go to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranium and Neptune. They returned unprecedented images and data that revolutionized our understanding of the spectacular outer planets and their many peculiar moons.
Still going strong 4 many years after launch, each spacecraft bears the long-lasting gold plate with greetings, musicand pictures from Earth – a present to the aliens who might in the future find it. Voyager 1, which left our solar system and launched humanity into the interstellar age in 2012, is essentially the most distant object ever created by humans. A billion years from now, when our sun ignites and burns the Earth to ashes, the Voyagers and their golden records will still be sailing – perhaps the one remaining evidence of humanity’s existence.
More than 20 billion kilometers from home, Voyager continues to deliver great science because it traverses the ultimate fringes of our star system. Voyager was launched on September 5, 1977, a number of weeks after its sister scout Voyager 2, and the pair made a beautiful trip around all the enormous planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Their missions were then reconfigured to fly to the sting of the solar system after which beyond into the unknown.
Rushing outward at speeds of greater than 17 kilometers per second (38,000 miles per hour), at a distance from where the Sun appears the dimensions of a dot, they carry messages to any passing extraterrestrial being.
They are “two of humanity’s most distant, lively representatives and its desire for exploration,” NASA says.
A 30 cm (12 inch) plate of gold-plated copper can also be available (voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html), together with a cartridge and a play needle.
The disc features 115 images of life on Earth recorded in analog form and quite a lot of sounds and pieces of music, from dwarf girls singing, Mozart and Bach to Javanese gamelan and Chuck Berry playing “Johnny B. Goode.”
Greetings from the Earthlings are spoken in 55 languages, starting from Akkadian – a language spoken in Mesopotomia about 6,000 years ago – to the Wu Chinese dialect, which also includes Hittite, Latin and Welsh.
The Voyager album incorporates the next music.
- Bach, 2nd Brandenburg Concerto in F. Part I, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
- Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers”, recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
- Senegal, drums, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
- Zaire, the midget girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
- Australia, Aboriginal songs “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
- Mexico, “El Cascabel” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and Mariachi México. 3:14
- “Johnny B. Goode” – Written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
- New Guinea, a male house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
- Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“The Crane’s Nest”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi 4:51
- Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from Partita No. 3 in E major for violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
- Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night’s aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch. 2:55
- Georgian SSR, choir “Tchakrulo”, collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
- Peru, flutes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura in Lima. 0:52
- “Melancholy Blues” by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
- Azerbaijan SSR, bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
- Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring, The Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
- Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Volume 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No. 1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
- Beethoven, fifth Symphony, first movement, Philharmonic Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
- Bulgaria “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin” performed by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
- Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
- Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort from London. 1:17
- Solomon Islands, Pan flutes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
- Peru, a marriage song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
- China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
- India raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho”, sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 15:30
- “Dark Was the Night” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
- Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Opus 130, Cavatina performed by the Budapest String Quartet. 6:37
It also incorporates greetings in several languages, including the Indonesian language spoken by Ilyas Harun. It says: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Goodbye and see you next time.” o”Goodnight, ladies and gentlemen. Goodbye and see you next time.” (in English)
In the absence of solar energy in deep space, each Voyagers are powered by long-life nuclear batteries.
In 2025, the batteries will run out and their voices will likely be silenced eternally. But each probes will proceed their mission, regardless of what strange fate awaits them.
NASA is celebrating this anniversary with a set of free, beautifully designed posters.
Source and reference: NASA | Quartz | Phys.org | Live sky
