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Voyager’s Story Is Far from Over
JPL continues to work science out of the two Voyager spacecraft years after their missions were completed. Now a new power management strategy will improve their performance.
The story of how a grad student realized that a single spacecraft could visit a whole lot of outer planets by taking advantage of planetary alignment and the slingshot effect, then managed to get someone to pay attention to the idea, is remarkable enough. The two Voyagers were more successful than they were supposed to be, in large part because they were programmable from the ground, and we learned how to drive them.
The story up through the encounter with Neptune (that literally skimmed the planet’s pole) is told very well in “Ambassadors from Earth,” which has proven to be one of the most popular books I’ve narrated. I still have some promo codes for free copies left if any fellow Ricochetti would like to listen. If you’re a space hipster like me, I’m sure you’ll dig it.
Published in General
Doug, I like your voice. You are very enthusiastic about V-GER.
Except of course V’Ger was Voyager 6, but there’s really only 2.
So far;) There were 9 Mariner missions and Voyager is a great name. NASA should use it more.
I agree. But it’s still too late, according to Trek, Voyage 6 was launched in 1999. :-)
I remember where I was mowing the lawn two summers ago while listening to that part. It was good. I have since upgraded to a bigger, faster, battery-powered mower.