Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today's episode is a
Speaker 1: classic from our previous host, Christian Sager. This one was
Speaker 1: written and recorded right after the Voyager one spacecraft entered
Speaker 1: interstellar space, so the team wanted to talk about what
Speaker 1: this amazing craft has done for us so far and
Speaker 1: what it might still do in the future. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Sager. On September five, nine seventy seven, NASA's
Speaker 1: historic Voyager one mission launched, joining its identical robotic twin,
Speaker 1: Voyager two, on what would turn out to be a
Speaker 1: forty year odyssey through the Solar System and into interstellar space.
Speaker 1: Voyager two had launched more than two weeks earlier, on
Speaker 1: August nine, and both spacecraft completed the dazzling grand tour
Speaker 1: of the outer Solar systems planets. Voyager one has now
Speaker 1: left our Son's heliosphere, becoming a bona fide interstellar probe
Speaker 1: and the most distant human made vehicle, and Voyager two
Speaker 1: is about to flirt with the outermost boundary of the
Speaker 1: heliosphere the Helio Pause. But exploring interstellar space wasn't a
Speaker 1: mission objective back in nineteen seventy seven. Back then, the
Speaker 1: Twin Probes aim was to reveal the rich diversity and
Speaker 1: mystery of the outer Solar System's planets. For Ed Stone,
Speaker 1: who has been project scientist for the Voyagers since nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy two, his favorite memory was the jaw dropping discovery
Speaker 1: of volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 1: He said the eruptions on Io were the first direct
Speaker 1: evidence of active volcanoes elsewhere in the Solar System, and
Speaker 1: he wasn't wrong. Both Voyager one and two changed our
Speaker 1: perspective of our Solar System, revealing never before seeing details
Speaker 1: in planetary atmospheres and revealing new discoveries about interplanetary space.
Speaker 1: New insights to Saturn's beautiful rings were gleaned, and a
Speaker 1: huge diversity of moons swarming around the gas giants was revealed.
Speaker 1: There are few more visceral science impacts on society than
Speaker 1: when in n Voyager one was commanded to turn around
Speaker 1: and capture an image of Earth from nearly four billion
Speaker 1: miles or six point four billion kilometers distant. This was
Speaker 1: at the request of Superstar astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan.
Speaker 1: In an interview with space dot com, Stone estimated that
Speaker 1: both spacecraft only have about ten years supply of power
Speaker 1: left before the plutonium heat output dwindles to levels that
Speaker 1: won't sustain any spacecraft instrumentation or critical subsystems. Though the
Speaker 1: Voyagers will eventually die, they continue to take data, and
Speaker 1: Voyager one is taking measurements of a very alien region,
Speaker 1: the interstellar medium. On August two thousand and twelve, NASA
Speaker 1: confirmed that Voyager one had officially left the heliosphere, speeding
Speaker 1: into interstellar space. Voyager two is traveling in a different
Speaker 1: direction and has an encountered interstellar space. Yet the mysterious
Speaker 1: outermost regions of the Solar System have now been probed,
Speaker 1: and Voyager one was able to take measurements of the
Speaker 1: magnetic field and particle energies, important measurements that have allowed
Speaker 1: scientists a very privileged view of how our Son's magnetic
Speaker 1: field and solar wind particles interact with the space between
Speaker 1: the stars. So, after four decades of exploration, two spacecraft
Speaker 1: built from nineteen seventies technology are still exploring and a
Speaker 1: new generation of scientists are using them to carry out
Speaker 1: cutting edge research in a region of space that no
Speaker 1: other robot that we know of has ever experienced. Even
Speaker 1: after their power supplies dwindle and the Voyagers lose communication
Speaker 1: with Earth, they will be silent interstellar emissaries for humanity,
Speaker 1: carrying the Golden Records as shrines of the civilization that
Speaker 1: built these incredible machines should an extraterrestrial intelligence stumble upon
Speaker 1: them and the eons to come. Since this episode aired,
Speaker 1: Voyager two has also entered interstellar space, and both craft
Speaker 1: have several systems still operational. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Ian O'Neill and produced by Dylan Fagan and Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other far reaching topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts in my heart Radio,
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