1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to text Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 2 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:17,759 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: I love all things tech, and today we're going to 5 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:23,960 Speaker 1: listen to a classic episode titled tech Stuff Goes on 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: a Voyage. It's about the Voyager program and this episode 7 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: originally published on April two thousand thirteen. The Voyager program 8 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:38,280 Speaker 1: is one of those really fascinating space programs that I 9 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,920 Speaker 1: absolutely loved learning about, so I hope you guys enjoy 10 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:45,319 Speaker 1: this classic episode. The first thing we wanted to talk 11 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:48,559 Speaker 1: about was kind of what was the purpose of the 12 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 1: Voyager missions, which, by the way, are still going. But 13 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:56,680 Speaker 1: we want to talk about kind of the timeline of 14 00:00:57,080 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 1: the missions, and then we'll get into more details about 15 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: the space craft itself and then follow that up with 16 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,160 Speaker 1: a discussion about the science that has been discovered by 17 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:10,040 Speaker 1: these amazing spacecraft. So going back to May nineteen seventy two, 18 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,320 Speaker 1: that's when NASA begins to fund a mission that will 19 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: involve designing, building, and launching spacecraft that are meant to 20 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: explore the outer planets of our Solar System. And even 21 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,119 Speaker 1: before this back in the engineer named Gary Flandreau noticed 22 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: that sometime in the nineteen seventies, the outer planets would 23 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 1: be aligned planetary alignment in such a way as to 24 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:34,920 Speaker 1: make this very possible. And this was you know, the 25 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:38,759 Speaker 1: space program was going and booming, and it was kind 26 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: of an incredible alignment of the stars that allowed us 27 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,320 Speaker 1: to write when we had money to do this stuff. Right, So, so, 28 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:48,560 Speaker 1: I mean that planetary alignment is really what makes the 29 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: voyager missions possible because you know, if the if the 30 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: plants were in such an alignment, so that let's say 31 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,920 Speaker 1: that alignment, well there's still aligned properly, they're just not 32 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 1: viable for us to explore. But let's say let's say 33 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 1: like jupiters on one side of the Sun and Saturn's 34 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: on the other side of the Sun, then it would 35 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: be really tricky to design a spacecraft sector could explore both. Right, So, 36 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: and this particular alignment isn't going to occur again for 37 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: another hundred and seventy six years, so you had to 38 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:20,960 Speaker 1: jump on the opportunity. And so in nineteen seventy two, 39 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: even though it was still years away from when this 40 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:28,040 Speaker 1: alignment would occur, NASA gets on the ball and starts 41 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: to design this, and in nineteen seventy seven they are 42 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: finished with the design and the spacecraft they had been 43 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: designing was under the working name the Mariner Jupiter slash 44 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,400 Speaker 1: Saturn nineteen seventy seven, but they decided to rename it 45 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:45,799 Speaker 1: a little bit of a mouthfall, yeaheah. They called it Voyager, 46 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 1: and on August twenty, nineteen seventy seven, a Titan Centaur 47 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: rocket carried one of the two Voyager spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, 48 00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:01,240 Speaker 1: into the atmosphere and ultimately into space. Which one was 49 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: it that will launched first? It was Voyager two that 50 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 1: launched first. Which one launched second? Voyager one? Okay, So 51 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: so this this was basically for pr purposes because the 52 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: way that they were designed, Voyager one was going to 53 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:18,959 Speaker 1: due to its trajectory, it was going to reach Jupiter 54 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 1: first and so start sending back images of Jupiter, you know, 55 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: fingers crossed if all goes well first, and NASA thought 56 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:30,639 Speaker 1: that the public would be incredibly confused if if the 57 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: Voyager one launched first but got to the planets second, 58 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 1: whereas some for some reason launching second and getting to 59 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: the planet first is less confusing. No one was paying 60 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: attention to the launch. Yeah, goodness knows, no one pays 61 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 1: attention to something. Yeah, the one thing you're actually able 62 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: to watch while you're still on Earth. It still makes 63 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: me tear up every single time anything gets launched into space. 64 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: I'm like, just humanity is so beautiful. That's pretty awesome. 65 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: I mean when you think about what it takes to 66 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: get something into space, and is phenomenal the amount of 67 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: engineering and ingenuity that went into that. But yes, absolutely so. 68 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: The Voyager to launches first. The Voyager one launches about 69 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: sixteen days later, in fact, not about sixteen days later, 70 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 1: at launches nicely on September and it's using the same 71 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:18,600 Speaker 1: sort of rocket, the Titans Centaur rocket, which, by the way, 72 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:23,480 Speaker 1: I love it anyway. The initial purpose was for these 73 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: to explore the giant planets in the Outer Solar System. 74 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:32,919 Speaker 1: Those giant planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto, 75 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:35,719 Speaker 1: of course not a giant planet. It does not get 76 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: the treatment, not for these missions. Forget you Pluto. And 77 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,280 Speaker 1: there were two separate trajectories that were being used. Voyager one, 78 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: of course, was designed so that the trajectory was chosen 79 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: so that it would reach Jupiter first, then move on 80 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: to Saturn, and then get flung off to head toward 81 00:04:55,320 --> 00:05:00,880 Speaker 1: interstellar space. Uh. Voyager too would do a visit to 82 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 1: all four of the giant planets. So that's why you 83 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,480 Speaker 1: have the different timelines, because even though Voyager two launched first, 84 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: for it to be able to hit this trajectory where 85 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: it was going to to pass by each of the 86 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:17,800 Speaker 1: four giants, it had to do that at a different Yeah. 87 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: So that's the you know. And if you were to 88 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:22,040 Speaker 1: just look at a model of the Solar System and 89 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: just spin the planets around at the different rates, you 90 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:27,479 Speaker 1: would see like, oh, yeah, now I understand you would 91 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:29,880 Speaker 1: have to be really particular about when you would launch 92 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:32,279 Speaker 1: and how you would launch for it to be able 93 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:35,040 Speaker 1: to hit all of these points properly. I mean, it's 94 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,600 Speaker 1: an amazing amount of engineering that's required and and just 95 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: math that's required to make sure that you've got the 96 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 1: right the right timing. Yeah, and it was it was 97 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: kind of shady, you know, basically until it happened, no 98 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: one was sure that it was going to happen, right 99 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: and Uh, And it's interesting because the Voyager spacecraft actually 100 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:53,279 Speaker 1: used the planets themselves to help make sure they got 101 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: to where they needed to go. But we'll get into that. 102 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,360 Speaker 1: It's pretty awesome though. So moving down the timeline, they 103 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:04,279 Speaker 1: they've launched in nineteen seventy seven. Almost two years later, 104 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,920 Speaker 1: on March five, nineteen seventy nine, Voyager one has its 105 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:10,960 Speaker 1: closest approach to Jupiter and it captures a lot of 106 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 1: images of Jupiter and Jupiter's moons. Uh. And then July nine, 107 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, so same year, that's when Voyager two 108 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 1: passes closest to Jupiter. Uh. Then we go to the 109 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: next year. On November twelve, eighty Voyager one has its 110 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 1: closest approach to Saturn, and then it begins its trip 111 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 1: out of the Solar System, saying so long, suckers, and 112 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: starts heading off into the well. It would be the sunset, 113 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:39,080 Speaker 1: except it can't be in the opposite of the sunset, right, 114 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 1: It's not the sun rise either. That's that would normally 115 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 1: be the opposite of a sunset, the sun diminishing into 116 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: a tin year ball. I guess not nearly as poetic. 117 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: But August one, that's when Voyager two gets its closest 118 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: approach to Saturday. But of course Voyager two is not 119 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:00,159 Speaker 1: flung off into in our interstellar space right away. Instead, 120 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,160 Speaker 1: it is then heading toward Uranus, which it passes closest 121 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:08,480 Speaker 1: to on January fourth, nineteen eight six. So it took 122 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:13,280 Speaker 1: five years for Voyager two to go from Saturn to Uranus. Uh, 123 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: and it would take um it would take a few 124 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:18,640 Speaker 1: more years before it would like five well three more years, 125 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:20,640 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, three more years before I would get close 126 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 1: to Neptune. But before we get to that point, seven, 127 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:31,880 Speaker 1: Voyager two observes the supernova nineteen seven eight Voyager returns 128 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,480 Speaker 1: the first color images of Neptune. So that Voyager two 129 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 1: that is, so it's getting closer to Neptune. It's still 130 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: not the closest it will be, but that's when we 131 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: first started getting color images of Neptune back from Voyager, 132 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: and on August nine, Voyager two as its closest approach 133 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 1: to Neptune. And that concludes the primary mission of the 134 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: of both Voyager spacecraft, that primary mission being the exploration 135 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: of those outer planets. So the cost of the missions 136 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:04,680 Speaker 1: from nineteen seventy two to the time when they finished 137 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 1: their mission their primary mission was eight hundred sixty five 138 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:13,680 Speaker 1: million dollars. Now, NASA points out that if you break 139 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: this down by the population of the United States and 140 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: year over year, that's about eight cents per person per year. 141 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:24,240 Speaker 1: So it's it's essentially saying like, look, really in the 142 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:26,000 Speaker 1: grand scheme, and it sounds like a lot of money, 143 00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: but in the grand scheme of things, this is just 144 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:33,160 Speaker 1: a tiny investment. So look at these pictures of center. Yeah. Uh, 145 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,319 Speaker 1: keep keep calm and keep exploring, is what they said. 146 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:42,240 Speaker 1: I hate that name anyway. So the that that million 147 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: dollars included everything include the expense of the launch vehicles, 148 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:48,720 Speaker 1: the radioactive power source, which we'll get to talk about 149 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:51,559 Speaker 1: in a little bit, uh, and and just the maintaining 150 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:56,199 Speaker 1: of the missions. By nine, Voyager one was heading toward 151 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:02,079 Speaker 1: interstellar space and on vale In Tine's Day in nineteen nine, 152 00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:05,720 Speaker 1: we get the final images from Voyager, which is a 153 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:09,439 Speaker 1: portrait of the Solar System. Happy Valentine's Day, I gave 154 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: you the Solar System. Sweet Three days later, February I'm 155 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:19,719 Speaker 1: sorry three days in eight years later on fantasy, I 156 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:22,360 Speaker 1: should read the year before I read the day February 157 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:24,960 Speaker 1: sevent have all my notes in front of me, it's just, 158 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:28,800 Speaker 1: you know, my typing and viewing skills are Apparently there's 159 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: something to be desired. February seventeenth, the Voyager one passes 160 00:09:33,559 --> 00:09:37,600 Speaker 1: the Pioneer ten, which had obviously been launched previously, and 161 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:41,600 Speaker 1: so that makes the Voyager one the most distant human 162 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: made object in space. It is still to this day 163 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:46,920 Speaker 1: the most distant human made object in space. It's actually 164 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,480 Speaker 1: most distant stir and it was because it keeps going. 165 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:53,439 Speaker 1: That was good. Well, I figured it might as well 166 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:57,760 Speaker 1: measure up to my reading and comprehension skills. Uh. Decenumber 167 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:02,600 Speaker 1: fifteen two thousand four. Edge or one crosses the termination 168 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:06,679 Speaker 1: shock comination shock. This is this is pretty cool, guys, 169 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 1: and do the heally you sheath. Yeah. So here's here's 170 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:12,480 Speaker 1: some things that you need to know about our wacky 171 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:15,840 Speaker 1: little solar system. Here you might ask, what's the edge 172 00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: of the Solar System? Is it Pluto? No? No, it's 173 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: not Pluto. Well, I mean again, it all depends on 174 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:24,320 Speaker 1: how you're defining the edge of the Solar System. But 175 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:27,520 Speaker 1: the way NASA defines it, Nope, not Pluto, especially since 176 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 1: it's not it's still on a planet right now, that's 177 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: not it's a dwarf planet. There's that never mind, there's yeah, 178 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: it's you know, it's Pluto is right there with happy, sneezy, 179 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: sleepy Adobe doc bashful. Uh So, termination shock, that's that's 180 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:44,240 Speaker 1: the point where the solar wind particles start to slow down. 181 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:49,040 Speaker 1: They were traveling essentially at kind of the speed of 182 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: sound would be, but anyway, they're traveling really fast. They 183 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:55,880 Speaker 1: start slowing down because you can think of the solar 184 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:00,439 Speaker 1: wind as this uh, this force that pushes out from 185 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:04,560 Speaker 1: the Sun. All right, Now, think of the interstellar space 186 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: kind of having its own pressure. It's sort of like 187 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 1: air pressure. It's pushing in on the solar made of 188 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 1: magnetic fields instead of air pressure. So there exactly, they're 189 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:17,000 Speaker 1: not air particles. It's all we're talking. There are particles 190 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 Speaker 1: on space, but that's that's a different thing anyway. So 191 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:24,880 Speaker 1: the solar wind is pressing against these these other pressures. 192 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:26,840 Speaker 1: So once you get to the point where the solar 193 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:31,439 Speaker 1: wind is slowing down, that's the termination shock. Right, there's 194 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 1: kind of a boundary with a with a shock wave 195 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:38,040 Speaker 1: fare and also still not the edge of the Solar system. Also, 196 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: you also have the heliosphere. Now this is where we 197 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,640 Speaker 1: still have we still have evidence of the solar wind 198 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:47,080 Speaker 1: within the heliosphere. Then you have the helio pause, which 199 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:49,400 Speaker 1: is the very boundary of where the solar wind is, 200 00:11:49,559 --> 00:11:53,280 Speaker 1: and that still is not the edge of the Solar System, 201 00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 1: not according to NASA. According to NASA, really we need 202 00:11:56,840 --> 00:11:58,760 Speaker 1: to think of the edge of the Solar System as 203 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:03,560 Speaker 1: being an area where the Sun's gravitational poll has no 204 00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:06,800 Speaker 1: greater effect on you than any other particular celestial body 205 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:09,200 Speaker 1: out there. So, in other words, you aren't being pulled 206 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:11,719 Speaker 1: towards the Solar System at that point anymore than you're 207 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 1: being pulled towards some other point, right, Yeah, so that 208 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:18,800 Speaker 1: that area is ill defined by the very nature of gravity. 209 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:22,199 Speaker 1: But um, that would take us a very long time 210 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:23,679 Speaker 1: to get there, and we'll talk about that when we 211 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:27,240 Speaker 1: get into the science section. So anyway, termination shock has 212 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: all these fluctuating magnetic fields due to the change and 213 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:32,920 Speaker 1: the speed of the Solar wind, and that's kind of 214 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,360 Speaker 1: why it's called what it's called. And Voyager one, like 215 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,720 Speaker 1: I said, crossed it on December two thousand four and 216 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:43,240 Speaker 1: begins to encounter the interstellar medium. That doesn't mean that 217 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:45,880 Speaker 1: it's in interstellar space yet, but starting to encounter the 218 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:49,839 Speaker 1: particles that would be an interstellar space September five, two 219 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:53,120 Speaker 1: thousand seven, three years later, that's when Voyager two catches 220 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:55,680 Speaker 1: up and crosses the termination shock at a totally different point. 221 00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,920 Speaker 1: By the way, these two spacecraft are in two totally 222 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,640 Speaker 1: different sections of no nowhere near each other anymore, not 223 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:05,360 Speaker 1: at all. And then in July and two thousand twelve, 224 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,599 Speaker 1: Voyager one enters a new region of space which is 225 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:11,160 Speaker 1: still inside the Solar System. It's another region of the 226 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:15,080 Speaker 1: helio heliosphere helio she called a magnetic highway YEP. And 227 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:18,560 Speaker 1: the directions of the particles that it's encountering are beginning 228 00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:21,000 Speaker 1: to change, which suggests that the spacecraft is at the 229 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: very edge of the heliosphere. And UM engineers didn't expect 230 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: that the data that they got back. They thought that 231 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:31,160 Speaker 1: it would have passed beyond this point earlier, which just 232 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,240 Speaker 1: tells us that our Solar system is actually larger, thought 233 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: that the Sun is more powerful than we previously expected. 234 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,960 Speaker 1: Never underestimate the power of the Sun. It can turn 235 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: me read in a matter of minutes, very susceptible to 236 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: that sort of thing. So, yeah, that's we've already talked 237 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:51,680 Speaker 1: about how they have, they left at different times in 238 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:56,120 Speaker 1: their pathways, meant that they are traveling in different directions 239 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: and different at different speeds. Uh, and they visited different 240 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:01,880 Speaker 1: you know, like voice You're two visited two more planets 241 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:04,320 Speaker 1: than Voyage or one did. But we talked about how 242 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:08,439 Speaker 1: the planets helped move the spacecraft and direct the spacecraft. 243 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:12,000 Speaker 1: So if you guys have seen science fiction films like 244 00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:15,520 Speaker 1: Star Trek four, the Voyage Home where they sling shot 245 00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:18,040 Speaker 1: around the Sun, they're actually using the Sun's gravity to 246 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: kind of accelerate a ship to the point where it 247 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:23,360 Speaker 1: can travel back in time. I don't understand that. By 248 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: the way, if you've got warp speed, you technically anyway, 249 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:28,880 Speaker 1: that's another episode. We already did. That episode we did. 250 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:30,840 Speaker 1: But anyway, they use it to sling shot around the Sun, 251 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:35,360 Speaker 1: which magically lets them travel back in time. There's some 252 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: truth to that in the sense that we have used 253 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 1: that same kind of principle with designing the voyage or spacecraft. Right. 254 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:45,400 Speaker 1: What we what we kind of realized is that if 255 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,840 Speaker 1: you okay, you're you're you're moving towards the planet, you're 256 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: a probe okay, okay, and uh, as you move towards 257 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 1: the planet. You're going to start accelerating as the planet's 258 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:57,240 Speaker 1: gravitational pull starts pulling you in. Right, if you only 259 00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:00,200 Speaker 1: kind of graze by it, then hypothetically you'll deseller right 260 00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:02,800 Speaker 1: on the way out because you're losing energy to that 261 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: gravitational pull. Right. And by the way, because of the 262 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:14,040 Speaker 1: conservation of energy, technically, the planet's orbit actually slows sure infanticimally, Yeah, 263 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,240 Speaker 1: it's uh say, I've got wait, wait, wait, I have 264 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:17,760 Speaker 1: it written down. I know I've got it written down. 265 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:22,840 Speaker 1: It's something like, uh, one foot in a trillion years. Well, 266 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: but hey, that is an impact you are. You are 267 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: making a difference. But Jupiter is going to be a 268 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:32,840 Speaker 1: little late to its to its appointment in one trillion years. Right. However, 269 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,040 Speaker 1: because planets are moving in their orbits, if you are 270 00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:38,760 Speaker 1: going on the same trajectory as a planet's orbit, you 271 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:42,920 Speaker 1: can pick up that orbital speed as you slingshot around 272 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: the planet. Ye, And so that that has allowed the 273 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:50,600 Speaker 1: Voyager spacecraft to get propulsion from one plant to the 274 00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: next without having to have massive thrusters on board. In fact, 275 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 1: when we get to the actual description of the spacecraft, 276 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:59,560 Speaker 1: you'll find out that their thrusters are not incredibly powerful 277 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,400 Speaker 1: at all, but they were able to use the power 278 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:06,960 Speaker 1: of gravity to direct and propel themselves something as large 279 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:09,200 Speaker 1: as as Jupiter. You know, it's moving through space at 280 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: something like thirty thousand miles per hour forty tho kilometers 281 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 1: and uh yeah, so so and and that's yeah, it's 282 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:19,840 Speaker 1: a completely free energy boost of about that much speed. 283 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,880 Speaker 1: According to NASA, because of the use of planetary gravity, 284 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: Voyager too ended up having a fuel economy of about 285 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 1: thirteen thousand kilometers per leader or thirty thousand miles per gallon. 286 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,160 Speaker 1: That's efficient. That beats That beats my car. That's highway miles, 287 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:38,720 Speaker 1: city miles. They did not give me, so I don't 288 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: I don't know how it would do in the city. Uh. There, 289 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:45,840 Speaker 1: the Voyager two's flight path got a look, like we said, 290 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:49,480 Speaker 1: at all four of the giant plants um and uh 291 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:53,440 Speaker 1: and it's a couple of billion miles further inside the 292 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,960 Speaker 1: Solar System than the Voyager one. So the Voyager one 293 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 1: got a kind of a head start into interstellar space 294 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 1: um and is more than eleven billion or seventeen point 295 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:06,960 Speaker 1: seven eleven billion miles or seventeen point seven billion kilometers 296 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,639 Speaker 1: away from the Sun at this point more more more 297 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:12,200 Speaker 1: than eighteen as of as of today, there's there's a 298 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,440 Speaker 1: there's a tracker on on NASA nice where you can 299 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,640 Speaker 1: check all this out. So uh and and uh. At 300 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:23,000 Speaker 1: that distance, it takes hours for a for data to 301 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:25,560 Speaker 1: go from the spacecraft to be picked up here on Earth. 302 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,760 Speaker 1: About seventeen hours. Wow. Yeah, so that's a long time. 303 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,720 Speaker 1: So the way that let me let me find my 304 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:35,159 Speaker 1: note on it that it's really interesting the way that 305 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: they receive those radio signals because they're they're pretty far away, 306 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:40,639 Speaker 1: they're getting increasingly difficult to check all the times. They 307 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:43,720 Speaker 1: have a whole series of two and thirty ft radio 308 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:48,400 Speaker 1: dishes right basically to pull Voyager data. These are the 309 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:52,240 Speaker 1: deep space antenna that they have to pick up this information, 310 00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:56,280 Speaker 1: um and uh. And they actually upgraded those over the 311 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,359 Speaker 1: course of the life of the Voyager program. When they 312 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:03,360 Speaker 1: first started, they were significantly smaller, and they didn't have 313 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:06,760 Speaker 1: to be as big because the Voyager spacecraft were relatively 314 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 1: closer to the Earth. Uh. And now now we've got 315 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:12,239 Speaker 1: to a point where we keep upgrading the antenna so 316 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,480 Speaker 1: that we can continue to pick up these increasingly weak signals, 317 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:20,160 Speaker 1: so it's pretty amazing. According to NASA, the emissions from 318 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:24,080 Speaker 1: Earth to Neptune required the equivalent of eleven thousand work 319 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:29,280 Speaker 1: years of human work. Eleven thousand work years, which they said, 320 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,000 Speaker 1: there's only a third of what it took to build 321 00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:35,240 Speaker 1: the Great Pyramid. So well, hey, so you know we're slack, 322 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,280 Speaker 1: and yes, you know, really they're just saying, look how 323 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:40,560 Speaker 1: much more efficient we are. They were piling up rocks, 324 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:45,120 Speaker 1: we were sending spacecraft into space. Um and uh, and 325 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:47,600 Speaker 1: again we've learned that the Solar System is actually larger 326 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:51,360 Speaker 1: than what we have previously anticipated and um. So by 327 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: the time the Voyager two flew by Neptune, the two 328 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:58,680 Speaker 1: spacecraft together had transmitted about five trillion bits of scientific 329 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,560 Speaker 1: data back at Earth and it was someone's job to 330 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:04,280 Speaker 1: look at all that. But yeah, the deep space tracking 331 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:06,119 Speaker 1: antennas are the ones we were talking about earlier that 332 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,080 Speaker 1: have been upgrades several times, and that that kind of 333 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,560 Speaker 1: that's the brief overview of the mission, and next we're 334 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 1: going to take a look at the spacecraft itself and 335 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:19,399 Speaker 1: also some kind of cool records that are above the 336 00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:22,879 Speaker 1: two spacecraft. But before we do that, let's take a 337 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:33,720 Speaker 1: quick pause to thank our sponsored. Okay, let's talk about 338 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,000 Speaker 1: the actual spacecraft for a minute. We know what they 339 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,680 Speaker 1: were supposed to do and what they have done. Um 340 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,440 Speaker 1: so uh And one thing I did not mention, I 341 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:44,880 Speaker 1: guess is that the whole inner interstellar travel stuff that's 342 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: totally planned as well, in fact, has been added on 343 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,400 Speaker 1: as a secondary mission. The primary mission was the outer planets. 344 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:54,560 Speaker 1: Secondary is what's up with this interstellar stuff we don't 345 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,400 Speaker 1: know anything about. Well, they realize that their power sources 346 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:01,440 Speaker 1: would work until about and so figured well, hey, let's 347 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:05,160 Speaker 1: just kind of roll with it. Yeah. Yeah, so that's five. 348 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:08,399 Speaker 1: That's about when we expect the power resources to be 349 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,040 Speaker 1: to the point where they can no longer power the 350 00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,679 Speaker 1: transmitter to send us back data. And we'll talk about that. 351 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: That's one of the things that that's interesting about this spacecraft. 352 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: There are a lot of interesting things. So both of them, uh, 353 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,280 Speaker 1: because because they're identical, Yes, they are identical. So each 354 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:26,280 Speaker 1: one of them weighs just under a ton. And now 355 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:29,359 Speaker 1: when they were on top of the the launch vehicle, 356 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,600 Speaker 1: they weighed a lot more than that, but the spacecraft 357 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,560 Speaker 1: themselves are just under a ton each unearthed obviously, because 358 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:39,360 Speaker 1: weight is all relative to where you are. Yes, uh, 359 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,040 Speaker 1: And they are each made up of about sixty five 360 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,280 Speaker 1: fouls and individual parts. But these parts are often made 361 00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: up of tinier components. So they have a term they 362 00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:54,040 Speaker 1: use which is equivalent parts. And equivalent parts means like 363 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: if you were to look at, for example, if I 364 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,880 Speaker 1: were to say my computer is part uh, is one 365 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: part of the equipment that I use, someone else could 366 00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:05,919 Speaker 1: point out, well, that computer has multiple chips in it, 367 00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:10,160 Speaker 1: and those chips have transistors, and so really that one 368 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:12,720 Speaker 1: part is a representation of lots and lots and lots 369 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:14,960 Speaker 1: of parts. So NASA was like, well, if you want 370 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,640 Speaker 1: to know how many equivalent parts there are, there about 371 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:22,359 Speaker 1: five million of them. Compare that to your old standard 372 00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:26,000 Speaker 1: definition color television. There will be about two thousand, five 373 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,000 Speaker 1: D equivalent parts. So lots more than a color TV, 374 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 1: which is kind of what you want when you're when 375 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:34,919 Speaker 1: you're expo space. Yeah, you need a little bit more 376 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 1: than it than your average standard definition color television. I agree, 377 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:43,600 Speaker 1: I would hope. So yeah, also larger than your standard yes, well, 378 00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:47,919 Speaker 1: unless you're a crazy rich person. The main body is 379 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:50,440 Speaker 1: a is a ten sided box that's about six ft 380 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,359 Speaker 1: or one point eight meters across, and that's where the 381 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:58,000 Speaker 1: fuel tank, the and and some of the electronic instruments. Yeah, 382 00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,200 Speaker 1: and we'll talk about those instruments. They are all lot 383 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:06,120 Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, they're they were. They both have areas 384 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:10,080 Speaker 1: that are hardened against radiation and shielded. And the reason 385 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:12,119 Speaker 1: for that is obviously that when you go into space, 386 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,919 Speaker 1: you are going to encounter things that you would not 387 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,119 Speaker 1: encounter here on the surface of the planet. And the 388 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:21,880 Speaker 1: reason for that is that the Earth atmosphere and magnetos 389 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: sphere mag magnetosphere sphere still makes me think that we're 390 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:30,440 Speaker 1: watching x men. I would say, I would say magnetosphere. 391 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: I know you would, but shere it is the sphere 392 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:40,600 Speaker 1: in which magneto travels, and it's also a magnetic field 393 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,280 Speaker 1: that surrounds the Earth, penetrates and binds us together like 394 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,439 Speaker 1: the force. Now, what it does is actually repels certain 395 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:53,200 Speaker 1: types of waves and particles, which allows us to remain. Yeah, 396 00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 1: we do. We're not being bombarded by cosmic radiation or 397 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,680 Speaker 1: gamma raise or things like that, because that would be 398 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: a much were sunburned than that other sa burned than 399 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,240 Speaker 1: we were talking. The combination of the of our atmosphere 400 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:08,280 Speaker 1: and the magnetosphere or magnetosphere protectas, and so the thing 401 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:09,679 Speaker 1: is that when you're out in space, you don't have 402 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:12,399 Speaker 1: the benefit of that protection. So that's why both of 403 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:16,879 Speaker 1: them have these these shielding areas and casings that are 404 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,840 Speaker 1: hardened against radiation to protect them if they were to 405 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,000 Speaker 1: encounter any of these waves or particles. Clearly very important, 406 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,919 Speaker 1: interesting little side fact. So Earth has a magneto sphere, 407 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,360 Speaker 1: Mars doesn't, So if we were to make a colony 408 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,359 Speaker 1: on Mars we would not have that protection that we 409 00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:37,840 Speaker 1: would we need to compensate for it in some wame, right, 410 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,400 Speaker 1: So you wouldn't want to go on any long strolls 411 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,400 Speaker 1: on the Martian soil without some serious protection. So that's 412 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,720 Speaker 1: all of those All of those fashionable space bikinis that 413 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,880 Speaker 1: were that were really popular back in the nineties would 414 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:53,240 Speaker 1: not probably be good. The interesting thing I heard was 415 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:55,359 Speaker 1: I was I was listening and I'll go ahead. It 416 00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,359 Speaker 1: was a skeptic skuide to the universe. A great podcast 417 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,600 Speaker 1: has no affiliation with us, but they are fantastic, very fun, 418 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:05,800 Speaker 1: interesting educational podcast. They had a recent episode where um 419 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:10,119 Speaker 1: they had an astronomer on talking about things like Mars 420 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:11,960 Speaker 1: and they were even talking about, all right, let's let's 421 00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:14,879 Speaker 1: look into a science fiction future where we can terraform Mars, 422 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,600 Speaker 1: so we're able to transform Mars so that the actual 423 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:22,520 Speaker 1: surfaces habitable. And even then, because of the lack of 424 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: the magnetosphere, you would still be prone to things like 425 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,639 Speaker 1: cosmic radiation, gamma radiation. You would you would still be 426 00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 1: vulnerable with that, so you would not be able to 427 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,760 Speaker 1: terraform it for any extended length of time. Eventually that 428 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,119 Speaker 1: stuff would kill the life on that planet. Right, because 429 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: things like gamma radiation, for example, aren't as cool is 430 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,960 Speaker 1: for example, teenage meeting nincha turtles make it sound or 431 00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:45,680 Speaker 1: almost mostly you just die. Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's 432 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:50,560 Speaker 1: not attractive. In fact, uh NASA said that because of 433 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,560 Speaker 1: the distance from the the the Voyager spacecraft passed close 434 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,640 Speaker 1: enough to Jupiter that it received more than a thousand 435 00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,280 Speaker 1: times the radiation that would be a lethal bull of 436 00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:05,960 Speaker 1: radiation for human Yeah, for a human person, yes, um, So, 437 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: moving on to more things that are on board this 438 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 1: these spacecraft. It has a it has a twelve foot 439 00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:15,480 Speaker 1: or a three point seven meter high gain antenna which 440 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,880 Speaker 1: looks like a satellite dish. Yeah, this is what allows 441 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,040 Speaker 1: it to transmit and receive data to and from Earth, 442 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,720 Speaker 1: and no matter where it goes, the the antenna is 443 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: programmed to always point towards Earth. Yes, that's it's actually 444 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:32,920 Speaker 1: got a gyroscopic UH system so that no matter how 445 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,760 Speaker 1: it's oriented, it can it can readjust its attitude so 446 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:39,840 Speaker 1: that the UH the antenna is pointing towards US, so 447 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,000 Speaker 1: we can have the best chants possible to pick up 448 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 1: those radio transmissions. UM. It has a lot of different 449 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:49,840 Speaker 1: instruments aboard, including besides the high gain antenna, it's got 450 00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,680 Speaker 1: a low energy charged particle instrument and ultra violet spectrometer 451 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 1: which currently only the voyager one is using to collect data. 452 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:01,000 Speaker 1: Has both narrow and wide angle imaging instruments also known 453 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:05,239 Speaker 1: as cameras. It's got a fancy, fancy eight hundred by 454 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 1: eight hundred cameras because this was launched in the nineteen 455 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,399 Speaker 1: seventies seemed pretty cool at the time. UH as a 456 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:15,120 Speaker 1: cosmic ray instruments so it can detect and measure cosmic rays, 457 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:20,080 Speaker 1: a photopolarimeter, which I have no idea what it does. 458 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:22,160 Speaker 1: I was. I ran into it and I thought that's 459 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,720 Speaker 1: really cool, and I never actually looked more into it 460 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,280 Speaker 1: because I was lucky that I could say it. There's 461 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:33,919 Speaker 1: an infrared interferometer spectrometer UH, an optical calibration targeting system, 462 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:38,639 Speaker 1: a planetary radio astronomy and plasma wave antenna. Each spacecraft 463 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,440 Speaker 1: have two of those UM and also known as the 464 00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 1: Planetary radio Astronomy Instrument or p r A has the 465 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,800 Speaker 1: plasma instrument. Voyager ones plasma instrument is non functional, but 466 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,000 Speaker 1: all other instruments are in working order, and Voyager two 467 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:57,719 Speaker 1: is still collecting data through its plasma instruments. It's got UH. 468 00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:00,840 Speaker 1: It also gets its power from three D O isotope 469 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:06,200 Speaker 1: thermoelectric generators and currently it gets about three D and 470 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:10,240 Speaker 1: fifteen watts of power. And now the spacecraft are designed 471 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,119 Speaker 1: so that all of their systems can operate at about 472 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:18,160 Speaker 1: four hundreds of power, so it's able to UH. It's 473 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:20,800 Speaker 1: still getting power, but it's not enough power to operate everything. 474 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,399 Speaker 1: And in fact, they designed the Voyager spacecraft with this 475 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:27,560 Speaker 1: in mind, the idea being that as the power as 476 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,040 Speaker 1: the power supply begins to decrease, it begins to shut 477 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:37,280 Speaker 1: down unnecessary instruments. So originally there were eleven different UM 478 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: projects that were involved in gathering data from the Voyager 479 00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:43,439 Speaker 1: systems and processing that data here on Earth. There were 480 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 1: eleven of them. Currently only five of them are still 481 00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:50,200 Speaker 1: in operation because the other systems have been progressively shut 482 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,880 Speaker 1: down to make sure that the Voyager spacecraft can still 483 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,520 Speaker 1: send us information. And like you said, by five or so, 484 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:01,560 Speaker 1: that's when we aspect the power to have run down 485 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:03,600 Speaker 1: enough where we're not going to be able to get 486 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:05,840 Speaker 1: any more information from them, because it's just not gonna 487 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,560 Speaker 1: have the power necessary to broadcast right right Well, because 488 00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:10,720 Speaker 1: the way that this this engine of sorts works is 489 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:14,040 Speaker 1: that pellets of plutonium dioxide release heat through their own 490 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:17,679 Speaker 1: natural decay process, and so once they have finished decaying, 491 00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:22,800 Speaker 1: that's it. Yeah, that's true. And then I forgot. There 492 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:27,280 Speaker 1: also some magnet magnetometer boom, which is designed toss to 493 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,440 Speaker 1: measure magnetic fields. So that was one of those things 494 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:32,440 Speaker 1: we didn't really know a lot about the magnetic fields 495 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,760 Speaker 1: of the Elder planets before we sent these these spacecraft up. 496 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,200 Speaker 1: That's one of the really huge sources of information that 497 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:40,680 Speaker 1: it is it has sent us. Yeah, and uh so 498 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,280 Speaker 1: then it has a flight data subsystem which handles all 499 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,840 Speaker 1: the information, and it has an eight track digital tape recorder. 500 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:50,479 Speaker 1: So you've got an eight track up there. It's uh. 501 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: So the FDS configures controls, collects data from the various instruments, 502 00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,120 Speaker 1: and the tape recorder handles the data from the plasma 503 00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:01,040 Speaker 1: wave subsystem because that's the one that gets the highest 504 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,000 Speaker 1: density of data and the shortest amount of time. So 505 00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: the data tape recorder was the cutting edge technology to 506 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,560 Speaker 1: handle that that information. And according to NASA, the tape 507 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:14,880 Speaker 1: in the digital recorder won't wear out until the tape 508 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,400 Speaker 1: has moved back and forth through a distance that is 509 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,240 Speaker 1: equivalent to the width of the United States. Uh. That 510 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:24,240 Speaker 1: is not terribly precise, because the United States is not 511 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,560 Speaker 1: a perfect rectangle, but in general, I would say that's 512 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,360 Speaker 1: probably about three thousand miles, which is around four thousand, 513 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:32,600 Speaker 1: eight hundred kilometers. I assume what they mean is that 514 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,120 Speaker 1: it's it's doing fine. Yeah, So what they're saying is 515 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: that that tape is capable of traveling that collective amount 516 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:42,920 Speaker 1: of distance without breaking. So you've got to remember the 517 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: tape itself is not that long. It's just saying that 518 00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:46,880 Speaker 1: they would you know, by the time you would go 519 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: through all this tape and is worn out you could 520 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: have gone all the way across the United States using 521 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: that same distance of tape being played through. Just kind 522 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:58,960 Speaker 1: of that's kind of impressive. There has a command computer 523 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: subsystem which p it's sequencing and control functions, which includes 524 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:08,040 Speaker 1: fault detection, corrective routines, antenna pointing data, and spacecraft sequencing data. 525 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:12,280 Speaker 1: The fault detection involves seven top level fault protection routines 526 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,560 Speaker 1: and each one is able to detect and correct for 527 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: several possible failures. Basically, it just means that there's the 528 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,960 Speaker 1: computer has multiple modules and they compare data back and 529 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 1: forth between each other and and it will decide if 530 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,760 Speaker 1: if one module is differing from the others, that that 531 00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: one's faulty and to cut it out of the system. Yes, 532 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: And it also means that both of the spacecraft are 533 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:39,320 Speaker 1: capable of shutting down systems if it needs to automatically autonomously. 534 00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:42,080 Speaker 1: Because which is so important, because we can't broadcast to 535 00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:44,760 Speaker 1: these things. They broadcast to us, but they don't have receivers. 536 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:48,280 Speaker 1: Their antenna could receive information. Yeah, but it means that 537 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:50,320 Speaker 1: it would take seventeen hours for the information to get 538 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,040 Speaker 1: to us. In seventeen hours for the information to get 539 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:54,800 Speaker 1: back and by then whatever the problem was is probably 540 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,960 Speaker 1: not the biggest issue at that point, right, So, yeah, 541 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: that it was important to have something to connect autonomously 542 00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,720 Speaker 1: if if you know, if the communication is a barrier. 543 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: The same sort of thing with the Curiosity Rover when 544 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: it was landing on the surface of Mars. You know, 545 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:12,440 Speaker 1: a lot of that landing. In fact, all of the 546 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,720 Speaker 1: landing was autonomous because there was no time for us 547 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: to send any adjustments to the system. It's like you're 548 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:20,480 Speaker 1: on your own. By the time we would be able 549 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:22,880 Speaker 1: to send an adjustment, it would have already either crash 550 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,480 Speaker 1: or landed safely. So you had to design a spacecraft 551 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:28,920 Speaker 1: that could do this or else it just wouldn't work. 552 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:31,480 Speaker 1: Pretty impressive in the nineteen seventies for for the amount 553 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:34,200 Speaker 1: of computing power that was going. Oh yeah, definitely. And 554 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,720 Speaker 1: it also had an attitude in art or still has. 555 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:38,520 Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm using the past tense. It's 556 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:43,320 Speaker 1: still out there. The Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem, which 557 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:45,520 Speaker 1: is also known the A A c S. It's in 558 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,880 Speaker 1: charge of maintaining the spacecraft orientation and positions the scan platform. 559 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:50,480 Speaker 1: So this is what we're talking about. The system that's 560 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,320 Speaker 1: that's in charge of making sure that dad antenna has 561 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:56,080 Speaker 1: pointed back at Earth. And also that the scan platform, 562 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: which is really you know, the instrumentation panel this point 563 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,280 Speaker 1: in the right direction to get the data that the needs. 564 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,440 Speaker 1: And uh it's yeah, it's got a three access stabilization 565 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,080 Speaker 1: system and use the celestial or gyro referenced attitude control 566 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,120 Speaker 1: to make the high gain antenna point back to Earth. Now, 567 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:16,240 Speaker 1: we talked about the fact that there is an interesting 568 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:21,680 Speaker 1: gold plated copper disc on board each of the two 569 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:26,959 Speaker 1: Voyager spacecraft, right the golden records there refer So this is, uh, 570 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,680 Speaker 1: this was a really cool idea. You know who, of 571 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:32,160 Speaker 1: course was the chairman for this, Carl Sagan. Yes, he 572 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:34,959 Speaker 1: he had billions and billions of suggestions, but not all 573 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,040 Speaker 1: of them can make it onto the disc obviously, right. 574 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,880 Speaker 1: And these are these are these these gold plated copper 575 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: discs engraved like vinyl records. Yeah yeah, and kids ask 576 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:47,320 Speaker 1: your parents, no, no, dear, no no, no. Kids are 577 00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: hipsters these days. They know they know things about vinyl. 578 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,160 Speaker 1: It's cool. Kids tell your older siblings because they missed 579 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,280 Speaker 1: down the whole hipster generation. Um, all right, so so yeah, 580 00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,480 Speaker 1: you're talking about a disk that has physical grooves that 581 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:03,160 Speaker 1: are in it that can be read using a stylist 582 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,320 Speaker 1: and cartridge, which which were included. They included the cartridge 583 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,120 Speaker 1: and stylists. They did not include a turntable, so aliens 584 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,000 Speaker 1: they have to build it. But they did leave instructions 585 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,040 Speaker 1: written in a symbolic language to say here's how you 586 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,720 Speaker 1: would construct something that would be able to play these things. 587 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,479 Speaker 1: They were their twelve inches in diameter, and they are 588 00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:26,200 Speaker 1: designed to be played back at sixteen and two thirds 589 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,480 Speaker 1: revolutions per minute, so actually fairly slowly. I mean, you know, 590 00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:33,680 Speaker 1: we think about the the forty five or thirty three 591 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:37,120 Speaker 1: revolutions per minute for for your average albums, and this 592 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:41,440 Speaker 1: is a sixteen and two thirds. So on these Golden 593 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:45,120 Speaker 1: records are lots and lots of stuff. Actually, um, it's 594 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: including things like greetings from in fifty five different languages, 595 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,160 Speaker 1: including some that aren't being used anymore. They are not 596 00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: being used in a very long time, like which is 597 00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:59,680 Speaker 1: a Sumerian language which was last used around four thousand BC. UH, 598 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,560 Speaker 1: a selection of nature sounds yep, yep, So if you 599 00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:04,840 Speaker 1: ever wanted to hear what frogs burping sounded like and 600 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,040 Speaker 1: you were from from some distant planet. Here's an opportunity 601 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:12,840 Speaker 1: to a lot of So you're for Ford Prefect and 602 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:14,279 Speaker 1: you're on your way to Earth. This is a good 603 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:16,640 Speaker 1: way to do some homework before you get there. All right, 604 00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:19,200 Speaker 1: a lot of traditional music, some some Native American chance 605 00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:21,320 Speaker 1: and Scottish bagpipes. I've got to talk about some of 606 00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:25,160 Speaker 1: the music that's on here for African ritual music. There's 607 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:28,400 Speaker 1: a bunch of classical music, all right. So yeah, I 608 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,360 Speaker 1: wrote down some of my favorites. This is this is Obviously, 609 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:33,719 Speaker 1: there are lots and lots of musical tracks that are 610 00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: on the records. These are just the ones that I 611 00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:39,360 Speaker 1: personally wrote down because I I they resonate with me. 612 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:41,320 Speaker 1: It's not to say that the other ones are not 613 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,279 Speaker 1: as good, right, I may not be familiar with some 614 00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:48,319 Speaker 1: of them. But there's the brandon Burg Concerto number two 615 00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,120 Speaker 1: in F. Actually it's just the first movement. That's by 616 00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:56,239 Speaker 1: a guy named Batch. Johann Batch wrote that, Um, if 617 00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:59,520 Speaker 1: you've heard he's just some dude. Really yeah, yeah, obviously 618 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:02,040 Speaker 1: box Edinburg can chair to a number two. N f uh. 619 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: Then there's a Melancholy Blues which was performed by Louis Armstrong. 620 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:11,400 Speaker 1: Stravinsky's The Right of Spring was included back actually was 621 00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:13,840 Speaker 1: pretty well represented on this record. He also had the 622 00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,959 Speaker 1: well tempered Clavia on there. There was the first movement 623 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 1: of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, you know, the dah There was 624 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:24,000 Speaker 1: a navajo tribes chant, and then of course the most 625 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:28,200 Speaker 1: important i think musical work that was included out of 626 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,520 Speaker 1: all the pieces that were on there. As as we 627 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,520 Speaker 1: all know from the documentary Back to the Future, It's 628 00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:36,520 Speaker 1: saved Marty McFly, It'll save the human race. We're talking 629 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:43,480 Speaker 1: about Chuck Berry's Johnny be Good. Yeah. Um, there's actually 630 00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:47,120 Speaker 1: a book all about the process that they used to 631 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,399 Speaker 1: select which sounds went on the Golden Record, right, Yeah. 632 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:53,120 Speaker 1: It finally came out with a CD companion at some point. 633 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:55,799 Speaker 1: I'm sure it's on digital. The book itself is out 634 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:57,800 Speaker 1: of print, but you can sometimes find copies. It is 635 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:01,359 Speaker 1: called Murmurs from Earth, So if you want to learn 636 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:05,719 Speaker 1: more about how they came about choosing which sounds go 637 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:09,600 Speaker 1: in there. Um, that's it's it's a really well done piece. 638 00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:11,799 Speaker 1: It's it's something that I've I've heard nothing but good 639 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:13,600 Speaker 1: things about it. I personally have not had a chance 640 00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:16,120 Speaker 1: to read it. By the time I learned about it 641 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:18,839 Speaker 1: was running on a print, so it's kind of fine. 642 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:21,440 Speaker 1: But there's also a bunch of images on the desks, 643 00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:24,719 Speaker 1: including a star map clearly showing the location of Earth. 644 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:30,440 Speaker 1: Here's what humans taste like, maps of Earth images. I'm 645 00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:33,279 Speaker 1: just I'm just ignoring that entirely. There are people who 646 00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:35,760 Speaker 1: have said what a huge mistake it was to essentially 647 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:40,080 Speaker 1: include directions directly to us. I think, well, I think 648 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,120 Speaker 1: it's pretty ridiculous because the odds of anyone and the 649 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:47,400 Speaker 1: odds of anyone finding the voyagers as big as it 650 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,000 Speaker 1: turns out, really big, no, no, no, bigger than that. Not. 651 00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:53,800 Speaker 1: You might think it's a long walk to the chemist 652 00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 1: style on the corner, but that's just nuts compared to space. 653 00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,239 Speaker 1: But it's going to be tens of thousands of years 654 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:05,680 Speaker 1: before either the voyager craft encounter anything near another star. Yeah, exactly. 655 00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,440 Speaker 1: So really, by the time, I'm betting we will have 656 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,279 Speaker 1: either kill ourselves off or hit the Singularity. And and 657 00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:14,759 Speaker 1: plus on top of that, you know, it would all 658 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:19,640 Speaker 1: depend on from one direction the other creatures were approaching Earth, 659 00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:21,720 Speaker 1: Because I mean, there's there are a lot of different 660 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,000 Speaker 1: vectors you could take and only a couple of them 661 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,920 Speaker 1: would intersect with the pathway of either voyagers. Way more 662 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,600 Speaker 1: vectors than most science fiction movies are willing to acknowledge. 663 00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:34,600 Speaker 1: There's more than just ship spaceship battles, than just the 664 00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:38,359 Speaker 1: single plane. Yeah. Uh So there was also an hour 665 00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,520 Speaker 1: long recording of the brain waves of a woman named 666 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,960 Speaker 1: Anne Druian, who would become Carl Sagan's wife. Yep, she's 667 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:49,200 Speaker 1: an author. She concentrates mainly on cosmology and science, and 668 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:51,960 Speaker 1: she she signed up for this. She volunteered to have 669 00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:54,239 Speaker 1: her brain waves reported. Yea. She and Carl Sagan had 670 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:55,759 Speaker 1: talked about it, and she thought it was a really 671 00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,600 Speaker 1: interesting idea, and so she went in for the process 672 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:03,160 Speaker 1: where her brainless waves and her heartbeat were read and 673 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,279 Speaker 1: then transferred into data analog data, we have to say, 674 00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:10,239 Speaker 1: because it's an analog disc and um. She says that 675 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:13,440 Speaker 1: what she did was she she thought about big historical 676 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,480 Speaker 1: moments that were very important in the development of human history, 677 00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,399 Speaker 1: and then she spent some time thinking about the current 678 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:23,560 Speaker 1: situation on Earth, how what that's like things and and 679 00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:30,560 Speaker 1: not sugarcoating at things like violence between people and the Yeah. 680 00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:32,680 Speaker 1: So she really spent some time thinking about things that 681 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:35,160 Speaker 1: she felt needed to be addressed. And then she said 682 00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:37,520 Speaker 1: that she took the liberty towards the end of the 683 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:39,400 Speaker 1: session to take a little bit of time and think 684 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:41,800 Speaker 1: about what it's like to fall in love, which I 685 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:45,040 Speaker 1: think is amazing, just the most wonderful suite. Ye. Yeah, 686 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,879 Speaker 1: so now we those aliens can't tell us they don't 687 00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:49,920 Speaker 1: know how to love because she thought about it for 688 00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,520 Speaker 1: for a while, darn it. Um. So, yeah, those radio 689 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:56,800 Speaker 1: signals do take a long time to get to us. So. 690 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,719 Speaker 1: But and and the record that's on there, if you 691 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,279 Speaker 1: want to hear some of the stuff, Uh, there are 692 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:05,920 Speaker 1: there are a lot of different sites out there that 693 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,080 Speaker 1: that keep all the things that aren't on there. It 694 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:11,919 Speaker 1: tells you what's there, and most of that's pretty easy 695 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:13,880 Speaker 1: to get access to and listen to. I'll try that. 696 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:16,040 Speaker 1: We'll try to find one and link it up on social. Yeah, 697 00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:17,640 Speaker 1: we'll see if we can find something. And you know, 698 00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:20,280 Speaker 1: maybe I'll see if I can make it a Spotify 699 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:22,799 Speaker 1: playlist or something and get a uku lele and play 700 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:26,239 Speaker 1: Johnny be Good on the ukulele. That's uh, that would 701 00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:28,520 Speaker 1: probably be Johnny please stop. That would be the name 702 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: of that song. All right, So, um, anyway, that's that's 703 00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:35,719 Speaker 1: kind of the the wrap up of the spacecraft and 704 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,080 Speaker 1: the stuff that was aborted. But we still haven't talked 705 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:40,200 Speaker 1: about the actual science that's returned. So we're going to 706 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,279 Speaker 1: do that in just a moment, but before we do, 707 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:53,120 Speaker 1: let's take a quick moment to thank our other sponsor. Okay, 708 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,040 Speaker 1: so we've talked about what the mission was, we talked 709 00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:58,040 Speaker 1: about the spacecraft. Let's talk about what the spacecraft found. 710 00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:01,399 Speaker 1: So out of the all in investigation teams that were 711 00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:04,000 Speaker 1: originally involved in the Voyager mission, like I said earlier, 712 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:06,359 Speaker 1: only five of them are still supported. And those five 713 00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:12,680 Speaker 1: are magnetic field investigation, low energy charged particle investigation, cosmic 714 00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,520 Speaker 1: ray investigation, plasma investigation, which is only active on the 715 00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,800 Speaker 1: Voyager too because the Voyager ones doesn't work anywhere, and 716 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:24,080 Speaker 1: plasma wave investigation. So plasma investigation plasma wave investigation two 717 00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,000 Speaker 1: different things, right, and these are clearly the more important 718 00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:27,960 Speaker 1: ones because there's not all that much too. For example, 719 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:32,400 Speaker 1: take pictures of Yeah, once you're done taking the photo 720 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:36,120 Speaker 1: of the Solar system from way the heck out there, 721 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:40,239 Speaker 1: there's really no purpose to keep going to that. So yeah, 722 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:44,759 Speaker 1: that's been shut down. Um, and uh, the five instruments 723 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:49,680 Speaker 1: that support these five missions are the Magnetic Field Instrument 724 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:53,840 Speaker 1: or MG, the low energy Charged Particle Instrument, the l 725 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:57,920 Speaker 1: e CP Cosmic ray instrument that's the CRS, the plasma 726 00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,880 Speaker 1: instrument that's p l S, and the Plasma Wave Instrument 727 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:05,640 Speaker 1: that's p WS. And really at this point, uh, now 728 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,520 Speaker 1: that we've finished taking photos and measurements of all the planets, 729 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,640 Speaker 1: which that was the main science before was really getting 730 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,680 Speaker 1: good images and getting some good scientific data about the 731 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:17,400 Speaker 1: actual plants and their moons. It was the origin of 732 00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:19,719 Speaker 1: the program. Yeah, before they kind of realized, oh hey, 733 00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,040 Speaker 1: we can do more stuff out there. Yeah, so now 734 00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:24,800 Speaker 1: now we're we've switched it over to interstellar. But some 735 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:27,680 Speaker 1: of the stuff they found because of these and then 736 00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:31,359 Speaker 1: later on have have expounded upon by sending out other 737 00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,720 Speaker 1: orbiters like Cassini for example. But some of the stuff 738 00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:39,600 Speaker 1: they discovered were like they took a closer look at Europa, 739 00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:42,520 Speaker 1: which is one of Jupiter's moons, and saw that it 740 00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:46,680 Speaker 1: had a water ice surface, and originally they thought that 741 00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:51,080 Speaker 1: maybe Europa could have an ocean underneath that ice, but 742 00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:54,640 Speaker 1: some scientists now say they think that it's probably more 743 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 1: like a slush or maybe even solid solid ice, but 744 00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:02,839 Speaker 1: that was a stability um. They the Voyager spacecraft also 745 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:06,960 Speaker 1: observed Pale, which is the largest of the volcanoes on Io, 746 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:11,120 Speaker 1: which is the another moon of U, and they observed 747 00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:15,799 Speaker 1: that Paley was erupting sulfur and sulfur dioxide, and these 748 00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,480 Speaker 1: eruptions were going up to heights that are equivalent to 749 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:23,560 Speaker 1: about thirty times the elevation of Mount Everest, the tallest 750 00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:26,520 Speaker 1: mountain on Earth. Multiply that by well, tallest mountain on 751 00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:30,120 Speaker 1: the surface, like not underwater, because you could look at 752 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:34,640 Speaker 1: underwater and there's but the above water. It's the tallest 753 00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:37,239 Speaker 1: mountain on Earth. Multiply that by thirty times. That's how 754 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,520 Speaker 1: high up these eruptions were going. Not necessarily a good 755 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,000 Speaker 1: vacation spot. Now. The scientists also point out that Io's 756 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,480 Speaker 1: gravity is about six times weaker than that of Earth's, 757 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,360 Speaker 1: so it's closer to what our moon has. But the 758 00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:53,120 Speaker 1: fallout zone for the the the sulfur dioxide that was 759 00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:57,120 Speaker 1: being thrust into the atmosphere of Io was about the 760 00:42:57,120 --> 00:43:02,560 Speaker 1: size of France. Yeah, so uh that was when I 761 00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:04,520 Speaker 1: read that, I was like, wow, that is a huge, 762 00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:10,600 Speaker 1: huge volcano. Um. Now the see what. We also had 763 00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:15,239 Speaker 1: some information about Saturn's largest moon, which is called Titan. Uh. 764 00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:19,600 Speaker 1: It discovered the oceans of ethane and methane aboard aboard 765 00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:22,719 Speaker 1: on Titan, not a board Titan. It is technically a 766 00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:29,960 Speaker 1: space that's not nothing satellite satellite, but it's a natural satellite, 767 00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,560 Speaker 1: not a man made one. And it has also discovered 768 00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,720 Speaker 1: that has the Titan, the the largest moon of Saturn, 769 00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:39,040 Speaker 1: has a dense atmosphere and lots of hydrocarbons and maybe 770 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: it could possibly at some point in the past have 771 00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:46,959 Speaker 1: supported life. The methane is a possible indication that living 772 00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:49,560 Speaker 1: things once lived there. Now that does not necessarily the 773 00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:51,840 Speaker 1: hydrocarbons as well, but that does not necessarily mean that 774 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:56,200 Speaker 1: life ever was on Titan, but it's a possibility. Voyager 775 00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:59,800 Speaker 1: also took images of Uranus's rings, which are very difficult 776 00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:03,520 Speaker 1: to they're very faint right um, And but they did that. 777 00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:07,640 Speaker 1: They also observed Saturn's rings and saw that they were 778 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:10,680 Speaker 1: made of about ten thousand strands of ice particles and 779 00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:15,400 Speaker 1: car sized icebergs, and that if you look at them proportionally, 780 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,319 Speaker 1: their thickness is much much, much, much much smaller than 781 00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:22,960 Speaker 1: the width of the ring. So if you think of 782 00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:26,279 Speaker 1: it as like a one of those things called they're 783 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:30,799 Speaker 1: not the Frisbees, but you know the rings, they're they're 784 00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:32,759 Speaker 1: hollow in the middle, right, there's there, so it's just 785 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:34,880 Speaker 1: a it's a disc that doesn't have a center to it. 786 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:39,279 Speaker 1: Um the width of the band is much wider than 787 00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,400 Speaker 1: the thickness of the band, is what they discovered. So 788 00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:46,000 Speaker 1: that was kind of interesting. Uh, now we're talking more 789 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:51,120 Speaker 1: about the interstellar work, so they're still inside the heliosphere, right, 790 00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:52,759 Speaker 1: And I did want to mention at some point here 791 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,160 Speaker 1: on March, and we mentioned this in another podcast that 792 00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:59,560 Speaker 1: we were recording. Right around March twenty UM, there were 793 00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:02,920 Speaker 1: there were false reports that that it had left the 794 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:05,879 Speaker 1: helo sphere and entered interstellar space, and those were those 795 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,520 Speaker 1: were false reports. Yeah, NASA came out and said, no, 796 00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:12,840 Speaker 1: we've not seen the changes in the magnetic radiation that 797 00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,000 Speaker 1: we are expecting to see. That. They did say that 798 00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:18,000 Speaker 1: they had seen some changes in particle movement, which at 799 00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:21,879 Speaker 1: first would have indicated that the spacecraft had moved out 800 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:25,000 Speaker 1: of the heliosphere, but then they found from the magnetic 801 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:28,320 Speaker 1: movement that's not the case. So it's it's one of 802 00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,160 Speaker 1: those things where again we keep finding out the Solar 803 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:33,240 Speaker 1: System is larger as we learn more about how it's behaving. 804 00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:37,879 Speaker 1: So now the next step in this you could think 805 00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:41,480 Speaker 1: of the interstellar exploration and being in three phases. The 806 00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:43,960 Speaker 1: first was crossing the termination shock, which both of the 807 00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,719 Speaker 1: spacecraft have already done. The next is the exploration of 808 00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:50,080 Speaker 1: the Helio sheath, which is happening right now, and then 809 00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:53,080 Speaker 1: the third is interstellar exploration, which is when the spacecraft 810 00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:58,600 Speaker 1: have passed beyond the Helio Pause boundary. Now Helio Pause boundary, 811 00:45:58,600 --> 00:45:59,560 Speaker 1: you can think of this as kind of like a 812 00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:05,200 Speaker 1: bubble around the Sun that completely encompasses the the entire 813 00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:08,279 Speaker 1: Solar System. It's not a perfectly round bubble, so don't 814 00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:11,400 Speaker 1: think like that, but it's it's this whibbli wabbli area. Uh, 815 00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,400 Speaker 1: And beyond this boundary there's no solar wind or magnetic 816 00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,000 Speaker 1: field from the Sun. However, there's still the gravitational influence 817 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:21,120 Speaker 1: of the Sun at that point, but particles and waves 818 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,319 Speaker 1: in this area of space are unaffected by our Sun, 819 00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:25,920 Speaker 1: and we don't really know a whole lot about them 820 00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:28,319 Speaker 1: because we haven't been able to observe them directly through 821 00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:30,719 Speaker 1: any kind of spacecraft. Right. Yeah, and and this is 822 00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:34,520 Speaker 1: this is a hypothetical heliopause. Yeah, we have not encountered 823 00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:36,960 Speaker 1: it yet, so but it's still not technically the edge 824 00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:38,960 Speaker 1: of the Solar System if you if you ask NASA, 825 00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:41,520 Speaker 1: the edge of the Solar System would be that area 826 00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:45,399 Speaker 1: where there's no longer that gravitational factor from the Sun, 827 00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,839 Speaker 1: which would require us to travel about two light years 828 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:50,640 Speaker 1: away from the Sun. So that will take us about 829 00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:54,399 Speaker 1: forty thousand years for those spacecraft to get there, which 830 00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:58,319 Speaker 1: is a you know, set your alarms because it's gonna 831 00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:00,440 Speaker 1: take a while. So in other words, it'sman tells you 832 00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,640 Speaker 1: that the voyager has passed outside the Solar System, your 833 00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:07,319 Speaker 1: response should be wow, which alien warped it away from there? 834 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:10,120 Speaker 1: Because there's no way that it's done that, at least 835 00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:12,320 Speaker 1: not by the definition that NASA makes. Now, if they're 836 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:15,320 Speaker 1: talking about the helio pause, that's a different story. Different 837 00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:17,440 Speaker 1: that's a different story. And I think they are anticipating 838 00:47:17,520 --> 00:47:19,600 Speaker 1: that within our lifetimes. Yeah, they said they said they 839 00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:22,239 Speaker 1: expected it to happen within ten to twenty years of 840 00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:26,240 Speaker 1: passing the termination shock. So now it's just probably probably 841 00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:30,319 Speaker 1: hopefully fingers crossed before before that plutoni and dioxide runs 842 00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:35,560 Speaker 1: out right before around that area. So, uh, Lauren, you 843 00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:39,480 Speaker 1: had an interesting idea. One that an experimental idea that 844 00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:41,239 Speaker 1: we thought we would try, which is that you sent 845 00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:43,359 Speaker 1: out a tweet saying, hey, guys, if you have any 846 00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:47,400 Speaker 1: anything interesting that you want to ask or goofy that 847 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:50,200 Speaker 1: you want to ask us about our podcast about the 848 00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:53,440 Speaker 1: Voyage spacecraft, now's the time to do it. And people did. 849 00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:55,880 Speaker 1: A couple of people did anyway, So hopefully we'll be 850 00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:57,879 Speaker 1: able to do this in the future and get even 851 00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:00,920 Speaker 1: more discussion. But this was a fun first attempt. So 852 00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:04,360 Speaker 1: here's some of the questions we received. Ian on Twitter 853 00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:06,560 Speaker 1: asked a whole bunch of questions that I'm going to 854 00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:10,160 Speaker 1: tackle one at a time. The first was how fast 855 00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:14,760 Speaker 1: are the Voyager spacecraft traveling? Good question, Ian, So Voyager 856 00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:17,719 Speaker 1: one's traveling at about three point six astronomical units per 857 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,359 Speaker 1: year and Voyager two is poking along at three point 858 00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:23,640 Speaker 1: three astronomical units per year. Now, that might not tell 859 00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:26,320 Speaker 1: you very much unless you know how long an astronomical 860 00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:29,319 Speaker 1: unit is. It's a measurement of distance that's based upon 861 00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:32,359 Speaker 1: the mean distance between Earth and the Sun, and that's 862 00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:36,359 Speaker 1: equivalent to about a hundred and forty nine million, five thousand, 863 00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:40,280 Speaker 1: eight hundred swenty one kilometers or two million, nine hundred 864 00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:43,600 Speaker 1: fifty five thousand, eight hundred seven miles. And because Jonathan 865 00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:45,839 Speaker 1: loves you, he did the math yep. So let's talk 866 00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:48,560 Speaker 1: about how this sucker breaks down. So remember, Voyager one's 867 00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:51,320 Speaker 1: going at three point six astronomical units per year. That 868 00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:56,400 Speaker 1: means it's traveling about five hundred thirty nine million kilometers 869 00:48:56,480 --> 00:49:00,880 Speaker 1: per year or three hundred thirty five million in miles 870 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:05,080 Speaker 1: per year, and that breaks down to four kilometers per 871 00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:08,400 Speaker 1: hour or thirty eight thousand, one seventy six miles per hour. 872 00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:13,120 Speaker 1: Either way, it's going wicked fast. Voyager two is three 873 00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:15,480 Speaker 1: point three astronomical units per year. That breaks down to 874 00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:19,760 Speaker 1: four four million kilometers per year or fifty six thousand, 875 00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:22,920 Speaker 1: eighteen kilometers per hour, and in miles, it's three hundred 876 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:25,959 Speaker 1: seven million miles per year or thirty five thousand miles 877 00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:29,560 Speaker 1: per hour. Slightly less wicked fast, but still wicked fast, 878 00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:33,040 Speaker 1: but still faster than than me. For example, his next question. 879 00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:37,240 Speaker 1: Ian's next question was are they accelerating? No, next question 880 00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:40,440 Speaker 1: was how long will you remain in contact. Well, like 881 00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:42,080 Speaker 1: we said, we're not really sure. It's all going to 882 00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:44,920 Speaker 1: depend upon the power supply. Uh. And also whether or 883 00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:47,200 Speaker 1: not our antenna here on Earth can continue to pick 884 00:49:47,239 --> 00:49:52,080 Speaker 1: up that week signal, but we expect around five will 885 00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:54,600 Speaker 1: be the last we hear of them. Uh. And then 886 00:49:54,719 --> 00:49:58,399 Speaker 1: Ian and also a listener named Jonathan. Also they both 887 00:49:58,400 --> 00:50:02,800 Speaker 1: asked that we somehow reference a film, Star Trek the 888 00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:06,160 Speaker 1: motion Picture. Okay, what does Voyager have to do with 889 00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:09,640 Speaker 1: Star Trek the Motion Picture? Well, in a way, Voyager 890 00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:12,400 Speaker 1: is the bad guy in Star Trek the motion Picture. 891 00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:15,239 Speaker 1: In another way, the whole film is the bad guy 892 00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:18,160 Speaker 1: because the thing is slow as heck. I watched it. 893 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:21,040 Speaker 1: I watched it not for anticipation of this podcast. I 894 00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:24,160 Speaker 1: watched it justly, and I had not seen it since 895 00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:25,960 Speaker 1: I was a kid. And I don't think I ever 896 00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:27,680 Speaker 1: sat through it all the way through when I was 897 00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:29,319 Speaker 1: a kid. I don't think I sat through it all 898 00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:31,200 Speaker 1: the way there was an adult, I can't. I can't 899 00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:32,840 Speaker 1: say that i've seen it since I was about a 900 00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:37,319 Speaker 1: laundry and now Star Trek two amazing movie. Star Trek 901 00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:40,759 Speaker 1: the motion Picture not so much. But in that story 902 00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:42,759 Speaker 1: and this is gonna sound really familiar to anyone who 903 00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,200 Speaker 1: watched Star Trek four because it's a very similar story. 904 00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:49,120 Speaker 1: A probe that has this weird energy field around it 905 00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:52,560 Speaker 1: enters our Solar system. Actually first it's just moving through space, 906 00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:57,400 Speaker 1: but everything it encounters it's starting to deactivate, and everyone's 907 00:50:57,640 --> 00:51:01,000 Speaker 1: kind of upset because because that's as head of right 908 00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:03,520 Speaker 1: to Earth. So what do we do? How do we 909 00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,279 Speaker 1: stop this? And of course the only person who can 910 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:10,240 Speaker 1: stop it as Kirk, who commandeers this starship, Starship Enterprise. 911 00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:12,480 Speaker 1: He is no longer the captain of the Enterprise at 912 00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:15,200 Speaker 1: that point. He's teaching at star Fleet, but the Enterprise 913 00:51:15,320 --> 00:51:18,040 Speaker 1: is is docked in a space station around Earth, and 914 00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:21,520 Speaker 1: so he, after a very long tour of the ship, 915 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:24,480 Speaker 1: of the outside of the ship that Scotty takes him on, 916 00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:28,000 Speaker 1: eventually gets on board. And this movie moves slowly, is 917 00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:31,000 Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And just they go and investigate this, uh, 918 00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:36,160 Speaker 1: this probe that's called VJER and UH and VJR is 919 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:42,160 Speaker 1: this artificially intelligent vehicle and actually the vehicle contains a 920 00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:46,280 Speaker 1: smaller probe like vehicle inside of it. Ultimately they discovered 921 00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:50,400 Speaker 1: that what Vijure really is is Voyager six, which doesn't 922 00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:53,719 Speaker 1: exist yet. No, there's only Voyager one and two. But 923 00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:55,719 Speaker 1: in this in the movie, it was Voyager six that 924 00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,000 Speaker 1: was supposedly launched towards the end of the twentieth century, 925 00:51:58,040 --> 00:51:59,560 Speaker 1: which I don't know if you notice, we're not in 926 00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:02,840 Speaker 1: the any or um, so you know, same thing like 927 00:52:03,320 --> 00:52:06,080 Speaker 1: I think the Eugenics Wars and Star Trek two that 928 00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:08,120 Speaker 1: are that ever mentioned that con was part of that 929 00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:10,799 Speaker 1: was supposed to take place in nine, So we had 930 00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:12,640 Speaker 1: a lot of catching up to do. Uh, Not that 931 00:52:12,719 --> 00:52:15,719 Speaker 1: I want those to happen anytime soon. But the the 932 00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:19,600 Speaker 1: VJRE was called vitre because it could no longer uh 933 00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:24,279 Speaker 1: see the letters that were missing, So all the missing 934 00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:26,360 Speaker 1: letters were gone, so all that was left was the 935 00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:30,239 Speaker 1: v g e R. So it's Vidre uh and uh. 936 00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:32,800 Speaker 1: And in the story, what you find out is that 937 00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:37,760 Speaker 1: aliens had encountered the Voyager six probe and had enhanced 938 00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:40,640 Speaker 1: it so that it could learn everything that is learnable 939 00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:43,400 Speaker 1: and then returned the information to Earth. So it was 940 00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:46,960 Speaker 1: trying to do a uh. Originally it was supposed to 941 00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:50,759 Speaker 1: be a benevolent thing, but because vjer had gained sentience, 942 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:54,360 Speaker 1: it no longer completely understood the parameters of its mission, 943 00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:57,279 Speaker 1: and so it started to go a little bonkers um 944 00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:01,440 Speaker 1: and then of course the some remembers aboard the Enterprise 945 00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:06,480 Speaker 1: end up essentially reasoning with the artificially intelligent probe. So Veder, 946 00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:08,160 Speaker 1: like I said, it's kind of the bad Guy and 947 00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:10,600 Speaker 1: Star Trek the motion picture. If you feel like I 948 00:53:10,719 --> 00:53:19,480 Speaker 1: spoiled that movie, I didn't. It's really I mean, I mean, 949 00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:22,839 Speaker 1: and I say this as someone who loves Star Trek. Okay, don't, 950 00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,040 Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I just I feel like that 951 00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:28,960 Speaker 1: movie was a lot of the movie is played for grandeur, 952 00:53:29,080 --> 00:53:31,040 Speaker 1: and the problem is that we've all gotten used to 953 00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:34,520 Speaker 1: seeing these amazing sort of visuals that are even more 954 00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:37,719 Speaker 1: amazing than what was available back then. So to kind 955 00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:40,799 Speaker 1: of have this big reveal moment and you look at 956 00:53:40,840 --> 00:53:43,520 Speaker 1: the picture and you're like, yeah, okay, it happens on 957 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:46,600 Speaker 1: TV every week. Yeah, So that's that's a problem alright. 958 00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:49,080 Speaker 1: So uh then we also had a listener who has 959 00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:52,600 Speaker 1: to handle REDNA maybe that's his name, who asked, what 960 00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:55,800 Speaker 1: about future missions with better equipment? Well, we had the 961 00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:59,279 Speaker 1: Cassini orbiter, but we also NASA had proposed a couple 962 00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:03,160 Speaker 1: of joint mission with the European Union. Um, but they 963 00:54:03,280 --> 00:54:05,480 Speaker 1: haven't really worked out. One of them was the Jupiter 964 00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:10,040 Speaker 1: Europa orbiter, but that was essentially scrapped because of budget problems. 965 00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:13,120 Speaker 1: And the other was the Titan Saturn system mission, which 966 00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:17,200 Speaker 1: was shelved in order for NASA to concentrate on the 967 00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:22,239 Speaker 1: Jupiter Europa or better. Yeah so, but but originally those 968 00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:25,040 Speaker 1: were supposed to launch in twenty Now because of the 969 00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:27,400 Speaker 1: budget cutbacks and everything, and you know the fact that 970 00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:29,520 Speaker 1: there just hasn't been the time to develop it, that 971 00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:32,439 Speaker 1: that launch window is kind of closed at this point. 972 00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:36,399 Speaker 1: So um, as far as I know right now, there 973 00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:41,360 Speaker 1: are no definitive deep space or outer planet missions planned. 974 00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:44,640 Speaker 1: I think right now people are really concentrating on Mars, 975 00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:48,319 Speaker 1: Mars and the Moon and Earth orbit. Those are those 976 00:54:48,360 --> 00:54:52,080 Speaker 1: are I mean the things that are I hesitate to 977 00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:56,320 Speaker 1: stay easier but maybe more achievable. Yeah, I have I 978 00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:59,279 Speaker 1: have heard that that that future Moon landings have been 979 00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,400 Speaker 1: scrapped in favor of future Mars land Yeah. I mean, 980 00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:05,520 Speaker 1: it's you know, and and this changes from one administration 981 00:55:05,560 --> 00:55:08,359 Speaker 1: to another because because a lot of these considerations are 982 00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:11,600 Speaker 1: not just technological or scientific, they're also political. I mean, 983 00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:15,160 Speaker 1: the whole space race was political, the fact that if 984 00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:17,879 Speaker 1: there had not been that rivalry between the United States, 985 00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:20,879 Speaker 1: but you know, we we can send we can send 986 00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:23,160 Speaker 1: this rocket not only to your face, but all the 987 00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:25,120 Speaker 1: way to the moon. Yeah, So I mean that was 988 00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:28,400 Speaker 1: that was you know, without that kind of pressure than 989 00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:32,120 Speaker 1: it makes it harder for scientists to get the money 990 00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:34,000 Speaker 1: they need to be able to do the science they do. 991 00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:35,840 Speaker 1: That's a sad fact of the world is that, you know, 992 00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,120 Speaker 1: money in a way does make the world go round. 993 00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:41,880 Speaker 1: And that wraps up another classic episode of tech stuff. 994 00:55:41,920 --> 00:55:45,480 Speaker 1: Hope you guys enjoyed it. This was a lot of 995 00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:48,560 Speaker 1: fun for us to do. I really had a great 996 00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:51,120 Speaker 1: time with it. I want to do more episodes that 997 00:55:51,160 --> 00:55:54,960 Speaker 1: are space related about specific projects. I've done everything from 998 00:55:55,080 --> 00:55:58,600 Speaker 1: like the Gimin E program or Gimini program to uh, 999 00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:01,880 Speaker 1: you know, like the Apollo O missions, the Space Shuttle missions. 1000 00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:04,239 Speaker 1: But I want to look at more of the satellite 1001 00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:06,759 Speaker 1: type stuff too. I think that those are really fascinating 1002 00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:08,480 Speaker 1: and I've only done a few of them. So if 1003 00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:11,520 Speaker 1: there are any specific topics, whether they are space related 1004 00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:14,560 Speaker 1: or otherwise, let me know, you know, ones that you 1005 00:56:14,600 --> 00:56:17,040 Speaker 1: want to hear anyway, let me know about it. Reach 1006 00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:19,319 Speaker 1: out on Twitter or on Facebook. The handle for both 1007 00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:21,880 Speaker 1: is text Stuff h SW and I'll talk to you 1008 00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:30,680 Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. 1009 00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:33,719 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I 1010 00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:37,040 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 1011 00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:38,080 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.