Rising Hegemon
A little break from the drumbeat of "who are we gonna bomb next?"...
Back when Jimmy Carter was President (and I remember that) a spacecraft, one of two, was launched to take advantage of the alignment of the solar sytem's gas giants; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The first of those, Voyager I has been determined to have left the solar system. The first human-made object to have done so.
In many ways a poignant moment.
And, just to let you know the practicalities of space travel...it only took 36 years at 11 miles a second.
Although it will also someday be responsible for a really boring Star Trek film.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]
8 comments:
We’re not doing such a great job of being imperfect biological infestations these days.
Amazing that this thing is powered by a 1976 version of a radioactive heat generator battery, which is still working.
earth has always assumed that any device that was able to achieve interstellar flight would be older and wiser than our civilizations. What if we are the smartest ones out there? I tremble to think
It does give you an idea of just how vast the distances are -- in 36 years at 11 miles a second it's less than one light day away.
vger was totally a ripoff of The Changeling episode of TOS.
I wait 20 years for the Star Trek Movie and that's what I got. They couldn't plagiarize City on the Edge of Forever???
but is it duracell or energizer?
Hmph. Thirty-six years and still no warp drive?
Pretty cool. I remember touring Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena in 1979 when Voyager 2 was just approaching Jupiter.
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