[h=1]The Farthest: Voyager's Interstellar Journey[/h]A programme in the "Storyville" series is on BBC4 at 9.00pm 30th November and gives the story of the Voyager probes.
From the BBC's site:
"Twelve billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our solar system and entering the void of deep space. It is the first human-made object ever to do so. Slowly dying within its heart is a plutonium generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager finally go out. But this little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth.
The story of Voyager is an epic of human achievement, personal drama and almost miraculous success. Launched 16 days apart in 1977, the twin Voyager space probes have defied all the odds, survived countless near misses and almost 40 years later continue to beam revolutionary information across unimaginable distances. With less computing power than a modern hearing aid, they have unlocked the stunning secrets of our solar system.
This film tells the story of these magnificent machines, the men and women who built them and the vision that propelled them farther than anyone could ever have hoped."
The Radio Times says:
"The Voyager probes have been exploring the far reaches of our solar system since 1977. Emer Reynolds’s fascinating documentary includes many of the stunning images they captured of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, yet for all its visual potency, the film's real strength lies in the enthusiasm of the Nasa scientists who designed and shepherded the probes.
The ingenuity of harnessing the gravitational pull of the planets to catapult the spacecraft to the next stage of their journey is inspirational. They also had the brilliant idea of including in the payload a golden disc containing greetings in 55 languages, animal sounds and 27 musical clips from around the world, among them Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode."
Set your PVR / DVR / whatever.
From the BBC's site:
"Twelve billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our solar system and entering the void of deep space. It is the first human-made object ever to do so. Slowly dying within its heart is a plutonium generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager finally go out. But this little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth.
The story of Voyager is an epic of human achievement, personal drama and almost miraculous success. Launched 16 days apart in 1977, the twin Voyager space probes have defied all the odds, survived countless near misses and almost 40 years later continue to beam revolutionary information across unimaginable distances. With less computing power than a modern hearing aid, they have unlocked the stunning secrets of our solar system.
This film tells the story of these magnificent machines, the men and women who built them and the vision that propelled them farther than anyone could ever have hoped."
The Radio Times says:
"The Voyager probes have been exploring the far reaches of our solar system since 1977. Emer Reynolds’s fascinating documentary includes many of the stunning images they captured of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, yet for all its visual potency, the film's real strength lies in the enthusiasm of the Nasa scientists who designed and shepherded the probes.
The ingenuity of harnessing the gravitational pull of the planets to catapult the spacecraft to the next stage of their journey is inspirational. They also had the brilliant idea of including in the payload a golden disc containing greetings in 55 languages, animal sounds and 27 musical clips from around the world, among them Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode."
Set your PVR / DVR / whatever.
