Humanity’s farthest and longest-lived spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, marked 40 years of operation and exploration in August/September 2017. In this panel presentation, hear behind-the-scenes accounts from original and current mission team members as they describe the engineering challenges and momentous science achievements of the mission. This program was recorded at JPL on August 24, 2017.
,1,Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space. For two decades after launch, the spacecraft were planetary explorers, giving us up-close views of the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Now, as they reach distances far beyond the hopes of their original designers, the aging spacecraft challenge their team in new ways, requiring creative solutions to keep them operating and sending back science data from the space between the stars.
As we celebrate the 45th anniversary of these epic explorers, join Voyager deputy project scientist Linda Spilker and propulsion engineer Todd Barber for a live Q&A.
,1,Original airdate: Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET, 0200 UTC)
Human flight began with the balloon, and today it is the last bastion of guerrilla science. Scientific ballooning provides a well-tested, reliable, low-cost, moderate risk platform that helps prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers, and instruments. This talk will take a look at how our oldest flight technology actually paves the way for the future, including NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.
Speakers:
Jose V. Siles
RF Engineer; LO Subsystem Lead and Antarctic Flight Campaign Team Member (STO-2, Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory)
Laura Jones-Wilson
Systems Engineer (Europa Clipper); former Project Systems Engineer (STABLE: Subarcsecond Telescope And BaLloon Experiment
,1,Forty-one years after it launched into space, NASA’s Voyager 2 probe has exited our solar bubble and entered the region between stars. Its twin, Voyager 1, made this historic crossing in 2012. Edward Stone, the Voyager mission’s project scientist, and Suzanne Dodd, the mission project manager, discuss this major milestone and what’s to come for the trailblazing probe. For more about the Voyagers, including the Grand Tour of the Solar System and the Golden Record, visit https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov
,1,In the late summer of 1977, NASA launched the twin Voyager spacecraft. These remote ambassadors still beam messages back to Earth 40 years later, with data from their deep space travels. Voyager 1 is about 13 billion miles from Earth in interstellar space, and Voyager 2 is not far behind. For more about the Voyager mission, visit https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/ .
,1,Humanity’s farthest and longest-lived spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, marked 40 years of operation and exploration in August/September 2017. In this panel presentation, hear behind-the-scenes accounts from original and current mission team members as they describe the engineering challenges and momentous science achievements of the mission. This program was recorded at JPL on August 24, 2017.
