The Voyager Program: The History and Legacy of NASA’s First Probes that Traveled to the Outer Solar System

by Charles River Editors

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents Today the Space Race is widely viewed poignantly and fondly as a race to the Moon that culminated with Apollo 11 “winning” the Race for the United States. In fact, it encompassed a much broader range of competition between the Soviet Union and the United States that affected everything from military technology to successfully launching satellites that could land on Mars or orbit other planets in the Solar System. Moreover, the notion that America “won” the Space Race at the end of the 1960s overlooks just how competitive the Space Race actually was in launching people into orbit, as well as the major contributions the Space Race influenced in leading to today’s International Space Station and continued space exploration. Although Apollo 11’s successful mission to the Moon is seen as the culmination of the Space Race, and the Apollo program remains NASA’s most famous, one of the space agency’s most successful endeavors came about a decade later. In 1977, two spacecraft were launched from Earth to explore the outer Solar System, and incredibly, the now-ancient technology from the 1970s is still working, sending daily reports back to the planet that sent the two robotic envoys on their way over 40 years ago. Voyager 1 and 2 have done far more than accomplish their original missions. In fact, they are now exploring interstellar space, far beyond the outer planets in the cold wasteland between the stars. Each spacecraft carries a copy of a golden record which contains an introduction to Earth, should some alien civilization happen to encounter either Voyager 1 or Voyager 2. In the first Star Trek movie, writers imagined just that, creating a story of a Voyager spacecraft being captured and adapted for its own uses. Whatever happens to these emissaries from Earth, they have delivered a wealth of data about the outer Solar System, and Voyager 2 remains the only probe to travel to Neptune and Uranus. The Voyager The History and Legacy of NASA’s First Probes that Traveled to the Outer Solar System examines the origins behind the missions, the space probes involved, and the historic results. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Voyager program like never before.

57 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 7, 2019

About the author

Charles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.

Reviews

[Terry Kiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Information on the Voyager program

There is a lot of details and great information. It isn't too technical nor dramatic. It's too the point of basic information.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a more human look at the program with interviews and such. But this short book odds mostly a collection of technical details about the missions.

[William O. Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in 1977, two unmanned spacecraft left earth to explore strange new worlds within the solar system (yeah, I know this sounds like a television script) Their mission was to study the planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and to eventually venture into the realm beyond the known planets. The mission was called Voyager comprised of two separate spacecrafts on two different trajectories of discovery.

The book highlights the beginning of modern rocketry and touches upon the early planetary missions to explore the inner solar system of Mercury, Venus and Mars in the 1960s and early 1970s, before detailing the Voyager missions with a brief overview of the earlier outer-planetary missions of Pioneer 10 and 11. The book details the many discoveries of both Voyager spacecrafts in a non-technical manner.

One aspect in reading this book is the fact that many assume the Voyagers have left the solar system since they are both beyond the orbits of the known planets. However, the book rightly explains these spacecraft will be within the confines of the sun's influence for many hundreds of years into the future although they have left the sun's heliosphere.

[Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

a HUGH amount of information

If nothing else, I feel minuscule as an occupant of the planet earth. Not only is our Solar System large, it is also a minuscule part of the universe and it will be thousands of years before our Voyager explorations will have begun to complete their journeys

[Cherei · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this would be a good children's book. Silly me! Pleasantly surprised at how much information is given! lol, An excellent book for young adults wanting to dabble in astronomy! Tons of fantastic photos as well! Really enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover! A wealth of info!

[Richard Brylczyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A summary of the Voyager missions is what I wanted and what I got, plus some pre-Voyager history of the missions. The 60's and 70's were heady days for NASA. It is amazing what they accomplished with such limited on-board computing power. I enjoyed this summary immensely.

[Mukti Tripathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

It's a great book with loads of information about the Voyager Program.
It's provides more information than the Wikipedia article on Voyager Program.