“Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major” -- Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
In the summer of 1964, an aerospace engineer by the name of Gary Flandro, then employed by Jet Propulsions Laboratory, proposed a scheme so enticing as to make space scientists as giddy as schoolchildren. Noting that all four gas giants of the Solar System -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune -- would all be in alignment in the late 1970s, Flandro realized that launched in the narrow window of time coinciding with this unlike coincidence would have remarkable advantages: A very small number of probes could study multiple planets. Furthermore, because a probe could utilize the gravity well of each gas giant to increase its velocity as it hurled the probe ever more distant from Mother Earth. Not only would costs be reduced, but the time required for such a study would be drastically reduced. In the case of Voyager I, a mission that would otherwise have required 13 years would be accomplished in fewer than four.
Voyager I and her sister probe Voyager II -- ironically, Voyager II was launched 16 days prior to Voyager I -- each contained a golden phonograph disc intended to serve as a “time capsule” of sorts for the civilization which sent the probes on their path to the void. Included among the “Sounds of Earth” is a vast selection of musical compositions, including a portion of Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, widely considered to be among the very best examples of Baroque music.
Carl Sagan, who headed the committee selecting sounds for inclusion on the famed golden records, originally sought to include “Here Comes the Sun,” the Beatles classic tune, but for some incomprehensible reason, EMI which then owned the rights to the song, refused to grant permission.
NASA capitalized on Flandro’s observations. On this day in 1977, the space exploration probe Voyager I was launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.Voyager spent the first three years, 11 months, and 30 days informing humanity of its own solar system, providing us with our first detailed knowledge of Jupiter, Saturn, and various satellites of each. After acquiring a gravity-assisted boost from Saturn catapulted Voyager I toward the verges of the Solar System.
On 25 August 2012, Voyager I exited Sol’s heliopause, becoming the first human artifact to enter interstellar space, speeding outward at the unimaginable speed of about 17 kilometers per second. While this sounds impressive, we must keep in mind that Voyager I has not yet freed itself of the Solar System. Even at its current velocity, Voyager I requires over 17.5-thousand years to travel a single light year. It is still some 300 years distant from the Oort Cloud. Its passage through this source of comets will take about 30,000 years. After exiting the Oort Cloud, Voyager I is expected to sail endlessly across the interstellar void.
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