Voyagers’ Mission to the Outer Solar System (1977 Vintage Video)
From the archives of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this short film from 1977 describes the mission of the two Voyager spacecraft before they launched on their journey to Jupiter and Saturn later that year. It features early computer graphics, artist’s concepts of the outer solar system, and vintage footage of the antennas from NASA’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California, as well as mission control and a clean room at JPL.
Voyager 1 and 2 are now the most distant human-made objects from Earth and the longest continually operating NASA spacecraft. After the twin Voyagers visited Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 went on to visit Uranus and Neptune as well. Both spacecraft are now in interstellar space, the space between stars.
For more information on the mission go to: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Transcript
[Narrator]
Jupiter and Saturn.
These giant planets and the moons surrounding them will be looked at close up by two 1,800 pound spacecraft loaded with cameras and scientific instruments.
A mission that allows scientists to go back in time and sample the conditions from which the Sun and the planets, including the Earth, are believed to have formed.
Called Voyagers, the two 12 foot-high NASA spacecraft are being prepared for launch, one in late August, the other in early September.
A dish antenna, 12 feet across, will send back scientific and engineering information and receive commands from Earth.
The nuclear powered Voyagers will carry 11 scientific experiments, including television cameras and electron telescope systems, to study cosmic rays, and radio receivers to investigate radio signals coming from the huge planets.
[Rod Mills]
Well, first, of course, the most obvious result will be a great many photographs. Next, we intend to find out what the atmospheric constituents are of the planets. We would like to find out something about their weather systems, their circulation of their atmospheres.
Then next might come the heat balance. How much energy is received from the sun? How much is radiated? How much is generated within the planet?
For those planets or satellites which have solid bodies, we hope to find out something about the surface materials and the roughness of the planets.
[Narrator]
The information returned by the spacecraft is expected to tell us more about the origin and early history of the Solar system and our own planet Earth.
[Rod Mills]
I think there's no doubt that we will learn something about Earth, as always happens. Now, that's not our primary function, but, by comparing the planets, we naturally tend to find out how Earth was formed. How it's changing, what the future holds for us and, how we're influenced by the sun, all of these type of things. I think, I should mention that, this mission is giving us an opportunity to compare, really, four planets at one time.
As the spacecraft leave Earth, they will be making measurements of Earth. Then next comes Jupiter and Saturn, and then probably Uranus.
[Narrator]
After traveling for 18 months, Voyager 1 will reach Jupiter in March 1979, with Voyager 2 trailing four months later.
Using computer simulations, it's possible to show what Voyager will see as it approaches Jupiter and its several moons and then passes on by.
As the Voyagers encounter Jupiter, they are one-half billion miles from Earth, a distance so great that it takes 40 minutes for signals to reach antennas of the Deep Space Tracking Network.
[Engineer]
This is the same sequencing we have.
[Narrator]
Radio commands are generated for transmission to the two craft from Mission Control and Computing Center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
The rings of Saturn have fascinated scientists for decades. At the time of closest encounter by the first Voyager on November 12th, 1980, it will have traveled 1.4 billion miles through space.
As Voyager examines Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, it will stay outside its hazardous rings.
Again, our computer lets us view what Voyager one will see as it travels toward the great ringed planet.
On August 27th, 1981, Voyager 2, still trailing behind, will make its closest approach to Saturn.
Project Voyager, an extensive reconnaissance mission to the outer region of the Solar System.