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Every time this topic comes up on HN, I always like to remind readers about the following: One of my favorite facts ever is that Voyager 1 contains something called the Voyager Golden Record [1]. It has the following quote written: This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may liv…
Every time this topic comes up on HN, I always like to remind readers about the following: One of my favorite facts ever is that Voyager 1 contains something called the Voyager Golden Record [1]. It has the following quote written: This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may liv…
>An official statement by President Jimmy Carter was included as images (positions 117, 118). It reads, in part:
This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a global civilization. We cast this message into the cosmos…
It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some – perhaps many – may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations.
If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A couple of reasons. One is that NASA is an arm of the United State's advanced research, and if you want to get compounding returns there the goal is that you allocate a proportion of your spending there rather than a fixed value, because every year some of that research will drive gains to your GDP. Another is that the services that NASA provides gradually expands as it provides more things to society: I expect that…
I agree with that. But that’s different than saying “NASA's budget has been cut so back over the years.” The military budget has been shrinking as a share of GDP since the 1980s as well. It would be odd to say the military budget had been cut back though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A couple of reasons. One is that NASA is an arm of the United State's advanced research, and if you want to get compounding returns there the goal is that you allocate a proportion of your spending there rather than a fixed value, because every year some of that research will drive gains to your GDP. Another is that the services that NASA provides gradually expands as it provides more things to society: I expect that…
I agree with that. But that’s different than saying “NASA's budget has been cut so back over the years.” The military budget has been shrinking as a share of GDP since the 1980s as well. It would be odd to say the military budget had been cut back though.
Sad to see EOL coming up, but too bad NASA's budget has been cut so back over the years. We just had a smaller planetary alignment a few months ago. Would have been nice if NASA had the budget to send out a more robust craft a few years ago. But I guess science no longer means anything to the US. Especially now. Maybe China will take up the mantle, I heard they are about to send out a rather long term interesting cra…
NASA’s budget is larger today adjusted for inflation than during the Voyager program. https://images.app.goo.gl/qai42hiZ8RMtfViw6
How many weather satellites did NASA operate during the Voyager program verses now?
How many Landsats like Landsat 8 and 9 now https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/projects/hls
Anything like GRACE and GRACE-FO?
Perseverance rover? https://phys.org/news/2025-04-perseverance-rover-witnesses-m...
Were Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) missions ongoing?
Anything like the Juno project around Jupiter?
Complex projects like OSIRIS-REx?
Telescopes matching the ongoing requirements of James Webb Space Telescope?
Were there Psyche style missions ongoing? https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/psyche/
I've been following Voyager since the late 70s when my dad (who worked at Ames) would bring home printouts of the Jupiter images. This interview captures something profound about these missions that non-space folks often miss. The most striking part isn't the technical achievement of keeping 1970s hardware alive for half a century. It's the human infrastructure behind it - the institutional knowledge passed through g…
For anyone else curious, it's from the hydrazine tank's rubber diaphragm. Tubes inside the thrusters, which direct fuel to the catalyst beds, had openings taken from 250 um diameter down to 35 um.[1]
The 28" spherical tank[2] has a rubber hemisphere to separate hydrazine from pressurant (He? N?). The diaphragm is EDPM that's teflon and silica filled.[3] The silica particles are for (tensile?) strengthening. It has a leaching issue (discussed in [2] page17).
PSI was a small SoCal company. Derivative tank used for Shuttle APU. Same material used since 1975.
[1] a story https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/voyager-1-team-accomplishes-tr... [2] nice paper https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=review+and+history+of+p... [3] meh, color pic Low cost derivative tanks... https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=AIAA+99-2831
Every time this topic comes up on HN, I always like to remind readers about the following: One of my favorite facts ever is that Voyager 1 contains something called the Voyager Golden Record [1]. It has the following quote written: This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may liv…
The Golden Records [1] seem like astonishing, singular undertakings to me. Like the Svalbard seed bank, or the LHC, or the Prado. Their existence inspires me because they remind me of what we're capable of. The book Murmours of Earth by Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, and Ann Druyan is an interesting commentary on the ideas and choices behind the production of the Golden Records. Published in 1978, but there are copies avai…
Sad to see EOL coming up, but too bad NASA's budget has been cut so back over the years. We just had a smaller planetary alignment a few months ago. Would have been nice if NASA had the budget to send out a more robust craft a few years ago. But I guess science no longer means anything to the US. Especially now. Maybe China will take up the mantle, I heard they are about to send out a rather long term interesting cra…
A visual alignment like the one you mention wouldn’t have been useful for spacecraft to get to the planets more easily. An alignment in the scale of the one that enabled the Voyager flybys of the outer planets won’t happen until sometime in the 23rd century.
Thanks
Earlier quoted context omitted.
NASA’s budget is larger today adjusted for inflation than during the Voyager program. https://images.app.goo.gl/qai42hiZ8RMtfViw6
While you seem to imply NASA is wasting money how many legacy projects did that Voyager era budget have to support? Oh yeah, close to zero. When a company implements an ERP system, a HR system, etc. the IT budget tends to increase to more than before. How many weather satellites did NASA operate during the Voyager program verses now? How many Landsats like Landsat 8 and 9 now https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/proje…