The Ongoing Grand Tour of Voyager with Dr. Linda Spilker

🚀 Embark on an extraordinary journey through the cosmos with the legendary Voyager 1 spacecraft! 🌌 Can Voyager 1 be fixed? Join us as we explore the grand tour of Voyager, an awe-inspiring and brilliantly successful mission that has left an indelible mark on space exploration.
The Voyager mission, strategically designed to exploit a rare alignment of the outer planets in the late 1970s and 1980s, takes us on a mesmerizing four-planet tour. Discover the ingenious use of gravity assist, a groundbreaking technique demonstrated during NASA's Mariner 10 mission, which propelled Voyager 1 from planet to planet, slashing the flight time to Neptune from 30 years to a mere 12.
🛰️ Meet the incredible Dr. Linda J. Spilker, a JPL Fellow and planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who has dedicated over 45 years to NASA and international planetary missions. Currently serving as the Voyager Project Scientist, Dr. Spilker's expertise extends from mission leadership to design, planning, operation, and scientific data analysis.
🌟 Dr. Spilker's remarkable journey includes pivotal roles in the Cassini Project, where she led a diverse team of over 300 international scientists. Dive into her scientific contributions, including leading the CIRS ring team focused on Saturn’s rings' thermal infrared studies, unraveling mysteries about their origin and evolution.
🔭 Join us on this cosmic adventure as we delve into the wonders of space, uncovering the secrets of Voyager 1 and the brilliant mind behind its continued success. Subscribe now for a front-row seat to the marvels of interplanetary exploration! 🌠 #Voyager1 #NASA #SpaceExploration #GravityAssist #CosmicJourney #DrLindaJSpilker #CassiniProject #InterplanetaryAdventure
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FOOTAGE:
NASA
ESA/Hubble
ESO - M.Kornmesser
ESO - L.Calcada
ESO - Jose Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org)
NAOJ
University of Warwick
Goddard Visualization Studio
Langley Research Center
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[@MuscarV2]

Best episode in a while, not that others have been bad, but this was especially good! Hope we get Dr. Spilker back as a guest in the future!

[@EventHorizonShow]

We will have her back. Agreed, this is a fantastic episode. Unfortunately not as many people are watching it, not sure why that is though.

[@elduderino7767]

@@EventHorizonShow probably just youtube algo, maybe something like favouring mainstream sources or some random AI impulse it's always worth considering branching out to alt tech, there are video uploading platforms that silo your videos and propagate them to various video platforms automatically, so you'd upload to the platform and it would automatically send to youtube + others, should be pretty easy for a quality channel like this to capture market share on smaller platforms

[@EventHorizonShow]

What platforms do you suggest?

[@elduderino7767]

@@EventHorizonShow rumble and odysee are both good, those will probably be the main options (after youtube) on any video propagating platform you use

[@TheStefmcd]

My favourite show for a wee while. Hard science but understandable.

[@spindoctor6385]

It is almost humbling to know that Voyager has not yet reached 1 light day away from us. It is amazing to have the solar system distance covered. That was just one of those details that brings home the vastness of the galaxy, let alone anything beyond that

[@willywonka4340]

I've always failed to explain the utter vastness our local intra-solar space to your average folks with zero inkling of it, let alone kuiper belt! The nearest star? Fuggidaboutit!😂

[@mitseraffej5812]

@@willywonka4340Average folk have zero interest in such topics. I recently was metaphorically pulling my hair out trying to explain to someone how we could see with the naked eye objects many many light years away because they were so very large.

[@JonnoPlays]

This fact should serve as a grounding focal point for people who claim we will traverse the universe in person and not our robots one day. We won't with today's off-the-shelf space technology.

[@mitseraffej5812]

@@JonnoPlays I agree. Todays propulsion technology is in essence no different from a steam engine, i.e. burn and squirt, and will never be up to the task. Maybe there is new physics waiting to be discovered that will enable us to go gallivanting across the gallery Star Trek style, and if you believe aliens have come visited earth then such physics must exists. Myself I’m not so sure and expect humanity to splutter into extinction without ever setting foot outside of our solar system.

[@pavel9652]

Watch a recent video from Veritasium who asked people on the streets to sort objects such as star, planet, moon, galaxy, universe by their size. One guy thought there are about 20 galaxies in the universe.

[@terrymckenzie8786]

I was 18 when the Voyagers were launched. Got my interest in astronomy right there. Biggest turning point in my life. Bless Carl Sagan. 👍

[@grayforsyth3728]

Johns giggling throught the video is awesome. You can really tell this conversation is striking a chord with his young self. Voyager B. Goode!

[@JohnMichaelGodier]

Yes, myself from 1989 resurfaced at nearly 50 lol. It was delightful.

[@Mori]

God I love the event horizon intro song so much. It’s beautiful ❤

[@EventHorizonShow]

The brilliant Miguel Johnson!

[@jimmyzhao2673]

We need a Voyager 3 & 4

[@BRUXXUS]

What a delightful episode and guest! Thank you!

[@EventHorizonShow]

Glad you liked it!

[@naciremasti]

Thanks for getting a voyager video out, John. You should still try to get one with Ed Stone, too.

[@Peter-MH]

Get well soon, Voyager 1!

[@Roguescienceguy]

Voyager 1 is probably fine, but the data is being blocked by our alien overlords. They don't want us to panic from seeing their absolutely massive scoutship

[@TennesseeJed]

I saw the launch as a kid!

[@spacepygmy4443]

Same 🎉

[@kholzwar75]

Awesome guest and topic, more of her and NASA employees like her! Very informative.

[@EventHorizonShow]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@MichielHollanders]

..'now, doctor..' the classic start of a great interview 😁

[@gardenlizard1586]

Voyager 1 is giving data by communicating. It's trajectory is interesting.

[@mattparker9726]

OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED! The Voyager missions are some of the best events of humanity.

[@brick6347]

It's actually pretty mind-blowing that spacecraft launched during the Carter administration are still going strong. (It's also pretty amazing that Jimmy Carter is still going strong strong too - people born the year he took office are now 47! Peanuts must be the secret to longevity). I was born in 1978, the voyagers have been out there sending back data my whole life. They're a bit like an elderly relative you know statistically isn't long for the world, but you really don't want to think about it.

[@brick6347]

I just noticed the typographical error. I could edit it... but meh, I'm a terrible typist.

[@willywonka4340]

and yet, these days, peanuts are more likely to kill Zoomers because of their allergic reactions to them. Makes us Gen Z's and older wondering why.... 🤔 💭

[@JarcoArt]

Absolutely one of my favorite episodes yet! As always your questions and remarks are spot-on, clear and easy to understand. Thank you! :)

[@johndonson1603]

Really enjoyed this interview .

[@resteazy847]

Wonderful guest and such a natural and joyful discussion between you both. Thanks JMG and Dr. Spilker!

[@Matthew...1979]

I think the biggest barrier to going back to Uranus is simply getting past all the jokes around the mission planning table

[@MarcusAgrippa390]

Hehehe, you said "Uranus"..... Sorry...

[@mickeyhadley4281]

The jokes are a barrier but I’d be more frightened of the Klingons…

[@MrSCOTTtheSCOT]

[Comment Redacted] oh it was hilarious.

[@robotaholic]

😂

[@bworldrighteousness3895]

hey buddy keep uranus off the mission table

[@lc4491]

JMG this is my fave interview you've done in awhile, you and Dr. Spilker speak like old friends and it is so engaging! I love hearing things about the Voyagers from people who work with it. Thank you so much for this!.

[@Learningthetruth-ci5mw]

Wonderful interview- thanks so much!!

[@EventHorizonShow]

Thanks for listening

[@joewinfield3276]

I sure hope we can learn more from both of these probes. Nothing like having raw, unfiltered data to learn from. We need to send out a set of small probes to the Alpha Centaur.

[@jimmyzhao2673]

0:13 *Great show* as usual. (I love the Colour of Neptune, such an awesome Cerulean Blue)

[@T.efpunkt]

Sadly this is exaggerated. In reality it's almost grey.

[@vermasean]

1st!! Love some JMG & EH! Thanks for the amazing content!! 🌌 ❤. This is one of the only shows, short of a Marvel movie, where I watch it from start through finish! ANNA is wonderful 🙌

[@DPris-ko9tn]

Fabulous discussion and so many gems to talk about. The OCTOCOPTER ! What a spectacular exploration to look foward to - has to be my favourite and of the many ground breaking scientific discoveries the Voyagers top it all on so many fronts: endurance, discovery & revelation, distance and innovation for future exploratory missions. Thank you for a real treat.

[@justsmashing4628]

if Voyager had a live recording of Motorhead playing, it’d travel much much faster 😊

[@tonyhawk123]

Question. If we had no knowledge of Voyager 1 (eg it was sent from Earth in secret, or alien in origin) what is the likelihood that the signal would be detected?

[@EventHorizonShow]

Interesting question.

[@milosterwheeler2520]

I am such a big fan of the Voyager missions. The moon landings were a big deal, but the Voyager missions have an even dearer place in my heart. I wonder how many of the people who designed, built and launched these hardy little craft are no longer with us?

[@cc-dtv]

neptune is kinda spooky if you think about it. just out there, floating around, in the cold, dark, edge of the solar system

[@fluffyspunsugar]

Fascinating topic, the Voyager missions are some of my favorite.

[@dancingwiththedogsdj]

Wouldn't it be incredible if we somehow developed a way to transmit power to the probes, even if it was like a one-shot final hoorah for the spacecraft that it may fry the equipment, but would allow for a few hours or days of full use including the camera and final transmission of the data before equipment fails and goes silent forever.

[@naciremasti]

It's too dark for the cameras to work. The programming for it was also erased after the pale blue dot was taken. There's not enough heat left from the decay to operate the full spectrum of instruments. Can't overclock a dead RTG.

[@lukebm5555]

I really love hearing about the emerging understanding of our solar system. It makes space exploration feel so tangible, and is a nice counterpoint to the cosmology and sci-fi stuff. The next few years and decades will be very very exciting 💫

[@EventHorizonShow]

I totally agree!

[@d1ss1dent]

Hi John! ❤

[@JohnMichaelGodier]

Hallo

[@luciferrin7475]

An absolute gem of an episode. Should be part of grade school curriculum. Cheers.

[@kalsizzle]

Great episode and great guest!

[@spacepygmy4443]

Thanks John,, still the best 🎖️

[@user-tm9ce2ik3v]

You have the absolute best guests. So much information and I love your show.

[@cavetroll666]

Thaks for the episode voygers have always fascinated me

[@residentenigma7141]

I am subscribed, and I miss many episodes but there's so much wonder in the natural, that.....

[@tombryan9734]

Congratulations to the electronics engineering staff; the fact that electronics designed in the 70's are still running in deep space is amazing. It would be interesting to see how they designed the electronics to last so long under difficult conditions. Maybe a topic for a future episode?

[@markosullivan6444]

I really enjoyed this. Interested in space since my teens, I vividly remember being on holiday and buying a copy of New Scientist to read all about the just happened Neptune flyby (1989). I was astonished by the pictures as they brought Neptune to life.

[@stricknine6130]

Great interview! I think it's amazing that they are still working after all these years. Thanks for the episode!

[@John-ky5tj]

Very good episode. Maximum information.

[@timedeathe]

i think voyager should be remade. orcus. using parker solar probe speeds to reach the outer systems in only a few months. its main goal would be to study the ort cloud. it could go an au by in 8.53 days

[@timedeathe]

another mission idea i had is Sagen. using the terrascope idea with a webb like mirror to image earth sized exoplanets around sun like stars or. even super jovians in other galaxites

[@timedeathe]

9:36 probably to faint to be detect with 5-decade old equipment. even Proxima flare are not detectable most likely

[@amangogna68]

Great video and information !

[@antoyal]

22:35 I had never thought of that--that's really interesting.

[@cygnus1129]

Voyager 3 and 4?! I'd love to hear about those!

[@jacobmar2797]

What a great episode!

[@njckjung6985]

47 minutes or as I calculate: start over 3-4 times in order to finish this episode. If you know what I mean 🙂

[@John-dh1gh]

Listen at 2x speed. Then you can listen to 2x more info vids

[@christopher9152]

Thanks for this interview with a very good guest. I've long been interested in the fate of the two Voyagers. It's great to hear Dr. Spilker speak on their current status and everything they have done.

[@graemebrumfitt6668]

Rite John Dude, These two little Dudes always grab my attention just a tad more than the Viking missions (I still think the the labeled release experiment found microbes) TFS, GB :)

[@dergelenkspreizer5272]

Here for Eryn.

[@unheilbargut]

I had this astronomy book for children about our solar system and when V2 flew by those planets and told us about the rings, I updated all the pictures in that book with a pencil and it felt amazing to tell the textbooks, how our universe really was like. Years later I worked for a television production company in Germany and we filmed at ESA, reported Voyager or Voyager 2 (the first one that made it there) reaching the Heliopause. Being there, being „in touch“ with breakthrough, raw data of a machine being the furthest away from us than anything else, felt so unbelievable. I just love our embassadors to interplanetary space.

[@unheilbargut]

And it can be that the event at ESA was the termination shock and not the heliopause. 😅🤔 the early 2000s are quite a time ago. 🙈

[@deeiks12]

what and amazing episode!

[@grantwtk]

Amazing interview! A clear reminder NASA and its scientists have immeasureable worth.

[@Astropapers]

Great conversation!

[@limabravo6065]

I know RTG's arent steictly speaking "nuclear power" , but the fact that these spacecraft were launched in the 70s and not only were built robust enough to last decades but their power source aka their batteries are only possible because of nuclear power and processes. Explaining to my 16 year old nephew that yes there are a few elements with isotopes so radioactive and decaying so quickly that a lump of them sitting on your table all by itself would be red hot. And in most instances something like plutonium 238 is just awful but because of that decay and the resulting heat we can seal it up and harness that heat to make electricity, allowing a space probe to operate continuously for about 50 years and give us information about whats just outside our solar system that we otherwise wouldnt have. So anyone confused about what will power any serious effort to explore our solar system with crewed missions need only look at the voyager twins to understand that while solar energy will be used, it will only ever be a supplement to nuclear powered spacecraft. Now whether those future craft are using fusion or fisssion is a pointless distinction as nothing else can supply us with the energy required. Propulsion systems are included in this math but thats where fusion and its potential exceeds anything we have or that weve tested like nuclear thermal

[@zapfanzapfan]

Can you try to get an interview with Ed Stone? Project scientist for 50 years, he must have some stories. I fear we may not have him around for much longer.

[@EventHorizonShow]

Yes, working on it.

[@zapfanzapfan]

@@EventHorizonShow Looking forward to it.

[@trentbateman]

8 track digital tape recorder is still working and turning 50 years later in interstellar space. Unreal. Goes to show you how simple technology can still be superior to more complicated tech

[@T.efpunkt]

Neptune isn't really blue.

[@WildStar2002]

Absolutely fascinating! 😄 I never knew that particles from Enceladus were coating the other moons of Saturn - or that Saturn's rings acted like a shield, lessening the radiation that would worse without them. I wonder if a hula hoop could help protect me from radiation? 🤔🤣

[@jasonstewart7186]

50 seconds in he says "it's been 25 years since the 1989 Neptune flyby" Hasn't it been 35 years??? Or was this video made 10 years ago and just released????

[@laurachapple6795]

After Galileo and Cassini, to continue the pattern the craft we sent to Uranus needs to be called Herschel... and the naming of a craft to Neptune might cause a war between England and France.

[@Jammin247]

Fun Fact: Voyager 2 launched before Voyager 1. Voyager 1 left the solar system before 2.

[@zardoz7900]

How bright is the sun from the V now? Can you read the newspapers? Here's some weird synchronicity, I was a teenage kid on vacation on the Island Brach in the Adriatic and I watched Starman with Jeff Bridges in a open theater there under an open Mediterranean warm summer starry night sky and in the opening of the movie its the Voyager going through space sending messages in different languages and I hear a message in Serbo-Croatian. After the movie i went back to the house I was staying and I told my Godfather about it and he told me it was his voice and that Carl Sagan asked him to record a message in Serbian. He was a Law professor at Ithaca College. Carl Sagan lived in Ithaca.

[@bryandoo34]

Wowo prety amazing jony be good😂

[@211212112]

They should of sent voyager 3 and 4 out 25 years after voyager 1 and 2. And then every quarter century build a couple robust probes with the new knowledge of each couple decades. Shoot them out in different directions and then eventually return to the first 2's trajectories and repeat. That way we have sensors and probes flying out in all directions and various distances.

[@gasperstarina9837]

Well folks, what do you think of the Oort cloud, should is be percieved as the end of solar system?

[@ryanpipkin]

*35 years later 0:51

[@mitseraffej5812]

I assume these craft are travelling fast enough to escape the gravitational tug of the solar system and will continue to drift away for all eternity. Can anyone confirm this.

[@HamCubes]

I'm familiar with Enceladus because I dig Athena, but does anyone know the etymology of the name itself?

[@billynomates920]

45 minutes went by like five!

[@CleoCat75]

They just fixed Voyager 1, it's sending useful data again, yay!

[@brettonwoodsvsbtc1217]

Can you have expert show on titan after sun expands. Could we live there

[@damianp7313]

Neptune isnt that blue though sadly The voyagers amaze me 🎉

[@slimal1]

You were a teenager in the 80s....😮

[@bigpapalee336]

Second first....

[@birdsandthingsbeachandbush1064]

I blow some real wind

[@MarvinMonroe]

1989 was 35 years ago, not 25 Its crazy, i know

[@cam35mm]

it is so obvious that Voyager 1 has been captured by a mothership or the probe Oumuamua. The signals can't break through the hull of the ship why the gibberish signals. Live long and prosperous, remember it was the Vulcans that discovered us.

[@lukeskydropper]

Sounds like alien’s reprogrammed the probe to contact us!

[@g-mansemployer7282]

How small we are.

[@ramos94610]

25 or 35?

[@senecaflint6853]

Thumbnail looks like a giant eyeball!

[@daemonavn]

Waiting for 2 days for someone to say hello? Sounds like my dating life…

[@darthjarwood7943]

When i here they are gonna send a octochopter to titan i think...awesome...then they say well we are just gonna go to a spot and vacuum up some material...so i assume this octochopter will take years of planning and 10s maybe 100s of millions of dollars...shouldnt we do it all while we are there, visit multiple sights with different terrain? Dont just send a probe with one sensor to study one thing...this method is holding us back by 100s of years

[@BriarLeaf00]

What I really think was a lost opportunity was not sending up a series of increasingly sophisticated probes to piggyback off the successes of the preceeding missions. Its unfortunate, and I'm not trying to be political about it but the fall of the Soviet Union probably set us all back for decades in terms of space exploration development because while we were promised a peace dividend, we just plowed trillions into war instead of science in order to become the world hegemon. I often wonder, if we spent half of what we've spent on defense into space exploration theres a very good chance we'd have mini orbital plates instead of the space station. After all, what could we do with 5, 6, or 7 trillion dollars?

[@John-ky5tj]

Not hearing enough of anna and the possum.

[@ontoya1]

Instead of bringing Voyager I back can't we just create a repair drone or a couple of repair drones and ship them out via laser sail? It just seems so disrespectful to me to take it back after the IMMENSE journey it's already been on? We should let it fly through space for eternity in my opinion.

[@T.efpunkt]

If you accelerate a drone to catch up, you run into the problem of slowing it down once it reached it's destination. And that's just the problem of getting there, the real problems start when such a drone arrives and starts repairing

[@ontoya1]

@@T.efpunkt We can just have the 1st couple be sacrificed to fly past Voyager and have them fire their own lasers to slow the ones behind them on by until we have enough that matches the Delta v and those first drones don't have to be the repair drone if they could just be sacrificial batteries with lasers or maybe just give them their own scientific instruments to wander out through space. I know that sounds a little complicated but I know you can understand. That concept I learned from an Isaac Arthur video on interstellar probes a while back. Blew my mind but yeah that's completely and utterly possible

[@ontoya1]

@@T.efpunkt in fact that those first sacrificial drones don't even just have to carry scientific instruments and the backwards laser. They can serve as a bulwark vanguard for Voyager as they fly for the next million years.

[@T.efpunkt]

@@ontoya1 sure, in maybe 500 years we will be able to do such missions

[@ontoya1]

@@T.efpunkt Nah bro we don't got to wait that long we got all the tech we need here and I ain't talking about secret government. I can tell you're already smart enough to understand. We have lasers strong enough, we have algorithms complex and secure enough and we need only build solar sails out of cheap Aluminum. Please go watch Isaac Arthur. Of course this is America and you can do whatever you want but I guarantee you will not be disappointed. The way he he talks about the future right now my literally change your world. He's close friends with John and actually has a couple of interviews with him. Hes my favorite KZbinr of all time. I saw this man come from the BOTTOM 10 years ago and he's become such inspirational figure that he was voted president of the National Space Society just last year. I don't know another KZbinr who deserves 1 million subscribers, it's been a steady none explosive climb. If you do decide I am genuinely super fuqin curious about how you feel after a couple of these videos. Come back tomorrow in a week and let ya boi know

[@user-ky8ee4vd4o]

8 bit 16 bit 32 bit 64 bit at best and with a known data broadcast, and you are getting data and you can not use basic message code braking tech? what the ..

[@RomoRooster]

The weirdest thing about Uranus it looks like a mushroom cap instead of a planet. There's plenty of pictures available because Uranus is the most probed object on the internet.

[@leonidas6134]

Take what shes says with a grain of salt, she’s still employed by a non transparent Nasa

[@EventHorizonShow]

No. You can take what she says as facts.

[@LordSlag]

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