The Voyager Mission Is Still a Powerhouse Four Decades Later

Alan Cummings, Todd Barber, and Stella Koch talk about the past and future of the incredible Voyager probes in an episode of Motherboard’s “Space Show.”
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ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.

In 1977, NASA took advantage of a rare planetary alignment and launched two probes into space that massively expanded our understanding of this solar system. Nearly 45 years later, the Voyager probes are still sending invaluable data back to Earth. Now they have crossed into interstellar space, where they have become humankind’s most distant ambassadors.

The incredible resilience of the Voyager spacecraft, along with their iconic status as Earth’s messengers into never-before-reached frontiers, has dazzled space enthusiasts around the world. A recent episode of Motherboard’s “Space Show” pays tribute to Voyager with the help of three guests who embody the multi-generational nature of the mission. 

Alan Cummings, a senior scientist and member of the professional staff at Caltech, has been working on Voyager since before the probes launched. Todd Barber, a propulsion engineer for Voyager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was inspired to pursue a career in space in part by the stunning images of planets and moons taken by the probes during the 1980s. Stella Ocker, a graduate student at Cornell University, is using Voyager data to yield new insights about interstellar space. Together, they reflect on the incredible legacy of Voyager, and look forward to the future of the probes as they traverse the galaxy.