# Voyager Has Left the Building, Er, Solar System **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511 "2005-05-25T22:36:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/1 "2005-05-25T22:36:50Z")
[Let’s all wave goodbye.](http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0505/24voyager/) > [@](#): > > NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered the solar system’s final frontier. It is entering a vast, turbulent expanse, where the sun’s influence ends and the solar wind crashes into the thin gas between stars. > > “Voyager 1 has entered the final lap on its race to the edge of interstellar space,” said Dr. Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which built and operates Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2 ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/2 "2005-05-25T23:44:28Z")
I’ll nip it in the bud before it gets outta hand: No doubt to return in a few centuries bigger, meaner and sans oya. As a small aside to audiophiles: In case life forms come in contact with Voyager 1, the probe has a gold-plated copper LP with instructions on how to play the record and a needle cartridge. See, back in 70s, vinyl (or should I say copper) was king. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/3 "2005-05-25T23:49:31Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > I’ll nip it in the bud before it gets outta hand: No doubt to return in a few centuries bigger, meaner and sans oya. > > As a small aside to audiophiles: In case life forms come in contact with Voyager 1, the probe has a gold-plated copper LP with instructions on how to play the record and a needle cartridge. > > See, back in 70s, vinyl (or should I say copper) was king. Addendum: [Golden Record](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/4 "2005-05-25T23:50:47Z")
Yes, but was the record recorded in quadraphonic stereo? Voyager’s been a real trooper. [Bugs Bunny voice] "Bon voy-ah-hee!![/BBv] ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/5 "2005-05-25T23:58:48Z")
If aliens find it, they might be able to trace where it came from! Then those aliens (with big heads) might come to earth to use us asa beef ranch! This is scarey! ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/6 "2005-05-26T00:03:04Z")
> [@lizardling](#): > > Addendum: [Golden Record](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record) Wow…My 4th grade teacher failed to mention this: > [@](#): > > After NASA received much criticism over the “smut” on the Pioneer plaque (the line drawings of a naked man and woman) from the Christian right that objected to “using tax dollars to send pornography into space” they chose not to include anything on the subject of male-female interaction. :eek: The more things change, the more they stay the same. And I think the playlist is skewed a little too heavily toward classical & world music [quote] [ol][li]Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor.[_]Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown.[_]Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle.[_]Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull[_]Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes[_]Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México.[_]“Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry[_]New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan.[_]Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi.[_]Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux.[_]Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor.[_]Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow.[_]Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima.[_]“Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven.[_]Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow.[_]Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor.[_]Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano.[_]Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20 [/li]Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska.[li]Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes.[_]Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London.[_]Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service.[_]Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen.[_]China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37 [/li]India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar.[li]“Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson.[_]Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet.[/ol][/li][/quote] You telling me they couldn’t fit one Black Sabbath song in there? ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/7 "2005-05-26T02:14:51Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > Wow…My 4th grade teacher failed to mention this: :eek: The more things change, the more they stay the same. No kidding. I had much the same reaction. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/8 "2005-05-26T02:39:39Z")
Just to put a little perspective on this thing. The University of Iowa (then State University of Iowa) has some devices on this thing. One of my friends from undergraduate school, a young woman named Clancy, spent four years helping to put this thing together. The last time I saw her she was terribly excited because the gadget she had help build was ready to be shipped off to Texas or California or where ever it was that the payload was being assembled. That was in 1964, forty-one years ago. This project was a long time in planning, construction and now execution. Safe trip, little guy. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/9 "2005-05-26T04:13:31Z")
Are the scientitians who built Voyager surprised that it’s still sending them data? What was its anticipated broadcasting life? ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/10 "2005-05-26T04:35:17Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > See, back in 70s, vinyl (or should I say copper) was king. If Voyager were launched today, I suspect that a grooved record and a needle would likely still be the best choice for sending recorded sound into space. A copper record would last for a mindbogglingly long amount of time without data corruption, and any intelligent race finding it would be able to work out how to play it pretty well immediately. Much better than some future green guy with antennae on his head finding out he can only listen to the music if he has Real Player or something… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/11 "2005-05-26T05:04:13Z")
> [@](#): > > After NASA received much criticism over the “smut” on the Pioneer plaque (the line drawings of a naked man and woman) from the Christian right that objected to “using tax dollars to send pornography into space” they chose not to include anything on the subject of male-female interaction. I attended a lecture by Carl Sagan in about 1972 or 1973 at Cornell University, where I was an undergraduate at the time (and Sagan a mere professor of Astronomy, long before he became a media megastar), where he spoke about developing the [plaques on Pioneers 10 and 11](http://www.answers.com/topic/pioneer-plaque). I recall him mentioning that he had gotten flak about sending “smut to the stars.” I’m sure naked monkeys will be a big turn-on to the giant violet hermit crabs of Rigel IV. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/12 "2005-05-26T12:51:55Z")
Driving home last night I heard this story on NPR. It’s powered by a nuclear reactor they expect it to keep broadcasting into the 2020’s. The number that leapt out at me is when they said it will take 40,000 years to reach the next star. I really hope I heard that wrong. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/13 "2005-05-26T12:57:12Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > Wow…My 4th grade teacher failed to mention this: :eek: The more things change, the more they stay the same. > > And I think the playlist is skewed a little too heavily toward classical & world musicYou telling me they couldn’t fit one Black Sabbath song in there? I was thinkin’ ‘Freebird’ would be apropos. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/14 "2005-05-26T16:33:04Z")
Well, about _time_ it left! All this time, staying up late, yawning, pointedly looking at our watches and mentioning that we needed to go to work early the next millenium…and still it stays well past the stroke of 2000! Got a lot of nerve, that Voyager. Last time I’m inviting it to one of my parties! Plus, I’m imagining Riff Raff saying farewell to Voyager: “Say goodbye to all this” (Audience: “Goodbye, all this!”) and hello to oblivion." (A: “Hello, Oblivion, how’s the wife and kids?”) Seriously, the Voyagers have been quite the pair of troupers. I can’t believe they’re even _thinking_ about cutting off funding for the program, when we’re getting data on current conditions outside the solar system for a minuscule fraction of what one space shuttle trip costs. When there is a space shuttle program, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/15 "2005-05-26T21:22:53Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s probably worse now. At least they **got** to send it then. These days the golden record would have to include a track, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal gurbleschnobbit?” or whatever the Creation Science Institute asserts is Galactic-ese for Savior. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/16 "2005-05-26T22:16:34Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Seriously, the Voyagers have been quite the pair of troupers. I can’t believe they’re even _thinking_ about cutting off funding for the program, when we’re getting data on current conditions outside the solar system for a minuscule fraction of what one space shuttle trip costs. When there is a space shuttle program, that is. I agree, and I really think that there’s a solution to this problem: NASA needs to get a university to pick up the tab for retrieving the data (since it costs money to run those big radio antenna’s), and let the scientists pour over it in their free time (I’m sure NASA’ll have no trouble finding people willing to do that.) Seems to be the simpliest solution to me. NASA gets to save money, and the scientists get the data they want, plus, some university gets to add another NASA program to their bragging rights. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/17 "2005-05-26T22:58:11Z")
> [@Mr. Goob](#): > > The number that leapt out at me is when they said it will take 40,000 years to reach the next star. I really hope I heard that wrong. Just an eyeblink compared to a star’s age. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/18 "2005-05-27T01:15:58Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > I agree, and I really think that there’s a solution to this problem: NASA needs to get a university to pick up the tab for retrieving the data (since it costs money to run those big radio antenna’s), and let the scientists pour over it in their free time (I’m sure NASA’ll have no trouble finding people willing to do that.) Seems to be the simpliest solution to me. NASA gets to save money, and the scientists get the data they want, plus, some university gets to add another NASA program to their bragging rights. Having been in academe once upon a time, there’s a slight hitch here: a professor, department head, or whoever doesn’t score points with his higher-ups by asking _them_ to fund an interesting research project; he scores points by _getting a grant from an agency like NASA_ to fund interesting research. The solution is that a private donor would work just as well. So now the space junkies just need to find a private donor to pay a couple million a year for radio telescope time, so that the government won’t have to. That could still be tricky: it’s harder to find donors to pay for stuff the government is already doing, than to pay for stuff that nobody’s doing yet. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/19 "2005-05-27T01:21:49Z")
To Voyager I and II I say: good on ya, mates. The one we have to watch out for is Voyager VI, because it might fall into a wormhole and be recovered by a planet of machine life forms on the other side of the galaxy who will give it a huge monster starship enabling it to digitally gobble up everything in its path on the way back to Earth and then almost destroy the human race before transmitting its data. Dontcha hate it when that happens? What? Oh fine, I’ll lay off the Star Trek a little. (No I won’t - 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511/20 "2005-05-27T01:56:25Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The solution is that a private donor would work just as well. So now the space junkies just need to find a private donor to pay a couple million a year for radio telescope time, so that the government won’t have to. That could still be tricky: it’s harder to find donors to pay for stuff the government is already doing, than to pay for stuff that nobody’s doing yet. Well, didn’t a private group pick up the tab for SETI after NASA had to pull the plug? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-building-er-solar-system/305511.md?page=2)