Voyager: Exploration, Space, and the Third Great Age of Discovery
Page 44
223 Robert Baker, Astronomy, 8th ed. (New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1964), p. 209. G. P. Kuiper, ed., The Earth as a Planet, Vol. 2: The Solar System (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954), p. v.
224 On Pioneer 6, Wolverton, The Depths of Space, p. 126. On Voyager: JPL, The Voyager Uranus Travel Guide, p. 106; Bruce Murray, Michael Malin, and Ronald Greeley, Earthlike Planets (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1981), p. xi. Any modern text will demonstrate the changes, but for a handy digest, see David J. Stevenson, “Planetary Science: A Space Odyssey,” Science 287, no. 5455 (Feb. 11, 2000): 997-1005.
225 Nicks, Far Travelers, p. 219; Miner and Wessen, Neptune, p. xix; Van Allen quoted in Wolverton, The Depths of Space, p. 154.
226 Stone quoted in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 38. Soderblom quoted in JPL video And Then There Was Voyager. I have confirmed his use of the quote and its original source by personal interview. The expression also appears in a slightly different version by Edward Stone, in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 28.
227 For “legend and myth” quote: Roger Launius, foreword, in Kraemer, Beyond the Moon, p. x. Murray quoted in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 215.
228 Murray, in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 214.
229 Careful readers will note the irony of my criticizing one analogy by creating another. So be it.
230 Murray, in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 212; Letter, Bruce Murray to Sir Arthur C. Clarke, April 23, 1980, JPL Archives, 223, no. 45.
231 Murray, in Swift, Voyager Tales, pp. 212-13.
232 Ibid., p. 213. On the federal budget, see Roger D. Launius, “Public Opinion Polls and Perceptions of US Human Spaceflight,” Space Policy 19 (2003): 163-75. Data sources: Web sites for NASA, MLB, and NFL. For publishing and restaurants: “The 24-Billion-Dollar Question,” PublishingTrends.com, www.publishingtrends.com/copy/batch0one/3-00-24billion.html (20 June 2008).
233 Murray, in Swift, Voyager Tales, pp. 215, 210.
CHAPTER 19. CRUISE
234 See Janet Vertesi, “ ‘Seeing Like a Rover’: Embodied Experience on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission,” CHI 2008, April 5-10, 2008, Florence, Italy. I thank Valerie Olson for alerting me to this item and sending me a copy. On symbiosis between explorers and machines, see Nicks, Far Travelers, p. 94, and Ballard, The Eternal Darkness, pp. 299-311.
235 “NASA investigates virtual space,” BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7195718.stm, published 2008/01/18. I would like to thank Valerie Olson for correspondence early in this project in which she alerted me to the question of virtual exploration.
CHAPTER 20. LAST LIGHT
236 Several accounts exist. I follow Charlene Anderson, “Voyager’s Last View,” on the Planetary Society’s Web site: www.planetary.org/explor/topics/space_missions/voyager/family_portrait.html, accessed June 23, 2008; and the account given in Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot (New York: Ballantine, 1994), pp. 1-7; and the detailed recollection of Candice Hansen, in Swift, Voyager Tales, pp. 323-25. Constance Holden, “Voyager’s Last Light,” Science 248 (1990): 1308, gives the date as the “evening of candice 13 February 1990.” Granted the long process, it spilled over into February 14, which is what has been generally reported.
237 Quote from Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, p. 5.
238 For an interesting account of the competing interests, see Candice Hansen, in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 324.
239 Quote from Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, p. 5. An interesting UPI story by Rob Stein dates the event to February 13, 1990, a day earlier; see NASA Historical Collection, File 005578.
240 Woude and Hansen quoted in Stein, NASA Historical Reference Collection, File 005578; Stone quoted in John Noble Wilford, “From Voyager 1, a Space Snapshot of 6 Planets,” New York Times, June 7, 1990.
PART 3 : BEYOND THE UTMOST BOND: JOURNEY TO THE STARS
CHAPTER 21. VOYAGER INTERSTELLAR MISSION
1 Best summaries: Miner and Wessen, Neptune, pp. 182-84, and Kohlhase, ed., The Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, pp. 151-54.
2 On costs: JPL, Voyager Uranus Travel Guide, pp. 105-6. On prospects for shutting down: Andrew Lawler, “NASA Plans to Turn Off Several Satellites,” Science 307 (March 11, 2005): 1541; Tony Reichhardt, “NASA’s Funding Shortfall Means Journey’s End for Voyager Probes,” Nature 434 (March 10, 2005): 125, which lists the costs as $4.2 million annually. The discrepancy seems to derive from the cost of both spacecraft and data analysis.
3 Sources on heliosheath are many. Good diagram and brief explanation on NASA JPL Web site: www.voyager.jpl/nasa.gov/mission/mission.html, accessed June 22, 2008. For what mission planners expected, see Kohlhase, ed., The Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, pp. 151-54, and Miner and Wessen, Neptune, pp. 182-84.
4 Christian quoted in “Voyager 2 Proves Solar System Is Squashed,” JPL Voyager Web site: www.voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/voyager_squashed.html, accessed June 22, 2008.
5 See Kohlhase, Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, p. 153.
6 Timetables: Miner and Wessen, Neptune, p. 184; Kohlhase, Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, p. 155, and 155-67 passim.
CHAPTER 22. FAR TRAVELERS
7 Sources: Wolverton, The Depths of Space; data, p. 225. See also the NASA Pioneer Web site for technical information and dates. Velocity calculations from JPL Web site on Solar System Dynamics, Horizon System: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons.
8 Calculations from JPL Web site on Solar System Dynamics, Horizon System: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons. Other information from Wolverton, Depths of Space, p. 225, and NASA Pioneer mission Web sites.
9 On the fate of Columbus’s ships, see Morison, The Great Explorers, on the Niña, p. 386. The Caird was preserved at Dulwich College, South London, then did a stint at the National Maritime Museum before returning to Dulwich and a career of exhibitions.
10 The best composite account is in Wikipedia; accessed June 25, 2008.
11 Vessel history from ibid.
12 Alicia Chang, “New tasks given to old NASA spacecraft,” AP, reported on Yahoo! News, July 3, 2007. Plans include redirecting the Deep Impact spacecraft into use as an observatory, although this was part of its two-phase mission.
CHAPTER 23. NEW WORLDS, NEW LAWS
13 Direct quotes and intervening passages (paraphrased) are from Jeal, Stanley, p. 225.
14 Best source on Portuguese expansion is Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion; for the origins, see p. 41.
15 The story of Arvid Pardo and the “common heritage” concept is a well-told tale, but see George V. Galdorisi and Kevin R. Vienna, Beyond the Law of the Sea: New Directions for U.S. Oceans Policy (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997), p. 25 for the observation that the concept, and nearly the language, was in American policy, additional fallout from the Antarctic Treaty.
16 “Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,” U.S. Department of State; www.state.gov/t/ac/trt/5181.htm, accessed June 26, 2008.
CHAPTER 24. VOYAGER’S VOICE
17 Sagan quoted in Tom Head, ed., Conversation with Carl Sagan (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2006), p. xvii.
18 Stone quoted in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 39.
19 Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980), pp. 120-21.
CHAPTER 25. VOYAGER’S RECORD
20 See Fimmel et al., Pioneer, pp. 248-50. Burgess offers a more detailed account in Burgess, Far Encounter, pp. 57-58.
21 Casani quote: October 16-17, 1974, Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977, Mission and Systems Design Review, Concern/Action Control Sheet, JPL Archives 36, no. 29. Quotes from Sagan, “For Future Times and Being,” in Carl Sagan, et al., Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record (New York: Random House, 1978), p. 11. My account of the golden record derives primarily from this source.
22 Sagan et al., Murmurs, preface, pp. 146, 162.
23 Sagan, “For Future Times and Beings,” p. 37.
24 Sagan, et al., Murmurs, epilogue, p. 234; Sagan, “For Future Times and Beings,” p.
37.
25 Sagan, “For Future Times and Beings,” p. 37.
26 Linda Sagan, “A Voyager’s Greetings,” in Sagan et al., Murmurs, p. 125; Carl Sagan, “For Future Times and Beings,” p. 23; F. D. Drake, “Foundations of the Voyager Record,” pp. 47-53.
27 Sagan, Murmurs, epilogue, p. 236.
28 Christopher Columbus, The Four Voyages, pp. 118, 80.
29 Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, p. 355.
30 Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries: Drake, p. 177; Cavendish, pp. 287-88. On Brûlé, see William H. Goetzmann and Glyndwr Williams, The Atlas of North American Exploration (New York: Prentice Hall, 1992), p. 59.
31 The Columbus story comes from Morison, The Great Explorers, p. 422.
32 Oliver quoted in Sagan, “For Future Times and Beings,” p. 11. On the disposition of the records, see Letter, Robert A. Frosch to S. Dillon Ripley, Dec. 19, 1977, NASA History Office, File 005580. Interestingly, Sagan and Casani were denied copies. One might also note the slightly blasphemous associations possible between the Voyager golden record and Joseph Smith’s golden plates, dug up across the Finger Lakes from Sagan’s Laboratory for Planetary Studies—both metal tablets that record an era and identify its originators, subsequently buried deeply to preserve that memory, a record to be found ages hence, written in a peculiar language surely unintelligible to its eventual finder, save with a special apparatus by which to interpret it, a message ultimately that speaks to the character of its creators. The Voyager golden records and the gold plates of Moroni—the prophet of the space age channeling the prophet of Mormonism? Would an alien intelligence confronted with the association be a lumper or a splitter?
CHAPTER 26. VOYAGER’S RETURNS
33 Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968), p. 3.
34 Ibid., pp. 11, 21, 30.
35 Ibid., pp. 245, 38.
36 Jordan Goodman, The Rattlesnake (London: Faber and Faber, 2005), pp. 18-19.
37 Stories on Hawkesworth and Forster from Lynne Withey, Voyages of Discovery: Captain Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 175, 312-13.
38 Campbell, Hero, p. 193; Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries, p. 163.
39 Campbell, Hero, p. 217.
BEYOND TOMORROW
40 I follow the scenarios sketched in Kohlhase, ed., The Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, pp. 151-67. Other versions exist on the JPL Voyager Web site, particularly the projected scenario for shutting down instruments.
41 Miner quoted in Douglas Fulmer, “Memories of Voyager,” Ad Astra (July/ August 1993): 48. Laeser quote in Kohlhase, ed., Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, p. 205.
42 Haines quoted in Fulmer, “Memories of Voyager,” p. 48; Stone, in Swift, Voyager Tales, p. 57.
Sources
Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery is a study—call it perhaps a meditation—about context. It is not a scholarly reconstruction based on original archives but one that seeks to achieve insights by arranging facts, many of which are common knowledge, and observations, few of which come from unexplored sources. It strives to generate new understanding by emphasizing comparisons, contrasts, and continuities.
Still, some work in archives was useful, and necessary. I have consulted only two such sets of primary documents: the JPL Archives and the NASA Historical Reference Collection at the NASA History Office. Each has guides accessible online. For NASA resources, see also Stephen J. Garber, compiler, Research in NASA History: A Guide to the NASA History Program (Washington, D.C.: NASA, June 1997), and the fine line of monographs the NASA History Office has sponsored.
Most of my research derives from published accounts. These fall into three general areas. Some—quite a few—deal specifically with Voyager, and I am happy to defer to them on matters of design, construction, and operations. Some pertain to exploration generally. Some are specific to the era under examination, particularly its institutions. Those works that I found most pertinent I have listed here. Since exploration is among the most heavily chartered historical literature around, I include only major works that I reviewed for several purposes, or to help establish general concepts. Books or articles consulted for a single fact or purpose are included in the notes where and when they are cited.
BOOKS (AND MAJOR ARTICLES) WHOLLY OR SIGNIFICANTLY ABOUT VOYAGER
Burgess, Eric. Far Encounter: The Neptune System (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).
———. Uranus and Neptune: The Distant Giants (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
Butrica, Andrew J. “Voyager: The Grand Tour as Big Science.” In Pamela E. Mack, ed. From Engineering to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners. NASA SP-4219 (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1998).
Cooper, Jr., Henry S. F. Imaging Saturn: The Voyager Flights to Saturn (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982).
Davies, J. K. “A Brief History of the Voyager Project,” Part 1: Spaceflight 23 (March 1981); Part 2: Spaceflight 23 (March 1981); Part 3: Spaceflight 23 (May 1981); Part 4: Spaceflight 23 (Aug.-Sept. 1981); Part 5: Spaceflight 24 (Feb. 1982); Part 6: Spaceflight 24 (June 1982).
Davis, Joel. Flyby: The Interplanetary Odyssey of Voyager 2 (New York: Atheneum, 1987).
Dethloff, Henry C., and Ronald A. Schorn. Voyager’s Grand Tour: To the Outer Planets and Beyond (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003).
Evans, Ben, with David M. Harland. NASA’s Voyager Missions (Chichester, UK: Springer Praxis, 2004).
Heacock, Raymond L. “The Voyager Spacecraft,” Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Proceedings 1980, 194, no. 28 (1980).
JPL. Voyager: The Grandest Tour: The Mission to the Outer Planets. NASA CR-197708 (Pasadena, Calif.: JPL, 1991).
Kohlhase, Charles, ed. The Voyager Neptune Travel Guide. JPL Publication 89-24 (Pasadena, Calif.: JPL, 1989).
Kraemer, Robert S. Beyond the Moon: A Golden Age of Planetary Exploration 1971- 1978 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000).
Littmann, Mark. Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2004; reprint of 1990 ed.).
Miner, Ellis D. Uranus: The Planet, Rings, and Satellites (Chichester, UK: Ellis Horwood, 1990).
Miner, Ellis D., and Randi R. Wessen. Neptune: The Planet, Rings, and Satellites (Chichester, UK: Springer Praxis, 2002).
Morrison, David. Voyages to Saturn. NASA SP-451 (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1982).
Morrison, David, and Jan Samz. Voyage to Jupiter. NASA SP-439 (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1980).
Murray, Bruce. Journey into Space: The First Thirty Years of Space Exploration (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989).
Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot (New York: Ballantine, 1994).
Sagan, Carl, et al. Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record (New York: Random House, 1978).
Stone, E. C. “Voyager Mission: Encounters with Saturn,” J. Geophys. Res. 88, no. A11 (Nov. 1983): 8639-42.
———. “The Voyager Mission Through the Jupiter Encounters,” J. Geophys. Res. 86, no. A10 (Sept. 1981): 8123-24.
Stone, E. C., and A. L. Lane. “Voyager 1 Encounter with the Jovian System,” Science 204, no. 4396 (June 1, 1979): 945-48.
———. “Voyager 2 Encounter with the Jovian System,” Science 206, no. 4421 (Nov. 23, 1979): 925-27.
Stone, E. C., and E. D. Miner. “Voyager 1 Encounter with the Saturnian System,” Science 212, no. 4491 (Apr. 10, 1981): 159-63.
———. “Voyager 2 Encounter with the Saturnian System,” Science 215, no. 4532 ( Jan. 29, 1982): 499-504.
———. “Voyager 2 Encounter with the Uranian System,” Science 233 (1986): 39-43.
———. “Voyager 2 Encounter with the Neptunian System,” Science 246, no. 4936 (Dec. 15, 1989): 1417-21.
Swift, David W. Voyager Tales: Personal Views of the Grand Tour (Reston, Va.: AIAA, 1997).
Voyager Mission Planning Office Staff.
Voyager Uranus Travel Guide. JPL D-2580 (Pasadena, Calif.: JPL, August 1985).
BOOKS ABOUT EXPLORATION, INCLUDING SPACE EXPLORATION
Atlas of Exploration (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Baker, J. N. L. A History of Geographical Discovery and Exploration (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1967).
Ballard, Robert D. The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000).
Broad, William J. The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997).
Burrows, William. Exploring Space: Voyages in the Solar System and Beyond (New York: Random House, 1990).
———. This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age (New York: Random House, 1998).
Carson, Rachel. The Sea Around Us (New York: Oxford University Press, 1951; rev., 1961 ed.).
Clarke, Arthur C. The Exploration of Space (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1951).