1 00:00:01,302 --> 00:00:09,608 [wind blowing, static radio and chimes] 2 00:00:09,643 --> 00:00:14,146 [wind blowing, electronic sounds, faint radio chatter] 3 00:00:14,181 --> 00:00:17,583 [wind blowing, electronic sounds] 4 00:00:17,618 --> 00:00:20,853 [radio static, faint radio chatter] 5 00:00:20,888 --> 00:00:25,090 [wind blowing, wolf howling] 6 00:00:25,126 --> 00:00:26,425 [faint Morse code style beeping] 7 00:00:26,460 --> 00:00:27,960 LARRY SODERBLOM: It is really true 8 00:00:27,995 --> 00:00:30,195 that you can only explore the solar system 9 00:00:30,231 --> 00:00:32,765 for the first time once. 10 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:34,366 Ah...Voyager did that. 11 00:00:34,402 --> 00:00:36,802 [whale sounds] 12 00:00:36,837 --> 00:00:39,171 TOM KRIMIGIS: How could one be so lucky? 13 00:00:39,206 --> 00:00:42,508 It's a dream and it came true. 14 00:00:42,543 --> 00:00:44,276 [Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F (Golden Record)] 15 00:00:44,311 --> 00:00:45,644 BRAD SMITH: Fifty years from now 16 00:00:45,679 --> 00:00:48,981 Voyager will be the science project 17 00:00:49,016 --> 00:00:50,949 of the 20th century. 18 00:00:50,985 --> 00:00:51,850 The mission. 19 00:00:51,886 --> 00:00:53,085 The big mission. 20 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:58,023 [Melancholy Blues (Louis Armstrong)] 21 00:00:58,059 --> 00:01:00,526 CANDY HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: It opened our eyes to worlds, 22 00:01:00,561 --> 00:01:01,760 to real worlds. 23 00:01:01,796 --> 00:01:05,164 [aircraft/rocket noises] 24 00:01:05,199 --> 00:01:07,166 [faint plucked guitar string] 25 00:01:07,201 --> 00:01:08,934 FRANK DRAKE: This may in the long run be 26 00:01:08,969 --> 00:01:12,071 the only evidence that we ever existed. 27 00:01:12,106 --> 00:01:13,705 [faint plucked guitar string] 28 00:01:13,741 --> 00:01:16,341 CAROLYN PORCO: Voyager to me was Homeric, 29 00:01:16,377 --> 00:01:20,813 it was years of passing across the solar system 30 00:01:20,848 --> 00:01:22,047 from one planet to the other 31 00:01:22,083 --> 00:01:23,749 and then it was a week or two 32 00:01:23,784 --> 00:01:28,187 of frenzied activity and discovery and conquest 33 00:01:28,222 --> 00:01:30,322 and then it was, well, back in the boats, 34 00:01:30,357 --> 00:01:33,792 oars in the water and then on to the next conquest. 35 00:01:33,828 --> 00:01:34,827 [faint white noise] 36 00:01:34,862 --> 00:01:36,161 ["Wishing on a Star," Rose Royce] 37 00:01:36,197 --> 00:01:40,399 ♪ I'm wishing on a star ♪ 38 00:01:40,434 --> 00:01:45,771 ♪ to follow where you are ♪ 39 00:01:45,806 --> 00:01:51,110 ♪ I'm wishing on a dream ♪ 40 00:01:51,145 --> 00:01:53,345 SUZANNE DODD: It is the little engine that could. 41 00:01:53,380 --> 00:01:55,180 Nobody really knows how it does it, 42 00:01:55,216 --> 00:01:56,849 but everybody's rooting for it. 43 00:01:56,884 --> 00:02:01,353 ♪ ...and I wish on all the rainbows that I've seen ♪ 44 00:02:01,388 --> 00:02:03,989 TOM SPILKER: Every second, it goes to another place 45 00:02:04,024 --> 00:02:06,458 where we have never been before. 46 00:02:06,494 --> 00:02:09,194 ♪ ...who really dream, and I'm wishing on tomorrow ♪ 47 00:02:09,230 --> 00:02:10,429 DAVE LINICK: Voyager takes the cake. 48 00:02:10,464 --> 00:02:12,431 It's the most audacious mission. 49 00:02:12,466 --> 00:02:13,665 Who'd have thought 50 00:02:13,701 --> 00:02:17,503 that we'd actually be able to do that in 1977? 51 00:02:17,538 --> 00:02:21,807 ♪ I'm wishing on a star... ♪ 52 00:02:21,842 --> 00:02:23,775 [music finishes with final line] 53 00:02:27,214 --> 00:02:28,614 [soft piano] 54 00:02:28,716 --> 00:02:32,384 NARRATOR: In 1977, a team of scientists and engineers 55 00:02:32,486 --> 00:02:35,420 launched a mission of staggering ambition. 56 00:02:35,456 --> 00:02:37,055 Voyager. 57 00:02:37,091 --> 00:02:41,560 The initial idea was a grand tour of the outermost planets-- 58 00:02:41,595 --> 00:02:45,631 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. 59 00:02:45,666 --> 00:02:47,766 What were their atmospheres like? 60 00:02:47,801 --> 00:02:49,168 Their moons? 61 00:02:49,203 --> 00:02:53,238 At the time, our knowledge of these worlds was scant. 62 00:02:53,274 --> 00:02:55,974 [mechanical noises and piano music plays] 63 00:02:56,010 --> 00:02:58,210 ED STONE: We knew a little because you can observe 64 00:02:58,245 --> 00:03:00,345 from the Earth with telescopes. 65 00:03:00,381 --> 00:03:01,847 DON GURNETT: We knew for example at Jupiter 66 00:03:01,882 --> 00:03:03,382 that there were moons: 67 00:03:03,417 --> 00:03:06,251 Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto going around. 68 00:03:06,287 --> 00:03:07,519 [soft piano continues] 69 00:03:07,555 --> 00:03:09,321 STONE: We knew that there were winds on Jupiter; 70 00:03:09,356 --> 00:03:11,356 we knew about the great red spot on Jupiter; 71 00:03:11,392 --> 00:03:13,492 we knew that there was trapped radiation, 72 00:03:13,527 --> 00:03:15,294 so we knew there was a magnetic field. 73 00:03:15,329 --> 00:03:18,630 [soft piano] 74 00:03:18,666 --> 00:03:20,199 CHARLEY KOHLHASE: It was big. 75 00:03:20,234 --> 00:03:24,870 No, let's see, what did we know? 76 00:03:24,905 --> 00:03:26,939 We knew they were all gas giants, 77 00:03:26,974 --> 00:03:29,241 mostly made up of hydrogen and helium 78 00:03:29,276 --> 00:03:31,009 and some methane on the outer planets. 79 00:03:31,045 --> 00:03:32,277 [soft piano continues] 80 00:03:32,313 --> 00:03:34,079 TOM KRIMIGIS: For Saturn, we knew about the rings 81 00:03:34,114 --> 00:03:36,748 and we knew about the major satellites, 82 00:03:36,784 --> 00:03:39,117 but hardly anything more than that, 83 00:03:39,153 --> 00:03:40,719 and it was all very fuzzy. 84 00:03:40,754 --> 00:03:43,388 [soft piano continues and rattling noise comes in] 85 00:03:43,424 --> 00:03:45,924 HEIDI HAMMEL: I had been staring at these planets 86 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:48,360 through some of the best telescopes on Earth, 87 00:03:48,395 --> 00:03:51,196 and yet all I could see was fuzzy blobs. 88 00:03:51,232 --> 00:03:53,932 [soft piano continues, chain rattling, squeaking, clanking] 89 00:03:53,968 --> 00:03:55,400 FRAN BAGENAL: Astronomers had worked pretty hard 90 00:03:55,436 --> 00:03:57,603 to know what the physical make-up was, 91 00:03:57,638 --> 00:04:00,038 there were some basic characteristics, 92 00:04:00,074 --> 00:04:04,209 but their real nature, what they were really made of 93 00:04:04,245 --> 00:04:06,678 and what the means, moons, were like, 94 00:04:06,714 --> 00:04:09,281 we had none of that, just little glimpses. 95 00:04:09,316 --> 00:04:13,919 [soft piano continues, now accompanied by light guitar] 96 00:04:13,954 --> 00:04:15,487 [sea and bird sounds] 97 00:04:15,522 --> 00:04:18,490 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: Human beings are a curious bunch. 98 00:04:18,525 --> 00:04:20,892 We want to know what's around the corner. 99 00:04:20,928 --> 00:04:23,662 We have to go past that next bend in the road, 100 00:04:23,697 --> 00:04:26,965 so it's some sort of innate drive, I think, 101 00:04:27,001 --> 00:04:31,536 that we have, as a species. 102 00:04:31,572 --> 00:04:34,373 [light guitar & glockenspiel music plays in the background] 103 00:04:34,408 --> 00:04:36,708 STONE: One of the key things that made this mission possible 104 00:04:36,744 --> 00:04:37,976 was gravity assist. 105 00:04:38,012 --> 00:04:40,912 That is when you fly by Jupiter, you turn the corner 106 00:04:40,948 --> 00:04:42,247 and you take a little bit 107 00:04:42,283 --> 00:04:44,416 of Jupiter's orbital speed with you. 108 00:04:44,451 --> 00:04:45,917 Like a slingshot, 109 00:04:45,953 --> 00:04:50,122 so you better make sure Saturn's in the right place. 110 00:04:50,157 --> 00:04:52,124 NARRATOR: The positions of the outer planets 111 00:04:52,159 --> 00:04:54,092 presented an opportunity. 112 00:04:54,128 --> 00:04:55,694 A rare alignment meant the time 113 00:04:55,729 --> 00:04:57,529 needed to cross the solar system 114 00:04:57,564 --> 00:04:59,197 could be slashed. 115 00:04:59,233 --> 00:05:08,473 [light guitar & glockenspiel music continues in the background] 116 00:05:08,509 --> 00:05:11,476 SODERBLOM: It would go Jupiter boom, Saturn boom, 117 00:05:11,512 --> 00:05:13,845 Uranus boom, Neptune boom. 118 00:05:13,881 --> 00:05:17,049 HAMMEL: The planets had to be lined up in just the right way 119 00:05:17,084 --> 00:05:19,184 to allow one spacecraft to do that. 120 00:05:19,219 --> 00:05:22,621 SODERBLOM: And that aligning up only occurs rarely. 121 00:05:22,656 --> 00:05:24,890 HAMMEL: That only happens once like once every hundred, 122 00:05:24,925 --> 00:05:26,291 more than a hundred years. 123 00:05:26,327 --> 00:05:28,226 JIM BELL: ...175 years, something like that. 124 00:05:28,262 --> 00:05:31,330 KOHLHASE: Once every 176 years. 125 00:05:31,365 --> 00:05:32,898 BELL: The previous time it happened, 126 00:05:32,933 --> 00:05:35,200 exploration was wooden sailing ships. 127 00:05:35,235 --> 00:05:36,735 [guitar music continues] [ocean] 128 00:05:36,770 --> 00:05:39,671 KRIMIGIS: It was named "The Outer Planets Grand Tour," 129 00:05:39,707 --> 00:05:42,674 and the cost of the mission was estimated to be 130 00:05:42,710 --> 00:05:45,777 in excess of a billion dollars. 131 00:05:45,813 --> 00:05:49,648 The NASA administrator went to the President, 132 00:05:49,683 --> 00:05:51,683 and he said the last time the planets 133 00:05:51,719 --> 00:05:53,952 were lined up like that, 134 00:05:53,987 --> 00:05:59,458 President Jefferson was sitting at your desk, and he blew it. 135 00:05:59,493 --> 00:06:05,731 So, Mr. Nixon laughed and said all right, just do two. 136 00:06:05,766 --> 00:06:07,833 So, only two planets. 137 00:06:08,969 --> 00:06:10,268 [electric guitar music begins] 138 00:06:10,304 --> 00:06:12,971 NARRATOR: Jupiter and Saturn were officially a go. 139 00:06:13,006 --> 00:06:16,341 It would be a less grand-- but still ambitious--tour. 140 00:06:16,377 --> 00:06:17,642 Yet the Voyager team 141 00:06:17,678 --> 00:06:20,112 wasn't ready to give up on going farther. 142 00:06:20,147 --> 00:06:23,148 As they assembled the spacecraft in a giant hangar, 143 00:06:23,183 --> 00:06:26,084 some of them kept a secret goal alive. 144 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:27,252 [sounds of light turning on] 145 00:06:27,287 --> 00:06:29,554 KRIMIGIS: We knew right from the get-go 146 00:06:29,590 --> 00:06:32,991 that we were going to try as hard as we could 147 00:06:33,026 --> 00:06:36,194 to extend the mission to go to Uranus and Neptune. 148 00:06:36,230 --> 00:06:38,597 KOHLHASE: We designed that in from the beginning. 149 00:06:38,632 --> 00:06:42,534 We knew that we were endowing Voyager with the option 150 00:06:42,569 --> 00:06:46,171 if the chance was there to use it. 151 00:06:46,206 --> 00:06:58,283 [percussion kicks in as music continues] 152 00:06:58,318 --> 00:07:00,886 JOHN CASANI: We didn't want to build anything into the design 153 00:07:00,921 --> 00:07:03,388 that would have prevented us from going further. 154 00:07:03,424 --> 00:07:07,526 So, it was a mission within a mission, yeah. 155 00:07:07,561 --> 00:07:11,596 [heartbeat, bottle falls, water splashes] 156 00:07:11,632 --> 00:07:15,033 BELL: A group of scientists and visionaries realized 157 00:07:15,068 --> 00:07:17,903 that these spacecraft would leave the solar system. 158 00:07:17,938 --> 00:07:19,604 They figured don't let this opportunity pass, 159 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,140 you're going to throw a bottle into the ocean. 160 00:07:22,176 --> 00:07:23,275 Put a message in it. 161 00:07:23,310 --> 00:07:24,643 [high pitched string music begins] 162 00:07:24,678 --> 00:07:26,645 NARRATOR: What would we want to tell intelligent aliens 163 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:28,113 about our planet? 164 00:07:28,148 --> 00:07:32,017 What would we want to tell them about us? 165 00:07:32,052 --> 00:07:33,919 The driving force behind the message 166 00:07:33,954 --> 00:07:36,721 was the astronomer Carl Sagan. 167 00:07:36,757 --> 00:07:39,491 WATERS: Would you expect someone to find this record out there? 168 00:07:39,526 --> 00:07:41,226 Is there something out there? 169 00:07:41,261 --> 00:07:42,360 CARL SAGAN: Well, nobody knows. 170 00:07:42,396 --> 00:07:43,895 One of the great unsolved questions 171 00:07:43,931 --> 00:07:45,664 is whether we're alone or whether... 172 00:07:45,699 --> 00:07:47,632 JON LOMBERG: Carl Sagan has become probably 173 00:07:47,668 --> 00:07:51,303 the best-known scientist of the late 20th century. 174 00:07:51,338 --> 00:07:55,307 He was a working scientist, he played a key role 175 00:07:55,342 --> 00:07:58,210 in many of the NASA missions to the planets, 176 00:07:58,245 --> 00:07:59,678 including the Voyager one. 177 00:07:59,713 --> 00:08:02,681 He was one of the scientists on the Voyager imaging team, 178 00:08:02,716 --> 00:08:06,852 but he also was the astronomer who as much as any one person 179 00:08:06,887 --> 00:08:10,522 made the study of extraterrestrial life credible. 180 00:08:10,557 --> 00:08:14,726 CARL SAGAN: A comment by Thomas Carlyle, 181 00:08:14,761 --> 00:08:17,829 a somewhat crusty old fellow 182 00:08:17,865 --> 00:08:22,033 who upon thinking about the stars said, 183 00:08:22,069 --> 00:08:24,402 "A sad spectacle. 184 00:08:24,438 --> 00:08:29,774 If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. 185 00:08:29,810 --> 00:08:33,044 If they be not inhabited... what a waste of space." 186 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:34,279 [laughter] 187 00:08:34,314 --> 00:08:36,047 CASANI: Carl Sagan was a good friend of mine, 188 00:08:36,083 --> 00:08:37,182 and I called him up and said, 189 00:08:37,217 --> 00:08:39,417 "Hey, would you be willing to undertake 190 00:08:39,453 --> 00:08:40,652 to come up with something 191 00:08:40,687 --> 00:08:42,187 for us to put on the Voyager spacecraft?" 192 00:08:42,222 --> 00:08:44,322 He says, "Yes, sure." 193 00:08:44,358 --> 00:08:47,392 And he told me he could do it for 25,000 bucks, 194 00:08:47,427 --> 00:08:49,327 so I authorized him to go ahead and do it, 195 00:08:49,363 --> 00:08:52,697 and I sort of was hands-off at that point. 196 00:08:52,733 --> 00:08:55,333 BELL: The Golden Record followed in the footsteps 197 00:08:55,369 --> 00:08:58,937 of a project called the Pioneer plaque. 198 00:08:58,972 --> 00:09:00,939 CASANI: The Pioneer spacecraft had some line drawings 199 00:09:00,974 --> 00:09:02,941 of a male and female form, 200 00:09:02,976 --> 00:09:04,776 and some people went absolutely bonkers. 201 00:09:04,811 --> 00:09:05,911 I don't know if you've seen it, 202 00:09:05,946 --> 00:09:07,679 but it's the most innocent thing you can imagine, 203 00:09:07,714 --> 00:09:10,148 and it caused a lot of commotion. 204 00:09:10,183 --> 00:09:12,284 But I thought that was great. 205 00:09:12,319 --> 00:09:15,153 LOMBERG: At first Carl thought they'd simply do another plaque, 206 00:09:15,188 --> 00:09:16,988 maybe with some more information, 207 00:09:17,024 --> 00:09:18,323 but Frank Drake-- 208 00:09:18,358 --> 00:09:19,991 a brilliant theoretical physicist 209 00:09:20,027 --> 00:09:22,694 but also a very hands-on kind of guy, 210 00:09:22,729 --> 00:09:24,195 he came up with the idea 211 00:09:24,231 --> 00:09:26,965 that for the same amount of weight and space, 212 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:28,767 you could send a phonograph record. 213 00:09:28,802 --> 00:09:31,903 [harp music] 214 00:09:31,939 --> 00:09:34,739 DRAKE: The people who actually did the science part of Voyager 215 00:09:34,775 --> 00:09:36,241 are always jealous and mad 216 00:09:36,276 --> 00:09:38,209 because the Golden Record gets more attention 217 00:09:38,245 --> 00:09:40,111 than all the wonderful things they did 218 00:09:40,147 --> 00:09:42,547 exploring the outer planets of the solar system 219 00:09:42,583 --> 00:09:44,649 except Pluto and all that. 220 00:09:44,685 --> 00:09:48,620 But the main attention goes to the Golden Record. 221 00:09:48,655 --> 00:09:51,656 Because of the aura that surrounds anything to do 222 00:09:51,692 --> 00:09:54,192 with extraterrestrial intelligent life, 223 00:09:54,227 --> 00:09:57,729 any kind of effort to contact extraterrestrial life 224 00:09:57,764 --> 00:10:00,165 is more fascinating than knowing the chemical makeup 225 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:02,434 of a mineral on Mars or something. 226 00:10:02,469 --> 00:10:04,269 [laughs] 227 00:10:04,304 --> 00:10:07,072 LOMBERG: The record is an old-style LP recording. 228 00:10:07,107 --> 00:10:09,174 The only difference is it's on metal, 229 00:10:09,209 --> 00:10:11,910 and that's so it will last a long time. 230 00:10:11,945 --> 00:10:14,079 TIMOTHY FERRIS: And it was recorded at half-speed 231 00:10:14,114 --> 00:10:16,481 so that gave us two hours of total time. 232 00:10:16,516 --> 00:10:18,683 An hour and a half of it was devoted to music 233 00:10:18,719 --> 00:10:21,086 and the other half hour contains 234 00:10:21,121 --> 00:10:23,154 all of the other data on the record: 235 00:10:23,190 --> 00:10:26,524 the natural sounds of Earth, the spoken greetings 236 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:29,494 and the encoded photographs of Earth. 237 00:10:29,529 --> 00:10:31,396 LOMBERG: One of the first questions a lot of people ask 238 00:10:31,431 --> 00:10:33,832 is, well, they'll never figure out how to play it. 239 00:10:33,867 --> 00:10:36,134 And in fact, we included 240 00:10:36,169 --> 00:10:39,070 a cartridge and stylus in the package with the record, 241 00:10:39,106 --> 00:10:42,674 and the drawing on the cover of the record shows the method 242 00:10:42,709 --> 00:10:46,645 by which the stylus is to be placed on the record. 243 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:48,580 BELL: Maybe what's written on it 244 00:10:48,615 --> 00:10:51,182 will seem like kindergarten scribbles to them, 245 00:10:51,218 --> 00:10:53,485 but they should be able to figure it out 246 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:56,988 if they've got some smart minds or whatever's in their heads, 247 00:10:57,024 --> 00:10:58,690 if they even have heads. 248 00:10:58,725 --> 00:10:59,691 [spraying sounds] 249 00:10:59,726 --> 00:11:01,059 KOHLHASE: What I find interesting 250 00:11:01,094 --> 00:11:03,194 is to protect it from the dust 251 00:11:03,230 --> 00:11:05,296 and tiny particles of the journey, 252 00:11:05,332 --> 00:11:07,332 they put a cover over it, 253 00:11:07,367 --> 00:11:12,904 and on the cover was engraved the location of Earth, 254 00:11:12,939 --> 00:11:14,572 our solar system, 255 00:11:14,608 --> 00:11:18,410 in terms of its direction from different pulsars. 256 00:11:18,445 --> 00:11:19,811 CASANI: A lot of people said, well, why would you do that? 257 00:11:19,846 --> 00:11:21,112 I said what do you mean? 258 00:11:21,148 --> 00:11:22,647 They say, well, why would you announce where you are, 259 00:11:22,683 --> 00:11:24,215 you know, because there are aliens out there, 260 00:11:24,251 --> 00:11:26,985 that probably raid planets and use them for food 261 00:11:27,020 --> 00:11:28,453 or eat the people or make them slaves. 262 00:11:28,488 --> 00:11:29,788 You know, if they find it, 263 00:11:29,823 --> 00:11:31,923 their technology is probably more advanced than ours, 264 00:11:31,958 --> 00:11:33,358 they'll come here and destroy us, 265 00:11:33,393 --> 00:11:34,893 so why would you do something like that. 266 00:11:34,928 --> 00:11:36,995 Why would these people expose themselves 267 00:11:37,030 --> 00:11:39,297 to our voracious appetite? 268 00:11:39,332 --> 00:11:41,599 They must be very altruistic, you know? 269 00:11:44,571 --> 00:11:49,407 [whale sounds] 270 00:11:49,443 --> 00:11:53,344 [radio signals scrambling and faint radio chatter] 271 00:11:53,380 --> 00:11:57,716 NARRATOR: In 1972, preparation for the mission got underway. 272 00:11:57,751 --> 00:11:59,684 Other great journeys of discovery-- 273 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:02,353 by Magellan, Columbus, Da Gama-- 274 00:12:02,389 --> 00:12:04,656 all involved more than one ship. 275 00:12:04,691 --> 00:12:06,991 And so would Voyager. 276 00:12:07,027 --> 00:12:11,196 Two spacecraft would be built-- two chances for success. 277 00:12:11,231 --> 00:12:12,363 [birds and wildlife noises] 278 00:12:12,399 --> 00:12:14,165 BELL: One of the things I just admire most 279 00:12:14,201 --> 00:12:16,334 about the engineers who built Voyager 280 00:12:16,369 --> 00:12:17,669 is that they're always thinking 281 00:12:17,704 --> 00:12:21,106 about the most improbable things happening. 282 00:12:21,141 --> 00:12:22,540 You know, you want to take those people 283 00:12:22,576 --> 00:12:24,509 on a camping trip with you because they will think of... 284 00:12:24,544 --> 00:12:25,944 well, you've got to bring... 285 00:12:25,979 --> 00:12:28,513 what if these bugs come out, what if the tent gets flooded, 286 00:12:28,548 --> 00:12:30,181 what if you run out of gas, 287 00:12:30,217 --> 00:12:32,117 what if you can't start the fire, you know. 288 00:12:32,152 --> 00:12:33,852 They're the what if people, 289 00:12:33,887 --> 00:12:36,988 and when you're sending something out into space 290 00:12:37,023 --> 00:12:40,391 you can't go do a service call, you can't bring it back, 291 00:12:40,427 --> 00:12:44,162 so your what if list had better be like that long 292 00:12:44,197 --> 00:12:48,099 or you're not going to be able to survive. 293 00:12:48,135 --> 00:12:52,403 [machines spinning and grinding] 294 00:12:52,439 --> 00:12:54,439 FRANK LOCATELL: These projects begin 295 00:12:54,474 --> 00:12:58,910 with a conceptualization period. 296 00:12:58,945 --> 00:13:00,745 How do we arrange the spacecraft, 297 00:13:00,781 --> 00:13:04,649 how do we take the communications system, 298 00:13:04,684 --> 00:13:08,486 this large 12-foot diameter fixed antenna, 299 00:13:08,522 --> 00:13:13,024 and arrange it relative to the propulsion system? 300 00:13:13,059 --> 00:13:16,561 The spacecraft took on the dimension of being a child, 301 00:13:16,596 --> 00:13:20,231 and our design teams, you know, were like kind of parents. 302 00:13:20,267 --> 00:13:24,202 This was actually a nurturing process. 303 00:13:24,237 --> 00:13:31,976 Bringing that child, if you will, into reality. 304 00:13:32,012 --> 00:13:34,712 CASANI: All spacecraft are made basically of the same things: 305 00:13:34,748 --> 00:13:36,881 silicon and aluminum, that's about it. 306 00:13:36,917 --> 00:13:38,783 You know, that's probably 95% of it. 307 00:13:38,819 --> 00:13:40,785 Silicon and aluminum is cheap 308 00:13:40,821 --> 00:13:43,621 until you start making stuff out if it, you know. 309 00:13:43,657 --> 00:13:44,989 [beeping machines and low bass drum beats] 310 00:13:45,025 --> 00:13:46,991 RICH TERRILE: 1972 was when you had the technology freeze, 311 00:13:47,027 --> 00:13:48,960 remember we launched in 1977, 312 00:13:48,995 --> 00:13:51,429 so you freeze technology several years earlier, 313 00:13:51,464 --> 00:13:54,399 and at the time the biggest computers in the world 314 00:13:54,434 --> 00:13:56,000 were comparable to the kinds of things 315 00:13:56,036 --> 00:13:57,936 we have in our pockets today, 316 00:13:57,971 --> 00:14:00,305 and I'm not talking about a cell phone. 317 00:14:00,340 --> 00:14:03,208 I'm actually talking about a key fob. 318 00:14:03,243 --> 00:14:04,909 CASANI: What's wrong with 70s technology? 319 00:14:04,945 --> 00:14:09,714 I mean, you're looking at me, I'm a 30s technology, right? 320 00:14:09,749 --> 00:14:11,716 I don't apologize for the limitations 321 00:14:11,751 --> 00:14:13,852 that we were working with at the time. 322 00:14:13,887 --> 00:14:18,890 We milked the technology for what we could get from it. 323 00:14:18,925 --> 00:14:21,759 ED STONE: Voyager is about 800 kilograms. 324 00:14:21,795 --> 00:14:24,596 Its main antenna is 12 feet in diameter, 325 00:14:24,631 --> 00:14:26,798 which was the largest we could launch. 326 00:14:26,833 --> 00:14:28,266 BELL: There's this body, 327 00:14:28,301 --> 00:14:31,202 this ten-sided can called the bus, 328 00:14:31,238 --> 00:14:34,239 and that's got all the electronics and the computers. 329 00:14:34,274 --> 00:14:37,508 And that's got these arms and these appendages that stick out. 330 00:14:37,544 --> 00:14:39,978 It has these feet that connected it to the rocket 331 00:14:40,013 --> 00:14:41,846 and then a really long arm 332 00:14:41,882 --> 00:14:44,182 with a magnetic field sensor on it over here 333 00:14:44,217 --> 00:14:47,218 and another arm over there with this plutonium power supply 334 00:14:47,254 --> 00:14:48,553 to give it its electricity. 335 00:14:48,588 --> 00:14:50,321 You can't keep that too close to the spacecraft 336 00:14:50,357 --> 00:14:52,123 because it will radiate the spacecraft. 337 00:14:52,158 --> 00:14:53,992 And another arm with this device 338 00:14:54,027 --> 00:14:56,060 that had the cameras and other instruments on it 339 00:14:56,096 --> 00:14:58,296 that could point around, kind of like the eyes, 340 00:14:58,331 --> 00:15:02,033 and the big antenna was the ears. 341 00:15:02,068 --> 00:15:03,935 STONE: We had eleven scientific instruments 342 00:15:03,970 --> 00:15:07,071 peeking out to see what's out there. 343 00:15:07,107 --> 00:15:08,907 BELL: When everything is fully extended 344 00:15:08,942 --> 00:15:10,775 to its greatest dimensions, 345 00:15:10,810 --> 00:15:15,213 it's comparable in size to sort of a small school bus. 346 00:15:15,248 --> 00:15:18,349 A strange-looking being for our planet, 347 00:15:18,385 --> 00:15:20,652 but perfectly happy in space. 348 00:15:20,687 --> 00:15:30,728 [Beethoven's 5th] 349 00:15:30,730 --> 00:15:36,501 [Beethoven's 5th] 350 00:15:36,536 --> 00:15:42,073 [music continues] 351 00:15:42,108 --> 00:15:43,241 [Tchenhoukoumen percussion, Senegal] 352 00:15:43,276 --> 00:15:44,909 NARRATOR: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony 353 00:15:44,945 --> 00:15:47,145 was one of twenty-seven pieces of music 354 00:15:47,180 --> 00:15:49,314 chosen for the Golden Record. 355 00:15:49,349 --> 00:15:53,318 FERRIS: I became the producer of only one record in my career, 356 00:15:53,353 --> 00:15:55,086 and only two copies of it were made, 357 00:15:55,121 --> 00:15:57,021 and they were both hurled off the earth, 358 00:15:57,057 --> 00:15:58,990 so I don't know if that's a credential or not. 359 00:15:59,025 --> 00:16:00,091 [needle sliding off record] 360 00:16:00,126 --> 00:16:02,527 [Izlel je Delyo Hajdutin (Golden Record)] 361 00:16:02,562 --> 00:16:05,163 The launch window for Voyager was set. 362 00:16:05,198 --> 00:16:08,266 and they sure as hell weren't going to wait for the record. 363 00:16:08,301 --> 00:16:09,934 [Fairie Round--David Munrow] 364 00:16:09,970 --> 00:16:11,569 LOMBERG: We had six weeks to do it, 365 00:16:11,604 --> 00:16:14,005 that's what always draws the biggest gasp, 366 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:17,008 that you had to figure out a way to explain the world to aliens, 367 00:16:17,043 --> 00:16:19,444 and by the way it has to be finished in six weeks. 368 00:16:19,479 --> 00:16:22,046 [Melancholy Blues-- Louis Armstrong] 369 00:16:22,082 --> 00:16:25,116 FERRIS: We had two goals in making the Voyager record: 370 00:16:25,151 --> 00:16:27,285 we wanted the music to represent 371 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:29,420 many different cultures around the world 372 00:16:29,456 --> 00:16:31,923 and not just the culture of the society 373 00:16:31,958 --> 00:16:34,859 that had built and launched the spacecraft. 374 00:16:34,894 --> 00:16:36,894 [Ugam--Azerbaijan bagpipes] 375 00:16:36,930 --> 00:16:40,465 The other criterion was we wanted it to be a good record. 376 00:16:40,500 --> 00:16:41,632 [Mozart--Queen of the Night-- Eda Moser] 377 00:16:41,668 --> 00:16:44,235 LOMBERG: It's a very idiosyncratic message. 378 00:16:44,270 --> 00:16:46,604 It doesn't seem like something made by a committee. 379 00:16:46,639 --> 00:16:48,239 It's too quirky. 380 00:16:48,274 --> 00:16:54,612 [Mozart--Queen of the Night-- Eda Moser] 381 00:16:54,647 --> 00:16:58,282 [Cranes in Their Nest-- Japan (Shakuhachi)] 382 00:16:58,318 --> 00:17:00,151 FERRIS: If you listen to the Voyager record, 383 00:17:00,186 --> 00:17:02,820 it would be remarkable if you didn't hear some pieces of music 384 00:17:02,856 --> 00:17:05,189 that were quite unlike anything you had heard before. 385 00:17:05,225 --> 00:17:07,291 The Japanese shakuhachi piece 386 00:17:07,327 --> 00:17:10,528 or the sixteen-year-old pygmy girl singing 387 00:17:10,563 --> 00:17:11,963 what's called an initiation song, 388 00:17:11,998 --> 00:17:13,531 a kind of puberty song, 389 00:17:13,566 --> 00:17:18,503 in the Ituri forest of Africa is just unbelievably beautiful. 390 00:17:18,538 --> 00:17:22,540 [Pygmy girl initiation song] 391 00:17:22,575 --> 00:17:23,908 There was a certain amount 392 00:17:23,943 --> 00:17:27,812 of hunting up rare records here and there. 393 00:17:27,847 --> 00:17:32,450 I remember the back of an Indian appliance store in New York 394 00:17:32,485 --> 00:17:34,485 where they had some Indian records, 395 00:17:34,521 --> 00:17:36,754 and there was one copy of a raga 396 00:17:36,790 --> 00:17:39,057 that we ended up putting on the record. 397 00:17:39,092 --> 00:17:43,828 [Jaat Kahan Ho--India-- Surshri] 398 00:17:43,863 --> 00:17:45,496 [piano note] 399 00:17:45,532 --> 00:17:48,533 [cello] 400 00:17:48,568 --> 00:17:50,635 [cymbal crash] 401 00:17:50,670 --> 00:17:52,637 FERRIS: I would love to have had a Bob Dylan piece. 402 00:17:52,672 --> 00:17:54,605 But really there's only room 403 00:17:54,641 --> 00:17:58,810 for at most one contemporary rock piece. 404 00:17:58,845 --> 00:18:00,278 [electric guitar] 405 00:18:00,313 --> 00:18:02,647 But you know you're up against Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, 406 00:18:02,682 --> 00:18:05,650 which Bob Dylan himself would admit is an awfully good single. 407 00:18:05,685 --> 00:18:08,152 STEVE MARTIN: It may be just four simple words, 408 00:18:08,188 --> 00:18:10,321 but it is the first positive proof 409 00:18:10,356 --> 00:18:13,257 that other intelligent beings inhabit the universe. 410 00:18:13,293 --> 00:18:15,393 LARAINE NEWMAN: What are the four words, Cocuwa? 411 00:18:15,428 --> 00:18:17,929 MARTIN: Send more Chuck Berry. 412 00:18:17,964 --> 00:18:19,764 [laughter and applause] 413 00:18:19,799 --> 00:18:22,500 FERRIS: The world is full of fantastic music, 414 00:18:22,535 --> 00:18:25,002 and it goes without saying there's a lot more great music 415 00:18:25,038 --> 00:18:28,439 that's not on the Voyager record than there is on it. 416 00:18:28,475 --> 00:18:29,740 Which is a good thing, too, 417 00:18:29,776 --> 00:18:31,642 I mean, if you imagine living on a planet 418 00:18:31,678 --> 00:18:33,611 that was so pathetic 419 00:18:33,646 --> 00:18:37,315 that it only had 90 minutes of decent music. 420 00:18:37,350 --> 00:18:39,450 NARRATOR: In the summer of 1977, 421 00:18:39,486 --> 00:18:43,621 final preparations for two launches began in Florida. 422 00:18:46,459 --> 00:18:47,758 BELL: When it was launched, 423 00:18:47,794 --> 00:18:52,029 it was of course all folded up, it was like origami. 424 00:18:52,065 --> 00:18:58,536 LOCATELL: Here was this almost unexpected encapsulation. 425 00:18:58,571 --> 00:19:01,172 I mean, we knew that we were going to be encapsulated, 426 00:19:01,207 --> 00:19:04,575 but the emotional effect on that was kind of surprising, 427 00:19:04,611 --> 00:19:08,579 I noticed that in just looking around me. 428 00:19:08,615 --> 00:19:11,649 I realized that this was the last time 429 00:19:11,684 --> 00:19:17,989 any of us were going to see the spacecraft with eyes. 430 00:19:18,024 --> 00:19:23,227 And, um, that's a f... 431 00:19:23,263 --> 00:19:27,532 that's a fairly moving experience. 432 00:19:27,567 --> 00:19:28,866 [picture flash sounds] 433 00:19:28,902 --> 00:19:31,302 NARRATOR: Journalists converged on Cape Canaveral 434 00:19:31,337 --> 00:19:34,772 to cover a once in a lifetime mission. 435 00:19:34,807 --> 00:19:36,541 FERRIS: When the reporters came to the launch, 436 00:19:36,576 --> 00:19:39,777 they all wanted to know more about the record. 437 00:19:39,812 --> 00:19:41,979 Most of the press release drawings 438 00:19:42,015 --> 00:19:43,981 show the other side of the spacecraft 439 00:19:44,017 --> 00:19:45,917 so you can't see the record. 440 00:19:45,952 --> 00:19:48,920 There was always a lot of ambiguity in NASA about this. 441 00:19:48,955 --> 00:19:51,489 There's no question that the Voyager record is useless 442 00:19:51,524 --> 00:19:53,591 from a scientific standpoint, 443 00:19:53,626 --> 00:19:56,861 and the officials reluctantly arranged a press conference. 444 00:19:56,896 --> 00:20:00,932 [polka music plays] 445 00:20:00,967 --> 00:20:02,967 FERRIS: The press conference was a joke really. 446 00:20:03,002 --> 00:20:05,469 It was held in a hotel room 447 00:20:05,505 --> 00:20:08,940 separated by one of those accordion folding barriers 448 00:20:08,975 --> 00:20:11,409 from what was literally, as memory serves me, 449 00:20:11,444 --> 00:20:13,544 a Polish wedding reception. 450 00:20:13,580 --> 00:20:15,046 We did the whole press conference 451 00:20:15,081 --> 00:20:18,983 with the oompah sound of a wedding reception next door. 452 00:20:19,018 --> 00:20:21,252 But I think the public seemed to get it. 453 00:20:21,287 --> 00:20:24,455 [polka music plays] 454 00:20:24,490 --> 00:20:26,057 MAN ON LOUDSPEAKER: Environmental control, ready. 455 00:20:26,092 --> 00:20:27,258 MAN: Roger. 456 00:20:27,293 --> 00:20:30,695 KOHLHASE: We actually launched Voyager 2 first, 457 00:20:30,730 --> 00:20:36,033 and this gave the media, uh, drove them nuts. 458 00:20:36,069 --> 00:20:38,302 We launched Voyager 1 later, 459 00:20:38,338 --> 00:20:40,905 but it was launched on a faster trajectory, 460 00:20:40,940 --> 00:20:45,243 so it overtook Voyager 2 in December of 1977. 461 00:20:45,278 --> 00:20:46,877 From that point on, Voyager 1 462 00:20:46,913 --> 00:20:49,547 always got to the planet before Voyager 2, 463 00:20:49,582 --> 00:20:51,482 and the press was happy, they understood it. 464 00:20:51,517 --> 00:20:53,017 SPEAKER OVER TANNOY: We have just had a report 465 00:20:53,052 --> 00:20:56,487 from John Casani, the Voyager project manager, 466 00:20:56,522 --> 00:21:00,391 that we'll be able to count down at 10:25. 467 00:21:00,426 --> 00:21:04,128 [gentle guitar music] 468 00:21:04,163 --> 00:21:06,197 NARRATOR: After five years of planning, 469 00:21:06,232 --> 00:21:09,533 the assembly of the spacecraft's 65,000 parts 470 00:21:09,569 --> 00:21:12,169 and untold mathematical calculations, 471 00:21:12,205 --> 00:21:13,704 it all came down to this. 472 00:21:13,740 --> 00:21:15,172 [gentle guitar music] 473 00:21:15,208 --> 00:21:20,911 SPEAKER: Five, four, three, two, one. 474 00:21:20,947 --> 00:21:24,315 We have ignition and we have lift-off. 475 00:21:24,350 --> 00:21:26,917 LOCATELL: You see those solids ignite, 476 00:21:26,953 --> 00:21:30,488 and you are really not prepared for what's about to occur. 477 00:21:30,523 --> 00:21:32,857 [gentle guitar music] 478 00:21:32,892 --> 00:21:40,998 The sound waves then catch up and then this forceful shaking, 479 00:21:41,034 --> 00:21:47,938 the body is actually moved in resonance with this energy, 480 00:21:47,974 --> 00:21:49,907 shaking it, right. 481 00:21:49,942 --> 00:21:52,543 [audio of rocket taking off] 482 00:21:52,578 --> 00:21:54,078 LOMBERG: We were sitting in bleachers, 483 00:21:54,113 --> 00:21:56,547 and they keep you pretty far from the launch vehicle 484 00:21:56,582 --> 00:21:59,950 because they can explode, and it's basically, it's a big bomb. 485 00:21:59,986 --> 00:22:01,352 LINDA SPILKER: So there's a little bit 486 00:22:01,387 --> 00:22:03,821 of holding your breath and wanting to make sure you see it 487 00:22:03,856 --> 00:22:08,759 get that first little motion off the pad starting into space. 488 00:22:08,795 --> 00:22:09,960 [atmospheric guitar music] 489 00:22:09,996 --> 00:22:11,362 DRAKE: We were all thinking this thought: 490 00:22:11,397 --> 00:22:14,532 There it goes, it's going to be out there to represent us 491 00:22:14,567 --> 00:22:16,300 for the next five billion years. 492 00:22:16,336 --> 00:22:23,774 [audio of crowd cheering and clapping] 493 00:22:23,810 --> 00:22:27,478 LOCATELL: There were outbursts of joy. 494 00:22:27,513 --> 00:22:29,747 We were on our way! 495 00:22:31,150 --> 00:22:32,183 CASANI: And then we launched it, 496 00:22:32,218 --> 00:22:34,552 and then other things went crazy. 497 00:22:34,587 --> 00:22:37,188 [piano music] [radio noises] 498 00:22:37,223 --> 00:22:38,956 The spacecraft began to do things 499 00:22:38,991 --> 00:22:42,193 that we had no expectation that it would have done. 500 00:22:42,228 --> 00:22:43,894 STONE: Voyager was not in control of itself, 501 00:22:43,930 --> 00:22:45,963 it's just riding this big rocket, 502 00:22:45,998 --> 00:22:47,565 and that was shaking it in such a way 503 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:49,667 that it thought it was failing, 504 00:22:49,702 --> 00:22:52,002 and so it started switching off various boxes, 505 00:22:52,038 --> 00:22:54,338 changing to the back-up this, to the back-up that. 506 00:22:54,374 --> 00:22:56,741 Trying to figure out why all this stuff was happening. 507 00:22:56,776 --> 00:22:58,709 CASANI: As the launch vehicle leaves the launchpad, 508 00:22:58,745 --> 00:23:01,212 it has to roll through a certain angle 509 00:23:01,247 --> 00:23:04,081 to get to the right direction for departure, 510 00:23:04,117 --> 00:23:07,051 and the rate that it rolls at is a much higher rate 511 00:23:07,086 --> 00:23:10,221 than the spacecraft would ever normally experience flying, 512 00:23:10,256 --> 00:23:13,257 and so the gyro hits the stops. 513 00:23:13,292 --> 00:23:15,393 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: Us poor people on Earth, 514 00:23:15,428 --> 00:23:18,229 we're like what is it doing? 515 00:23:18,264 --> 00:23:20,631 CASANI: For a couple of days it was a real nail-biter. 516 00:23:20,666 --> 00:23:23,033 People were asking us, have you lost the spacecraft 517 00:23:23,069 --> 00:23:25,069 and we would say we don't know for sure 518 00:23:25,104 --> 00:23:26,670 because we didn't know for sure. 519 00:23:26,706 --> 00:23:30,408 LINICK: And the headline read "Mutiny in Space." 520 00:23:30,443 --> 00:23:32,610 The Voyager spacecraft had decided 521 00:23:32,645 --> 00:23:35,079 it just didn't want to follow the instructions 522 00:23:35,114 --> 00:23:36,914 that its human controllers were giving it 523 00:23:36,949 --> 00:23:39,350 and it was going to do what it wanted to do. 524 00:23:39,385 --> 00:23:41,385 BELL: So early in the mission it's like, oh, man, 525 00:23:41,421 --> 00:23:43,921 is this mission going to be plagued with problems? 526 00:23:43,956 --> 00:23:47,525 Is there some fundamental flaw in the design? 527 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:50,361 LOCATELL: That was a cliff hanger. 528 00:23:50,396 --> 00:23:52,263 That was the end of the mission. 529 00:23:52,298 --> 00:23:55,032 It could have been the end of the mission. 530 00:23:55,067 --> 00:23:56,734 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: Fortunately, the person 531 00:23:56,769 --> 00:23:58,235 who had written that code 532 00:23:58,271 --> 00:24:02,373 was able to say this is OK, it's doing this, it tried that, 533 00:24:02,408 --> 00:24:06,210 it's doing this, it tried that and calm everyone else down. 534 00:24:06,245 --> 00:24:10,915 [bird sounds] 535 00:24:10,950 --> 00:24:13,050 The limits were set simply too tight. 536 00:24:13,085 --> 00:24:17,788 It needed to be able to wiggle more and vibrate more. 537 00:24:17,824 --> 00:24:19,256 [bird sounds] 538 00:24:19,292 --> 00:24:23,494 NARRATOR: Finally stabilized, Voyager 2 was bound for Jupiter. 539 00:24:23,529 --> 00:24:26,197 The launch of Voyager 1 was coming up fast, 540 00:24:26,232 --> 00:24:27,565 so the team scrambled 541 00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:29,733 to fine-tune the spacecraft's software 542 00:24:29,769 --> 00:24:32,036 to head off another mutiny. 543 00:24:32,071 --> 00:24:33,971 With the launch window closing soon, 544 00:24:34,006 --> 00:24:37,408 Voyager 1 finally took off. 545 00:24:37,443 --> 00:24:41,445 But rocket science is famously complicated. 546 00:24:41,481 --> 00:24:43,714 SPEAKER: Centaur 6, Titan Centaur 6 547 00:24:43,749 --> 00:24:45,349 has lifted off at 8:56 from here 548 00:24:45,384 --> 00:24:47,718 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station... 549 00:24:47,753 --> 00:24:49,420 KOHLHASE: We're thinking everything's OK, 550 00:24:49,455 --> 00:24:52,756 and then we begin to hear that something wasn't right. 551 00:24:52,792 --> 00:24:54,124 CASANI: I looked over at him 552 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:55,793 and he looked like he was a little worried, you know. 553 00:24:55,828 --> 00:24:57,161 And I said what's the matter, Charley? 554 00:24:57,196 --> 00:24:58,562 And he says I don't know, 555 00:24:58,598 --> 00:25:01,765 I don't think we're going to make it, you know. 556 00:25:01,801 --> 00:25:03,801 There was a leak in the propellant line, 557 00:25:03,836 --> 00:25:05,703 and we were losing propellant overboard, 558 00:25:05,738 --> 00:25:07,371 so while it was burning, 559 00:25:07,406 --> 00:25:09,473 propellant was escaping from the launch vehicle 560 00:25:09,509 --> 00:25:12,343 and second stage never got to deliver its full thrust 561 00:25:12,378 --> 00:25:14,311 because it ran out of fuel. 562 00:25:14,347 --> 00:25:16,614 STONE: And so, the upper stage which was a Centaur-- 563 00:25:16,649 --> 00:25:19,250 liquid hydrogen and oxygen stage-- 564 00:25:19,285 --> 00:25:20,885 had to make up for that. 565 00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:22,253 CASANI: And the Centaur is the stage 566 00:25:22,288 --> 00:25:23,554 that's doing the guidance, 567 00:25:23,589 --> 00:25:24,889 so the Centaur knows 568 00:25:24,924 --> 00:25:27,291 that it's not reaching the required velocity, 569 00:25:27,326 --> 00:25:30,394 and when it separates from the second stage 570 00:25:30,429 --> 00:25:35,099 it knows it has to burn longer to add more velocity. 571 00:25:35,134 --> 00:25:37,635 KOHLHASE: The Centaur had to use 572 00:25:37,670 --> 00:25:41,939 1,200 pounds of extra propellant. 573 00:25:41,974 --> 00:25:43,707 Now we're all thinking 574 00:25:43,743 --> 00:25:46,544 is it going to have enough left in the tanks 575 00:25:46,579 --> 00:25:51,248 or is it going to run out of fuel? 576 00:25:51,284 --> 00:25:56,153 Fortunately, it had three and a half seconds of thrusting left 577 00:25:56,188 --> 00:25:58,856 before it had run to fuel depletion. 578 00:25:58,891 --> 00:26:00,758 Three and a half seconds, 579 00:26:00,793 --> 00:26:04,094 so Voyager 1 just barely made it. 580 00:26:04,130 --> 00:26:05,563 CASANI: It wouldn't have gotten enough velocity 581 00:26:05,598 --> 00:26:06,931 to get to Jupiter, you know, 582 00:26:06,966 --> 00:26:08,732 so instead of getting to Jupiter, you know, 583 00:26:08,768 --> 00:26:10,334 we'd have gotten almost to Jupiter 584 00:26:10,369 --> 00:26:12,303 and then we'd come back toward the sun, 585 00:26:12,338 --> 00:26:14,605 which would not have been good. [laughs] 586 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:16,006 [music: Gallagher & Lyle "Breakaway"] 587 00:26:16,042 --> 00:26:20,945 ♪ I watch the distant lights go down the runway ♪ 588 00:26:20,980 --> 00:26:25,516 ♪ Disappear into the evening sky ♪ 589 00:26:25,551 --> 00:26:30,754 ♪ Oh, you know I'm with you on your journey ♪ 590 00:26:30,790 --> 00:26:33,624 ♪ Never could say goodbye ♪ 591 00:26:33,659 --> 00:26:36,927 LOCATELL: And then of course, you know, there's the thought 592 00:26:36,963 --> 00:26:41,532 that it's out of our hands. 593 00:26:41,567 --> 00:26:47,671 Now the major reason for this mission was about to unfold, 594 00:26:47,707 --> 00:26:49,940 that is the science. 595 00:26:49,976 --> 00:26:59,550 But our role as keepers, as progenitors, as... 596 00:26:59,585 --> 00:27:02,653 our role had been finished. 597 00:27:02,688 --> 00:27:04,655 [music: Gallagher & Lyle "Breakaway"] 598 00:27:04,690 --> 00:27:08,392 ♪ Though I won't stop you, I don't want you to ♪ 599 00:27:08,427 --> 00:27:13,764 ♪ Break away ♪ 600 00:27:13,799 --> 00:27:17,635 ♪ Fly across your ocean ♪ 601 00:27:17,670 --> 00:27:23,040 ♪ Break away ♪ 602 00:27:23,075 --> 00:27:26,877 ♪ Time has come for you ♪ 603 00:27:26,912 --> 00:27:32,282 ♪ Break away ♪ 604 00:27:32,318 --> 00:27:36,120 ♪ Fly across your ocean ♪ 605 00:27:36,155 --> 00:27:41,492 ♪ Break away ♪ 606 00:27:41,527 --> 00:27:47,364 ♪ Time has come ♪ 607 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:48,499 [radio signals and white noise] 608 00:27:48,534 --> 00:27:49,900 NARRATOR: Thanks to the dedicated work 609 00:27:49,935 --> 00:27:53,037 of hundreds of the world's best scientists and engineers, 610 00:27:53,072 --> 00:27:56,907 the twin Voyagers had at last embarked on their odyssey 611 00:27:56,942 --> 00:27:58,909 across the solar system. 612 00:27:58,944 --> 00:28:03,547 The first leg was almost 400 million miles to Jupiter. 613 00:28:03,582 --> 00:28:06,784 SODERBLOM: You can never really imagine-- 614 00:28:06,819 --> 00:28:08,819 you can try, but you can never really imagine 615 00:28:08,854 --> 00:28:13,590 what mother nature will actually have in store 616 00:28:13,626 --> 00:28:15,125 when you get there. 617 00:28:15,161 --> 00:28:25,202 [music: classical music] 618 00:28:25,204 --> 00:28:30,507 [music: classical music] 619 00:28:32,011 --> 00:28:34,378 LAWRENCE KRAUSS: It's worth realizing that a human life ago, 620 00:28:34,413 --> 00:28:36,747 less than 100 years ago, 87 years ago, 621 00:28:36,782 --> 00:28:39,783 the universe consisted of one, of one galaxy, 622 00:28:39,819 --> 00:28:41,385 our Milky Way galaxy, 623 00:28:41,420 --> 00:28:45,322 in a static eternal universe with eternal empty space. 624 00:28:45,357 --> 00:28:47,858 We didn't know about the other hundred billion galaxies 625 00:28:47,893 --> 00:28:49,560 a single human lifetime ago. 626 00:28:49,595 --> 00:28:51,562 [classical string melody] 627 00:28:51,597 --> 00:28:53,864 NARRATOR: In January 1979, 628 00:28:53,899 --> 00:29:00,504 Voyager 1 was coming up on its first planetary encounter, 629 00:29:00,539 --> 00:29:03,407 and Voyager 2 was four months behind. 630 00:29:03,442 --> 00:29:06,710 [classical string melody] 631 00:29:06,746 --> 00:29:10,814 SODERBLOM: It seems like time really flew. 632 00:29:10,850 --> 00:29:14,318 SMITH: I don't think we really fully understood 633 00:29:14,353 --> 00:29:16,153 before the first Jupiter encounter 634 00:29:16,188 --> 00:29:17,721 just how intense it was going to be. 635 00:29:17,757 --> 00:29:20,157 No, we didn't. 636 00:29:20,192 --> 00:29:23,560 We found out. [laughs] 637 00:29:23,596 --> 00:29:26,597 STONE: You start working on a mission in 1972, 638 00:29:26,632 --> 00:29:31,268 you launch in 1977, all of that there's no science, 639 00:29:31,303 --> 00:29:33,170 it's all getting ready. 640 00:29:33,205 --> 00:29:36,440 And then March '79: the flood. 641 00:29:36,475 --> 00:29:46,517 [piano music] 642 00:29:46,519 --> 00:29:52,055 [piano music] 643 00:29:52,091 --> 00:29:57,394 TERRILE: The encounters, they creep up on you. 644 00:29:57,429 --> 00:29:59,496 LINICK: When we were approaching, every picture 645 00:29:59,532 --> 00:30:02,966 was the greatest picture ever taken of Jupiter. 646 00:30:03,002 --> 00:30:04,601 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: In the beginning, 647 00:30:04,637 --> 00:30:05,969 it would be just a little dot 648 00:30:06,005 --> 00:30:08,238 getting bigger on the screen every day, 649 00:30:08,274 --> 00:30:11,175 and as we would get closer and closer 650 00:30:11,210 --> 00:30:14,912 the images became more dramatic. 651 00:30:14,947 --> 00:30:17,347 BELL: Incredibly strange and beautiful, 652 00:30:17,383 --> 00:30:23,987 and now by Voyager revealed in all of its splendor. 653 00:30:24,023 --> 00:30:26,490 TERRILE: That acceleration as you're approaching encounters 654 00:30:26,525 --> 00:30:28,992 is really something that becomes very, very exciting. 655 00:30:29,028 --> 00:30:30,994 We called it drinking out of a fire hose, you know, 656 00:30:31,030 --> 00:30:32,296 you're trying to take a little sip, 657 00:30:32,331 --> 00:30:34,731 and this torrent of data is coming out. 658 00:30:37,069 --> 00:30:38,569 JOURNALIST: Would someone care to speculate 659 00:30:38,604 --> 00:30:40,904 what you would say to Galileo Galilei 660 00:30:40,940 --> 00:30:43,941 if he walked into the room today? 661 00:30:43,976 --> 00:30:46,877 SMITH: How...how, how are you able to live so long? 662 00:30:46,912 --> 00:30:52,482 [laughter] 663 00:30:52,518 --> 00:30:53,917 STONE: I think Galileo... 664 00:30:53,953 --> 00:30:56,253 STONE: Jupiter is more than ten times the diameter of Earth, 665 00:30:56,288 --> 00:30:58,856 it's huge, and it's mainly hydrogen and helium; 666 00:30:58,891 --> 00:31:00,757 there are no solid surface on these planets. 667 00:31:00,793 --> 00:31:04,528 These planets are liquid, gas and liquid deep inside. 668 00:31:04,563 --> 00:31:06,129 ANDREW INGERSOLL: The gas is compressed 669 00:31:06,165 --> 00:31:07,397 the farther down you go, 670 00:31:07,433 --> 00:31:09,967 and it gets very hot indeed 671 00:31:10,002 --> 00:31:14,137 and you would melt, vaporize, in fact, 672 00:31:14,173 --> 00:31:16,273 if you tried to fly through Jupiter. 673 00:31:16,308 --> 00:31:18,876 INGERSOLL: Let me first modify your statement, 674 00:31:18,911 --> 00:31:20,277 not that it was wrong ... 675 00:31:20,312 --> 00:31:23,981 INGERSOLL: The atmospheric scientists got long-range views 676 00:31:24,016 --> 00:31:26,650 because we weren't looking at tiny moons, 677 00:31:26,685 --> 00:31:29,253 we were looking at the big planet, 678 00:31:29,288 --> 00:31:31,288 and so we could see things going on 679 00:31:31,323 --> 00:31:34,691 before the other groups could see things, 680 00:31:34,727 --> 00:31:39,997 and we were always the first to start shouting. 681 00:31:40,032 --> 00:31:44,401 SMITH: Even to this day we don't fly color detectors. 682 00:31:44,436 --> 00:31:48,505 You get a much higher-resolution image in black and white, 683 00:31:48,540 --> 00:31:50,407 and so when we want to make color, 684 00:31:50,442 --> 00:31:52,075 we take them through different filters 685 00:31:52,111 --> 00:31:53,911 and then on the ground you put it together 686 00:31:53,946 --> 00:31:56,246 and make a color image out of it. 687 00:31:56,282 --> 00:32:02,052 [low dramatic electronic rhythm music] 688 00:32:02,087 --> 00:32:03,487 INGERSOLL: You go to Jupiter 689 00:32:03,522 --> 00:32:06,890 and you have a storm that's been around for more than 300 years, 690 00:32:06,926 --> 00:32:08,625 that's the Great Red Spot. 691 00:32:08,661 --> 00:32:12,863 You could fit two or three Earths inside it. 692 00:32:12,898 --> 00:32:15,499 When Voyager started getting close-up images, 693 00:32:15,534 --> 00:32:18,168 we realized that it was very active, 694 00:32:18,203 --> 00:32:20,270 and that deepened the mystery 695 00:32:20,306 --> 00:32:23,473 of how these big storms could even exist 696 00:32:23,509 --> 00:32:27,444 with all this turbulence going on. 697 00:32:27,479 --> 00:32:31,648 SMITH: It was swallowing up clouds and spitting out others. 698 00:32:31,684 --> 00:32:37,120 We knew that it was a vortex, but to see it in action... 699 00:32:37,156 --> 00:32:39,990 NARRATOR: Another feature of Jupiter's dynamic environment 700 00:32:40,025 --> 00:32:42,626 posed a great danger to Voyager. 701 00:32:42,661 --> 00:32:48,065 Powerful radiation might destroy the spacecraft's electronics. 702 00:32:48,100 --> 00:32:49,299 BELL: Every day you're wondering 703 00:32:49,335 --> 00:32:50,968 did we build the spacecraft well enough? 704 00:32:51,003 --> 00:32:53,403 Did we anticipate all the possible things 705 00:32:53,439 --> 00:32:55,172 that could go wrong? 706 00:32:55,207 --> 00:33:02,946 [low dramatic electronic rhythm music] 707 00:33:02,982 --> 00:33:05,515 BELL: You're approaching this monster magnetic field, 708 00:33:05,551 --> 00:33:08,685 this monster radiation environment on purpose, 709 00:33:08,721 --> 00:33:10,687 because you need to get close because you want to see 710 00:33:10,723 --> 00:33:13,623 all the little moons and the clouds and the storms 711 00:33:13,659 --> 00:33:16,393 and you want to slingshot on to Saturn, 712 00:33:16,428 --> 00:33:19,463 but you just don't know if you're going to survive. 713 00:33:19,498 --> 00:33:20,797 Thing gets fried, you lose the mission. 714 00:33:20,833 --> 00:33:23,066 Still out there physically intact probably, 715 00:33:23,102 --> 00:33:26,636 but unable to communicate with it, the mission's over. 716 00:33:26,672 --> 00:33:30,440 LOCATELL: Two months before shipping to the Cape for launch, 717 00:33:30,476 --> 00:33:32,809 the scientists were predicting 718 00:33:32,845 --> 00:33:36,046 that the magnetic fields around Jupiter 719 00:33:36,081 --> 00:33:40,550 were intense enough that they would accelerate particles. 720 00:33:40,586 --> 00:33:44,354 Whoa! We were hearing initially 40,000 volts, 721 00:33:44,390 --> 00:33:47,557 that would be the end of our spacecraft. 722 00:33:47,593 --> 00:33:50,861 Cabling on these appendages were conductors 723 00:33:50,896 --> 00:33:52,996 that would take these destroying pulses 724 00:33:53,032 --> 00:33:56,700 and just feed them right into our systems and kill us, 725 00:33:56,735 --> 00:34:00,470 so we needed to ground everything. 726 00:34:00,506 --> 00:34:01,805 We didn't have time 727 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,474 to go through the normal design reviews, 728 00:34:04,510 --> 00:34:08,345 so in order to get this protection done quickly enough, 729 00:34:08,380 --> 00:34:11,148 an ad hoc team was formed 730 00:34:11,183 --> 00:34:13,583 and we did some things that were out of the ordinary, 731 00:34:13,619 --> 00:34:16,353 very out of the ordinary. 732 00:34:16,388 --> 00:34:18,889 I can remember asking one of the technicians 733 00:34:18,924 --> 00:34:22,426 to go out and buy aluminum foil. 734 00:34:22,461 --> 00:34:25,328 It was the only material that was available to us. 735 00:34:25,364 --> 00:34:31,635 Normally our procurement of spacecraft hardware supplies, 736 00:34:31,670 --> 00:34:37,140 materials, are a much more sophisticated process. 737 00:34:37,176 --> 00:34:40,143 We're actually cutting continuous strips 738 00:34:40,179 --> 00:34:43,747 and then cleaning them with wipes and alcohol 739 00:34:43,782 --> 00:34:48,585 and then finally wrapping these on all of our exterior cabling, 740 00:34:48,620 --> 00:34:53,390 but yeah, same material that's in your Christmas turkey. 741 00:34:53,425 --> 00:34:55,992 I don't think we created any shortage per se. 742 00:34:56,028 --> 00:34:58,428 It may have been a local shortage 743 00:34:58,464 --> 00:35:00,730 in the local grocery store for a few days 744 00:35:00,766 --> 00:35:02,799 until they reordered right. 745 00:35:02,835 --> 00:35:05,635 Your turkey wrapping is protecting Voyager, 746 00:35:05,671 --> 00:35:08,371 and now fast forward, you know, 747 00:35:08,407 --> 00:35:11,575 did we know whether we had done enough? 748 00:35:11,610 --> 00:35:16,480 [radiation sounds Voyager recorded at Jupiter] 749 00:35:16,515 --> 00:35:18,748 NARRATOR: Voyager survived the onslaught 750 00:35:18,784 --> 00:35:23,587 and went on to record signals that led to a discovery. 751 00:35:23,622 --> 00:35:25,455 DON GURNETT: If you had the right kind of antennas 752 00:35:25,491 --> 00:35:29,426 on your ears, you could go out and hear what we record. 753 00:35:29,461 --> 00:35:31,061 I'm going to call them radio sounds 754 00:35:31,096 --> 00:35:33,797 because we have to detect them with antennas. 755 00:35:33,832 --> 00:35:37,134 Amazingly we heard all kinds of sounds. 756 00:35:37,169 --> 00:35:40,303 [whistling frequency sounds] 757 00:35:40,339 --> 00:35:41,805 Whistlers. 758 00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,675 These things that go [whistling sound], like that. 759 00:35:45,711 --> 00:35:48,211 Yeah, whistlers mean lightning. 760 00:35:48,247 --> 00:35:50,447 There are lightning flashes at Jupiter 761 00:35:50,482 --> 00:35:52,048 that would go halfway 762 00:35:52,084 --> 00:35:53,583 from the east coast of the United States 763 00:35:53,619 --> 00:35:55,318 to the west coast. 764 00:35:55,354 --> 00:35:57,220 That was the first detection of lightning 765 00:35:57,256 --> 00:35:59,923 on a planet other than Earth. 766 00:35:59,958 --> 00:36:01,591 NARRATOR: The two Voyagers were poised 767 00:36:01,627 --> 00:36:03,960 to study Jupiter's little known moons. 768 00:36:03,996 --> 00:36:05,228 [background music: fast strings with slow piano chords] 769 00:36:05,264 --> 00:36:07,998 [high pitched radio noises] 770 00:36:08,033 --> 00:36:10,400 Having picked up 36,000 miles an hour 771 00:36:10,435 --> 00:36:12,736 from Jupiter's gravity assist, 772 00:36:12,771 --> 00:36:15,071 the spacecraft were now traveling fast. 773 00:36:15,107 --> 00:36:17,007 [background music: fast strings with slow piano chords] 774 00:36:17,042 --> 00:36:19,009 SODERBLOM: When you're on a flyby mission, 775 00:36:19,044 --> 00:36:21,811 there ain't no second chance. 776 00:36:21,847 --> 00:36:23,146 KOHLHASE: We were getting pictures, 777 00:36:23,182 --> 00:36:24,681 they were getting better and better, 778 00:36:24,716 --> 00:36:26,783 and you could begin to see detail 779 00:36:26,818 --> 00:36:28,752 as these moons got bigger. 780 00:36:28,787 --> 00:36:31,721 You know the dread you have is that you don't want to see 781 00:36:31,757 --> 00:36:33,757 a lot of worlds that look like Earth's moon. 782 00:36:33,792 --> 00:36:35,225 Let's face it, it's dull. 783 00:36:35,260 --> 00:36:39,529 SODERBLOM: I think everyone figured they would be 784 00:36:39,565 --> 00:36:42,966 just battered ice-balls, you know, 785 00:36:43,001 --> 00:36:44,601 kind of like the highlands of the moon, 786 00:36:44,636 --> 00:36:46,269 nothing but impact craters. 787 00:36:46,305 --> 00:36:47,771 And when we saw Callisto, 788 00:36:47,806 --> 00:36:49,973 basically it's totally hammered, right, 789 00:36:50,008 --> 00:36:52,008 it's saturated with impact craters. 790 00:36:52,044 --> 00:36:56,046 Ganymede shows a lot of interesting grooves and ridges, 791 00:36:56,081 --> 00:36:59,849 but it's pretty blasted with impact craters. 792 00:36:59,885 --> 00:37:01,818 NARRATOR: Every crater lasts for eons 793 00:37:01,853 --> 00:37:06,957 because no forces were present to resculpt the surface. 794 00:37:06,992 --> 00:37:10,260 The first two moons were dormant worlds. 795 00:37:10,295 --> 00:37:13,897 SODERBLOM: And then as we went into the inner two... 796 00:37:13,932 --> 00:37:16,933 KOHLHASE: You could not see craters on either one of them. 797 00:37:16,969 --> 00:37:18,501 Well, this was encouraging, 798 00:37:18,537 --> 00:37:20,937 because now we think maybe this mission 799 00:37:20,973 --> 00:37:24,140 is going to find a lot of diversity. 800 00:37:24,176 --> 00:37:29,246 BELL: Discovering this billiard ball smooth icy crust 801 00:37:29,281 --> 00:37:31,414 of Europa with cracks in it 802 00:37:31,450 --> 00:37:33,650 and what looked like plates of ice 803 00:37:33,685 --> 00:37:36,186 that might be moving relative to each other, 804 00:37:36,221 --> 00:37:37,621 the best explanation for that 805 00:37:37,656 --> 00:37:40,757 is that there's a thick ocean of liquid water, salty water 806 00:37:40,792 --> 00:37:44,261 underneath that icy crust. 807 00:37:44,296 --> 00:37:46,763 More ocean water than on the entire Earth, 808 00:37:46,798 --> 00:37:48,098 probably two or three times. 809 00:37:48,133 --> 00:37:50,066 It's the largest ocean in the solar system 810 00:37:50,102 --> 00:37:52,335 in a moon going around Jupiter. 811 00:37:52,371 --> 00:37:53,603 SPILKER: And then of course, you know, 812 00:37:53,639 --> 00:37:57,440 kind of the showstopper for Voyager, we get to Io. 813 00:37:57,476 --> 00:38:00,243 TERRILE: Io, of course, Io was the star of the show 814 00:38:00,279 --> 00:38:03,780 and we didn't learn that until after the encounter. 815 00:38:03,815 --> 00:38:05,548 [soft piano music] 816 00:38:05,584 --> 00:38:07,284 INGERSOLL: Everyone had gone home, 817 00:38:07,319 --> 00:38:10,920 and Linda Morabito, an engineer whose job 818 00:38:10,956 --> 00:38:14,791 was to find out the positioning and the orbit of the spacecraft, 819 00:38:14,826 --> 00:38:19,329 noticed some bumps on images of Io. 820 00:38:19,364 --> 00:38:20,930 LINDA MORABITO: I was on the mission 821 00:38:20,966 --> 00:38:23,266 as a mission navigator, 822 00:38:23,302 --> 00:38:26,303 and our job involved just looking back 823 00:38:26,338 --> 00:38:29,139 over the shoulder of the spacecraft 824 00:38:29,174 --> 00:38:32,909 to say, OK, one more picture of the realm of Jupiter, 825 00:38:32,944 --> 00:38:35,879 so it wasn't high-priority work. 826 00:38:35,914 --> 00:38:38,982 SMITH: It was an optical navigation image, 827 00:38:39,017 --> 00:38:43,953 and Linda saw this strange thing on the limb. 828 00:38:43,989 --> 00:38:48,091 MORABITO: An enormous object emerged, enormous. 829 00:38:48,126 --> 00:38:51,528 And the first thing I said to myself: What is that? 830 00:38:51,563 --> 00:38:56,633 And I'm like it looks like another satellite 831 00:38:56,668 --> 00:39:00,804 in the picture emerging from behind Io. 832 00:39:00,839 --> 00:39:04,841 An object that size, at that range, at that distance, 833 00:39:04,876 --> 00:39:08,712 would have been seen from Earth, it was sufficiently large. 834 00:39:08,747 --> 00:39:11,548 I felt with certainty, it's the only thing I knew, 835 00:39:11,583 --> 00:39:15,285 that I was seeing something that had never been seen before. 836 00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:19,489 This was an umbrella-shaped plume 837 00:39:19,524 --> 00:39:25,328 rising 250 kilometers above the surface of Io 838 00:39:25,364 --> 00:39:27,964 with volcanic activity. 839 00:39:27,999 --> 00:39:31,067 [soft piano music] 840 00:39:31,103 --> 00:39:36,706 I found the very first evidence of active volcanism 841 00:39:36,742 --> 00:39:39,175 on a world beyond the Earth. 842 00:39:39,211 --> 00:39:43,346 [soft piano music] 843 00:39:43,382 --> 00:39:45,448 STONE: It was so hard to believe that a little moon 844 00:39:45,484 --> 00:39:47,717 could have 10 times the volcanic activity of Earth, 845 00:39:47,753 --> 00:39:49,552 which was the only known active volcanoes 846 00:39:49,588 --> 00:39:51,688 in the solar system were here on Earth. 847 00:39:51,723 --> 00:39:52,956 And then there's Io. 848 00:39:52,991 --> 00:39:55,492 Suddenly we had realized 849 00:39:55,527 --> 00:39:58,495 this was a different journey we were on. 850 00:39:58,530 --> 00:40:00,430 NARRATOR: Io's volcanoes can shoot lava 851 00:40:00,465 --> 00:40:02,966 over 200 miles into space. 852 00:40:03,001 --> 00:40:05,535 These eruptions are powered by Jupiter's gravity, 853 00:40:05,570 --> 00:40:09,806 which endlessly compresses and releases the moon. 854 00:40:09,841 --> 00:40:11,174 SODERBLOM: I wanted to say one other thing, 855 00:40:11,209 --> 00:40:12,876 we've been saying that perhaps there's some funny way 856 00:40:12,911 --> 00:40:15,578 in which Jupiter gobbles up all the things that are coming in 857 00:40:15,614 --> 00:40:17,647 and doesn't let Io be hit by any. 858 00:40:17,682 --> 00:40:20,984 Well, we aimed a spacecraft and went very close, 859 00:40:21,019 --> 00:40:24,721 and had we missed we would have made the first impact crater. 860 00:40:24,756 --> 00:40:26,256 [laughter] 861 00:40:26,291 --> 00:40:30,527 SODERBLOM: The flyby is basically a week-long affair 862 00:40:30,562 --> 00:40:33,463 that's 24 hours a day. 863 00:40:33,498 --> 00:40:34,964 It's intense. 864 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,567 ANNOUNCER: There will be a Voyager report 865 00:40:37,602 --> 00:40:39,402 in 30 seconds. 866 00:40:39,438 --> 00:40:48,011 [electric guitar music] 867 00:40:48,046 --> 00:40:49,446 BELL: Instant science, 868 00:40:49,481 --> 00:40:51,314 because there's going to be a press conference that night. 869 00:40:51,349 --> 00:40:52,749 This picture comes down, 870 00:40:52,784 --> 00:40:55,552 and you've got three hours to figure out what's going on 871 00:40:55,587 --> 00:40:57,420 and then tell the world about it. 872 00:40:57,456 --> 00:40:59,255 Oh, no pressure there, right? 873 00:40:59,291 --> 00:41:00,690 [heavy guitar music] 874 00:41:00,725 --> 00:41:03,092 TERRILE: The confines of being a piece of biology 875 00:41:03,128 --> 00:41:04,260 got in the way of that. 876 00:41:04,296 --> 00:41:06,229 I mean, you got hungry, you got tired, you know, 877 00:41:06,264 --> 00:41:07,464 you had to go to the bathroom, 878 00:41:07,499 --> 00:41:09,265 I mean, you're going to miss something, 879 00:41:09,301 --> 00:41:10,967 you don't want to miss anything 880 00:41:11,002 --> 00:41:13,470 because every 48 seconds a new image would come down. 881 00:41:13,505 --> 00:41:18,274 [heavy guitar music] 882 00:41:18,310 --> 00:41:21,244 INGERSOLL: No one got any sleep during one of these flybys 883 00:41:21,279 --> 00:41:24,314 when the spacecraft would go zooming past. 884 00:41:24,349 --> 00:41:27,884 The photo labs were working day and night, 885 00:41:27,919 --> 00:41:31,020 and people were sleeping in their cars. 886 00:41:31,056 --> 00:41:36,726 [heavy guitar music] 887 00:41:36,761 --> 00:41:40,830 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: It was just way too exciting to...to sleep. 888 00:41:40,866 --> 00:41:48,171 [heavy guitar music] 889 00:41:48,206 --> 00:41:51,341 [heavy guitar music ends and fades out] 890 00:41:51,376 --> 00:41:53,243 NARRATOR: During its Jupiter encounter, 891 00:41:53,278 --> 00:41:55,578 Voyager revealed a feature of the giant planet 892 00:41:55,614 --> 00:41:59,048 never seen before. 893 00:41:59,084 --> 00:42:00,750 Jupiter had something in common 894 00:42:00,785 --> 00:42:03,653 with its flashier neighbor, Saturn. 895 00:42:03,688 --> 00:42:07,624 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: The engineer in charge of the camera came in, 896 00:42:07,659 --> 00:42:11,294 and he was like, Candy, what have you done? 897 00:42:11,329 --> 00:42:13,897 What is the matter with our camera? 898 00:42:13,932 --> 00:42:19,802 And I looked at it and went, ah, it's Jupiter's ring. 899 00:42:19,838 --> 00:42:22,939 It went from being you've broken the camera 900 00:42:22,974 --> 00:42:26,876 to, "This is the first picture ever of Jupiter's ring." 901 00:42:26,912 --> 00:42:34,384 [atmospheric piano music] 902 00:42:34,419 --> 00:42:35,718 TERRILE: Jupiter was a game-changer. 903 00:42:35,754 --> 00:42:37,854 Jupiter reset all the registers. 904 00:42:37,889 --> 00:42:40,823 Now we're really up for something. 905 00:42:40,859 --> 00:42:42,225 And to know that this was just 906 00:42:42,260 --> 00:42:44,994 the very, very beginning of this journey. 907 00:42:45,030 --> 00:42:47,163 If we're blown away by Jupiter, 908 00:42:47,198 --> 00:42:49,032 just wait until we get to Saturn. 909 00:42:49,067 --> 00:42:56,606 [electronic version of atmospheric motif] 910 00:42:56,641 --> 00:42:59,208 NARRATOR: The journey to Saturn would take over a year 911 00:42:59,244 --> 00:43:01,144 and bring Voyager and its message 912 00:43:01,179 --> 00:43:04,213 one tiny step closer to other stars 913 00:43:04,249 --> 00:43:06,015 where, just possibly, 914 00:43:06,051 --> 00:43:08,384 intelligent aliens might discover it. 915 00:43:08,420 --> 00:43:09,919 [atmospheric music on strings] 916 00:43:09,955 --> 00:43:13,856 [atmospheric rhythmic music] 917 00:43:13,892 --> 00:43:16,993 The Golden Record contained the call of a humpback whale 918 00:43:17,028 --> 00:43:20,430 and greetings in 55 human languages. 919 00:43:20,465 --> 00:43:23,132 Most were recorded at Cornell University, 920 00:43:23,168 --> 00:43:25,702 where Carl Sagan was professor of astronomy. 921 00:43:25,737 --> 00:43:28,137 [atmospheric rhythmic music] 922 00:43:28,173 --> 00:43:29,772 NICK SAGAN: My father was Carl Sagan, 923 00:43:29,808 --> 00:43:32,642 and my mother is Linda Salzman Sagan, 924 00:43:32,677 --> 00:43:34,611 and she's a writer and an artist 925 00:43:34,646 --> 00:43:37,080 and she designed the iconic Pioneer plaque, 926 00:43:37,115 --> 00:43:38,448 she actually drew it, 927 00:43:38,483 --> 00:43:40,817 and she's the one who got all the greetings 928 00:43:40,852 --> 00:43:43,252 for the Voyager Golden Record. 929 00:43:43,288 --> 00:43:45,221 I like to think of her, that she kind of put together 930 00:43:45,256 --> 00:43:48,291 a kind of a choir of voices of greetings to the stars. 931 00:43:48,326 --> 00:43:57,834 [recordings of voices with rock music plays] 932 00:43:57,869 --> 00:43:59,235 JANET STERNBERG: The greetings to the universe 933 00:43:59,270 --> 00:44:02,071 are almost like proto-tweets, the first tweets, 934 00:44:02,107 --> 00:44:04,073 keep it short, keep it simple, 935 00:44:04,109 --> 00:44:08,578 and there was a limit to what they could put on the record. 936 00:44:08,613 --> 00:44:12,448 It's like kind of a tasting menu. 937 00:44:12,484 --> 00:44:14,584 It's enough to get the aliens 938 00:44:14,619 --> 00:44:18,588 to understand that, um, we're diverse. 939 00:44:18,623 --> 00:44:20,723 NICK SAGAN: My parents wanted a child 940 00:44:20,759 --> 00:44:22,959 to have a voice of one of the voices, 941 00:44:22,994 --> 00:44:24,494 and they just came to me one day 942 00:44:24,529 --> 00:44:26,896 and said, Nick, if you'd like to leave a message to aliens 943 00:44:26,931 --> 00:44:28,431 if they happen to exist, 944 00:44:28,466 --> 00:44:30,566 what would you like to say to them? 945 00:44:30,602 --> 00:44:33,870 [tape rewinding] 946 00:44:33,905 --> 00:44:37,273 SAGAN AS A CHILD: Hello from the children of planet Earth. 947 00:44:37,308 --> 00:44:38,841 NICK SAGAN: "Oh, hello from the children of planet Earth," 948 00:44:38,877 --> 00:44:41,644 that's what I would say to aliens. 949 00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:46,149 They loved that, and so it's like great, let's record you. 950 00:44:46,184 --> 00:44:48,351 It's a bit of a blur. 951 00:44:48,386 --> 00:44:50,987 Like the only thing that I know that I remember from that time 952 00:44:51,022 --> 00:44:53,356 is those knobs and the little recording level 953 00:44:53,391 --> 00:44:55,458 that goes into the red if you speak too much, 954 00:44:55,493 --> 00:44:57,560 this 70s, kind of, um... 955 00:44:57,595 --> 00:44:58,828 so I remember that, 956 00:44:58,863 --> 00:45:01,664 and I remember watching the needle move as I spoke 957 00:45:01,700 --> 00:45:03,866 and seeing where it got, oh, that got close to the red 958 00:45:03,902 --> 00:45:04,834 but actually didn't go into the red, 959 00:45:04,869 --> 00:45:06,169 OK, that's probably good. 960 00:45:06,204 --> 00:45:07,603 And that was that. 961 00:45:07,639 --> 00:45:10,206 And then I, you know, drank my apple juice 962 00:45:10,241 --> 00:45:13,443 and went back to my books. 963 00:45:13,478 --> 00:45:15,778 It was really not till considerably later 964 00:45:15,814 --> 00:45:19,716 that the kind of enormity of what that meant actually hit me. 965 00:45:19,751 --> 00:45:29,792 [greetings in various languages] 966 00:45:29,794 --> 00:45:35,665 [greetings in various languages] 967 00:45:39,104 --> 00:45:41,070 KOHLHASE: Well, that brings up the whole question: 968 00:45:41,106 --> 00:45:44,440 Is there anybody out there? 969 00:45:44,476 --> 00:45:49,112 Listen, there are, give or take, 970 00:45:49,147 --> 00:45:52,548 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. 971 00:45:52,584 --> 00:45:55,418 There are about 200 billion galaxies in the universe, 972 00:45:55,453 --> 00:45:58,521 or at least in the universe we know about. 973 00:45:58,556 --> 00:46:01,023 HAMMEL: It's a pretty small spacecraft, 974 00:46:01,059 --> 00:46:04,127 and it's a pretty big universe. 975 00:46:04,162 --> 00:46:09,565 If you take a piece of sky the size of a soda straw 976 00:46:09,601 --> 00:46:12,635 up there in the Big Dipper 977 00:46:12,670 --> 00:46:15,972 in that tiny piece of what we thought was blank sky, 978 00:46:16,007 --> 00:46:18,608 there's thousands of galaxies. 979 00:46:18,643 --> 00:46:20,743 And each one of those galaxies 980 00:46:20,779 --> 00:46:24,647 is filled with billions of stars. 981 00:46:24,682 --> 00:46:25,915 That's just the soda straw, 982 00:46:25,950 --> 00:46:28,918 and now you imagine the whole sky filled 983 00:46:28,953 --> 00:46:31,788 with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of galaxies, 984 00:46:31,823 --> 00:46:34,323 each of which is billions and billions of stars, 985 00:46:34,359 --> 00:46:38,194 there's a lot of possibility out there. 986 00:46:38,229 --> 00:46:45,535 [atmospheric guitar music] 987 00:46:45,570 --> 00:46:47,870 PORCO: There has to be other civilizations, 988 00:46:47,906 --> 00:46:50,540 the numbers just compel it. 989 00:46:50,575 --> 00:46:52,508 It would be almost statistically impossible 990 00:46:52,544 --> 00:46:56,379 for there not to be other life forms 991 00:46:56,414 --> 00:46:58,080 and other life forms that have evolved 992 00:46:58,116 --> 00:47:00,449 to a state of intelligence. 993 00:47:00,485 --> 00:47:02,652 NARRATOR: But the chance that an intelligent alien 994 00:47:02,687 --> 00:47:06,122 might encounter Voyager also hinges on another factor-- 995 00:47:06,157 --> 00:47:09,192 the sheer vastness of space. 996 00:47:09,227 --> 00:47:11,060 SODERBLOM: The bigger you think space is, 997 00:47:11,095 --> 00:47:13,429 the less probable it is you're going to find them 998 00:47:13,464 --> 00:47:18,100 because they're needles in infinite haystacks. 999 00:47:18,136 --> 00:47:20,469 KRAUSS: If you want to realize how empty our galaxy is, 1000 00:47:20,505 --> 00:47:22,471 the nearest galaxy to our own is Andromeda, 1001 00:47:22,507 --> 00:47:24,507 it's about two million light years away. 1002 00:47:24,542 --> 00:47:28,277 It's on a collision course with us right now, 1003 00:47:28,313 --> 00:47:29,846 and in five billion years 1004 00:47:29,881 --> 00:47:31,747 that galaxy's going to collide with our own. 1005 00:47:31,783 --> 00:47:33,216 And you might say, oh, no, oh, no, 1006 00:47:33,251 --> 00:47:37,486 but it turns out space is, even in our galaxy, 1007 00:47:37,522 --> 00:47:38,621 it's mostly empty space. 1008 00:47:38,656 --> 00:47:40,590 When our two galaxies collide, 1009 00:47:40,625 --> 00:47:42,959 almost no stars will hit any other star. 1010 00:47:42,994 --> 00:47:46,863 CASANI: There's just a lot of room out there, a lot of room. 1011 00:47:46,898 --> 00:47:49,699 BAGENAL: Once you start getting into the astronomical scales, 1012 00:47:49,734 --> 00:47:51,601 our solar system is pretty tiny, 1013 00:47:51,636 --> 00:47:54,203 and so this adventure of Voyager 1014 00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:57,406 which seems so remote and distant 1015 00:47:57,442 --> 00:48:01,444 for this little spacecraft to go out to the giant planets 1016 00:48:01,479 --> 00:48:07,016 is really just exploring the tiniest closest neighborhood 1017 00:48:07,051 --> 00:48:09,685 when you start thinking about cosmic scales. 1018 00:48:12,457 --> 00:48:16,158 BELL: The distances are almost unfathomable. 1019 00:48:16,194 --> 00:48:18,060 These were the fastest spacecraft 1020 00:48:18,096 --> 00:48:21,330 that had ever been built and launched and flown, 1021 00:48:21,366 --> 00:48:26,836 and they're travelling at ten miles per second. 1022 00:48:26,871 --> 00:48:28,404 You wouldn't even see it, right? 1023 00:48:28,439 --> 00:48:30,306 And yet, even at those 1024 00:48:30,341 --> 00:48:33,743 unfathomable by Earth standard speeds, 1025 00:48:33,778 --> 00:48:38,114 it takes decades, decades to get out there 1026 00:48:38,149 --> 00:48:39,582 into the outer solar system. 1027 00:48:39,617 --> 00:48:43,920 [music playing] 1028 00:48:43,955 --> 00:48:47,423 HAMMEL: I'd like to know the answer, are we alone? 1029 00:48:47,458 --> 00:48:50,026 I'd like to know the answer to that question. 1030 00:48:50,061 --> 00:48:58,668 [music playing] 1031 00:48:58,703 --> 00:49:00,870 FERRIS: The big division with extraterrestrial life 1032 00:49:00,905 --> 00:49:03,172 is not space, it's time. 1033 00:49:03,207 --> 00:49:07,843 [music playing] 1034 00:49:07,879 --> 00:49:10,880 KRAUSS: In our galaxy, our sun is relatively young. 1035 00:49:10,915 --> 00:49:12,581 The galaxy's about 12 billion years old, 1036 00:49:12,617 --> 00:49:14,183 our sun's four and a half billion years old, 1037 00:49:14,218 --> 00:49:15,818 there are many stars that are a lot older: 1038 00:49:15,853 --> 00:49:17,753 therefore, you could have imagined some civilization 1039 00:49:17,789 --> 00:49:20,690 around such a star that might have watched our Earth form 1040 00:49:20,725 --> 00:49:22,091 over the last four and a half billion years. 1041 00:49:22,126 --> 00:49:24,327 Well, over that last four and a half billion years, 1042 00:49:24,362 --> 00:49:26,629 the only evidence of intelligent life 1043 00:49:26,664 --> 00:49:28,297 would have been in the last fifty or sixty years 1044 00:49:28,333 --> 00:49:30,032 by watching Star Trek or I Love Lucy 1045 00:49:30,068 --> 00:49:33,135 or whatever signals we sent out, so even if you knew, 1046 00:49:33,171 --> 00:49:35,871 even if someone told you look at that star, 1047 00:49:35,907 --> 00:49:37,773 and then look at the third rock from that star, 1048 00:49:37,809 --> 00:49:38,975 and that's where you're going to find life. 1049 00:49:39,010 --> 00:49:41,911 Even if they knew which object to look for, 1050 00:49:41,946 --> 00:49:45,514 there's only a 50-year period over five billion years almost 1051 00:49:45,550 --> 00:49:49,185 where you'd be able to find intelligent life. 1052 00:49:53,057 --> 00:49:55,758 NICK SAGAN: If we're alone, then we're truly unique, 1053 00:49:55,793 --> 00:49:58,194 and how did that happen and why us 1054 00:49:58,229 --> 00:49:59,895 and how are we so special 1055 00:49:59,931 --> 00:50:01,897 and yet in such a kind of far-flung 1056 00:50:01,933 --> 00:50:04,133 kind of humdrum part of the universe? 1057 00:50:04,168 --> 00:50:06,936 And if we're not alone, how did we all get here 1058 00:50:06,971 --> 00:50:10,106 and can we learn about ourselves by these other groups out there 1059 00:50:10,141 --> 00:50:11,607 and what are they like 1060 00:50:11,642 --> 00:50:15,077 and are they the creatures of our dreams or our nightmares? 1061 00:50:15,113 --> 00:50:23,819 [music playing] 1062 00:50:23,855 --> 00:50:25,688 NARRATOR: In the fall of 1980, 1063 00:50:25,723 --> 00:50:29,458 Voyager got its first close views of the planet Saturn. 1064 00:50:29,494 --> 00:50:42,071 [light piano music plays] 1065 00:50:42,106 --> 00:50:43,572 SMITH: We started off with images 1066 00:50:43,608 --> 00:50:44,840 that were probably no better 1067 00:50:44,876 --> 00:50:46,709 than what you can get from the ground, 1068 00:50:46,744 --> 00:50:48,644 and then it keeps getting better and better and better 1069 00:50:48,679 --> 00:50:50,813 as you get closer and closer. 1070 00:50:50,848 --> 00:50:54,450 What are we going to see when we get really close? 1071 00:50:54,485 --> 00:50:57,053 SPILKER: Having seen Saturn in a telescope with the rings 1072 00:50:57,088 --> 00:50:59,855 just looking like these little tiny ears on either side, 1073 00:50:59,891 --> 00:51:03,192 to now seeing detail and the beauty of Saturn's rings, 1074 00:51:03,227 --> 00:51:04,326 you know, looking like, 1075 00:51:04,362 --> 00:51:06,962 almost like the grooves on a phonograph record. 1076 00:51:06,998 --> 00:51:09,832 BELL: The rings of Saturn, what are they? 1077 00:51:09,867 --> 00:51:13,969 Billions of icy particles, some the size of a house. 1078 00:51:14,005 --> 00:51:17,339 They're enormous, much wider than many Earths strung together 1079 00:51:17,375 --> 00:51:20,543 but less than a kilometer thick. 1080 00:51:20,578 --> 00:51:21,844 PORCO: We get there and we find 1081 00:51:21,879 --> 00:51:25,681 that it's a blizzard of features throughout the rings, 1082 00:51:25,716 --> 00:51:28,517 and it got very complex. 1083 00:51:28,553 --> 00:51:41,330 [guitar music] 1084 00:51:41,365 --> 00:51:43,966 PORCO: We become junkies who... 1085 00:51:44,001 --> 00:51:47,770 This is how you become a planetary flyby junkie, 1086 00:51:47,805 --> 00:51:49,371 it's because you've gone through one of them 1087 00:51:49,407 --> 00:51:50,973 and you just know it's the greatest feeling 1088 00:51:51,008 --> 00:51:54,110 and you want to keep doing it again and again. 1089 00:51:54,145 --> 00:51:58,013 SMITH: At some point, perhaps a year or so from now, 1090 00:51:58,049 --> 00:52:02,218 it may be possible to put all of this into perspective, 1091 00:52:02,253 --> 00:52:05,554 but right at the moment I cannot recall 1092 00:52:05,590 --> 00:52:09,492 being in such a state of euphoria 1093 00:52:09,527 --> 00:52:12,328 for any previous planetary encounter, 1094 00:52:12,363 --> 00:52:18,167 including our two remarkable Voyager encounters at Jupiter. 1095 00:52:18,202 --> 00:52:31,280 [electric guitar music] 1096 00:52:31,315 --> 00:52:44,527 [electric guitar music] 1097 00:52:49,233 --> 00:52:50,799 CARL SAGAN: The largest moon of Saturn, 1098 00:52:50,835 --> 00:52:53,335 Titan's the most extraordinary place. 1099 00:52:53,371 --> 00:52:56,005 There's a dense methane atmosphere 1100 00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:58,774 where a complex organic chemistry has been going on 1101 00:52:58,809 --> 00:53:00,543 for perhaps billions of years, 1102 00:53:00,578 --> 00:53:05,347 and we are in a moment of extraordinary discovery. 1103 00:53:05,383 --> 00:53:07,950 CASANI: We had both spacecraft programmed 1104 00:53:07,985 --> 00:53:10,553 to do identical missions at Saturn, 1105 00:53:10,588 --> 00:53:15,191 and that was the prime mission and it involved Titan. 1106 00:53:15,226 --> 00:53:17,359 BELL: There's a huge amount of scientific interest in Titan 1107 00:53:17,395 --> 00:53:19,862 because many people think that early in our own history, 1108 00:53:19,897 --> 00:53:21,630 our own planet may have been like that 1109 00:53:21,666 --> 00:53:25,067 with very little oxygen, lots of hydrocarbons, 1110 00:53:25,102 --> 00:53:28,170 very thick, different, smoggy atmosphere 1111 00:53:28,206 --> 00:53:31,740 that was changed dramatically on our planet by life, 1112 00:53:31,776 --> 00:53:33,776 so if you want to understand the starting conditions, 1113 00:53:33,811 --> 00:53:35,878 go study Titan. 1114 00:53:35,913 --> 00:53:38,781 KOHLHASE: If Voyager 1 was successful at Titan, 1115 00:53:38,816 --> 00:53:42,184 Voyager 2, which is nine months behind going to Saturn, 1116 00:53:42,220 --> 00:53:46,088 would be free to continue to Uranus and to go on to Neptune. 1117 00:53:46,123 --> 00:53:49,825 But it depended upon Voyager 1 succeeding at Titan. 1118 00:53:49,860 --> 00:53:53,229 TERRILE: Because Voyager 1 had to be in a certain place 1119 00:53:53,264 --> 00:53:55,097 in order to pass Titan, 1120 00:53:55,132 --> 00:53:57,733 it couldn't go on to Uranus and Neptune. 1121 00:53:57,768 --> 00:53:59,835 There was just no way to bend its trajectory 1122 00:53:59,870 --> 00:54:02,504 to go anywhere else. 1123 00:54:02,540 --> 00:54:06,575 STONE: Voyager 2 would have done exactly that same thing 1124 00:54:06,611 --> 00:54:08,811 if Voyager 1 had failed, 1125 00:54:08,846 --> 00:54:11,714 we would have gone like this, no more planets. 1126 00:54:11,749 --> 00:54:13,582 KOHLHASE: That would have been really tough. 1127 00:54:13,618 --> 00:54:17,019 You gonna try for Titan again and give up two other worlds-- 1128 00:54:17,054 --> 00:54:19,888 Uranus and Neptune? 1129 00:54:19,924 --> 00:54:25,027 BELL: So there was a lot of pressure on Voyager 1. 1130 00:54:25,062 --> 00:54:26,428 SODERBLOM: Mostly what we looked at 1131 00:54:26,464 --> 00:54:29,565 was a giant ball of brown smog 1132 00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:34,470 with some sort of electric blue hazes above it. 1133 00:54:34,505 --> 00:54:35,871 INGERSOLL: With the Voyager camera, 1134 00:54:35,906 --> 00:54:38,874 you couldn't see through the clouds and haze. 1135 00:54:38,909 --> 00:54:44,780 [radio chatter] 1136 00:54:44,815 --> 00:54:47,916 But the radio signal from the spacecraft 1137 00:54:47,952 --> 00:54:50,586 passed through the atmosphere of the moon, 1138 00:54:50,621 --> 00:54:54,523 and that gave them a measure of the pressure at the surface 1139 00:54:54,558 --> 00:54:56,925 and also the temperature at the surface, 1140 00:54:56,961 --> 00:55:02,131 and so we learned a lot about Titan from that radio signal. 1141 00:55:02,166 --> 00:55:03,632 NARRATOR: Voyager 1 revealed a world 1142 00:55:03,668 --> 00:55:07,102 at nearly 300 degrees below zero Fahrenheit 1143 00:55:07,138 --> 00:55:09,238 that might have lakes of liquid methane 1144 00:55:09,273 --> 00:55:12,541 under its smoggy atmosphere. 1145 00:55:12,576 --> 00:55:17,046 STONE: Voyager 1 had succeeded. 1146 00:55:17,081 --> 00:55:20,015 And shortly after that, NASA Headquarters agreed 1147 00:55:20,051 --> 00:55:22,217 that we should continue with Voyager 2 1148 00:55:22,253 --> 00:55:23,786 on its Uranus trajectory. 1149 00:55:26,757 --> 00:55:29,858 NARRATOR: Voyager 1, its planetary mission over, 1150 00:55:29,894 --> 00:55:32,528 sped away from the plane of the planets. 1151 00:55:32,563 --> 00:55:36,665 Voyager 2--in part to get on its trajectory to Uranus-- 1152 00:55:36,701 --> 00:55:40,202 would have to fly dangerously close to Saturn's rings. 1153 00:55:40,237 --> 00:55:47,109 [music playing] 1154 00:55:47,144 --> 00:55:50,212 BELL: We're getting pictures and other data back from Voyager 2. 1155 00:55:50,247 --> 00:55:53,582 But at some point in time, it had to go behind the planet, 1156 00:55:53,617 --> 00:55:57,486 and that blocks us from getting radio signals to the Earth, 1157 00:55:57,521 --> 00:55:59,755 and that happened to be in the middle of the night. 1158 00:55:59,790 --> 00:56:02,191 It was a period of time, several hours, 1159 00:56:02,226 --> 00:56:03,392 that everybody knows we're going to be 1160 00:56:03,427 --> 00:56:05,394 out of contact with the spacecraft. 1161 00:56:05,429 --> 00:56:07,629 Everybody's expecting to pop champagne corks 1162 00:56:07,665 --> 00:56:08,731 and say hey, we made it, 1163 00:56:08,766 --> 00:56:10,466 and all the data's on the tape recorder 1164 00:56:10,501 --> 00:56:12,701 because it couldn't be transmitted to the Earth, 1165 00:56:12,737 --> 00:56:15,304 and instead it pops out of the other side, 1166 00:56:15,339 --> 00:56:17,606 and there's all these crazy error signals 1167 00:56:17,641 --> 00:56:18,741 coming from the spacecraft. 1168 00:56:18,776 --> 00:56:20,342 Something bad has happened. 1169 00:56:20,378 --> 00:56:22,578 [machines beeping] 1170 00:56:22,613 --> 00:56:23,812 TERRILE: Something happened 1171 00:56:23,848 --> 00:56:25,314 right around ring-plane crossing, 1172 00:56:25,349 --> 00:56:27,449 and the images that were coming back were blank. 1173 00:56:32,022 --> 00:56:33,355 BELL: People thought maybe it crashed 1174 00:56:33,391 --> 00:56:34,823 into the rings of Saturn. 1175 00:56:34,859 --> 00:56:36,925 Is this it, is it dead? 1176 00:56:39,897 --> 00:56:42,598 SPEAKER: OK. 1177 00:56:42,633 --> 00:56:45,334 Ladies and gentlemen, we can start the briefing. 1178 00:56:45,369 --> 00:56:47,770 [tapping microphone] 1179 00:56:47,805 --> 00:56:50,305 SPEAKER: I wanted to make a very brief statement. 1180 00:56:50,341 --> 00:56:53,208 We do have a problem on board the Voyager 2 spacecraft. 1181 00:56:53,244 --> 00:56:54,943 AL HIBBS: The spacecraft has a problem. 1182 00:56:54,979 --> 00:56:57,646 The scan platform operating mechanism 1183 00:56:57,681 --> 00:56:59,314 is not operating properly. 1184 00:56:59,350 --> 00:57:01,183 SPEAKER: Make sure we understand where we're headed 1185 00:57:01,218 --> 00:57:04,219 for the following instruments are mounted on the platform: 1186 00:57:04,255 --> 00:57:06,755 the wide-angle camera, the narrow-angle camera, 1187 00:57:06,791 --> 00:57:09,725 the infrared instrument, the ultraviolet instrument 1188 00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:11,627 and the photopolarimeter. 1189 00:57:11,662 --> 00:57:13,929 SODERBLOM: A frozen scan platform 1190 00:57:13,964 --> 00:57:17,800 could be a fatal, crippling event. 1191 00:57:17,835 --> 00:57:21,937 SMITH: Yeah, that was the darkest, the darkest day 1192 00:57:21,972 --> 00:57:23,439 of the whole mission. 1193 00:57:23,474 --> 00:57:25,574 SPEAKER: There is circumstantial evidence... 1194 00:57:25,609 --> 00:57:28,243 SMITH: I came into the auditorium, 1195 00:57:28,279 --> 00:57:31,880 and there was just gloom on everybody's face. 1196 00:57:31,916 --> 00:57:33,982 SPEAKER: You're beginning to speculate. 1197 00:57:34,018 --> 00:57:36,552 SMITH: I quickly learned what had happened. 1198 00:57:36,587 --> 00:57:39,655 The scan platform had frozen. 1199 00:57:39,690 --> 00:57:41,457 SMITH: The problem is not with the camera, 1200 00:57:41,492 --> 00:57:43,592 it's with the articulated platform 1201 00:57:43,627 --> 00:57:45,294 that moves all of the instruments. 1202 00:57:45,329 --> 00:57:47,696 Our cameras, as far as we know, are working just fine, 1203 00:57:47,731 --> 00:57:52,100 it's just that we're taking lots of pictures of black space. 1204 00:57:52,136 --> 00:57:54,002 SMITH: The rest of the Saturn mission 1205 00:57:54,038 --> 00:57:57,906 and Uranus and Neptune were dead. 1206 00:57:57,942 --> 00:58:03,812 And seeing everything that we were planning just gone, 1207 00:58:03,848 --> 00:58:08,383 just suddenly gone. 1208 00:58:08,419 --> 00:58:10,719 All of the science that we had hoped to do, 1209 00:58:10,754 --> 00:58:12,087 and Uranus and Neptune-- 1210 00:58:12,122 --> 00:58:13,489 there were no other spacecraft 1211 00:58:13,524 --> 00:58:14,957 that were going to be going there. 1212 00:58:14,992 --> 00:58:17,192 It was up to Voyager to do it, and all of a sudden it looked 1213 00:58:17,228 --> 00:58:19,561 as though Voyager was not going to do it. 1214 00:58:19,597 --> 00:58:21,563 It was devastating, it was... 1215 00:58:21,599 --> 00:58:23,699 [electronic inquisitive music] 1216 00:58:23,734 --> 00:58:27,503 SPEAKER: So, we've analyzed the slew data. 1217 00:58:27,538 --> 00:58:28,937 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: It took a couple of days 1218 00:58:28,973 --> 00:58:33,342 while the engineering team went to work diagnosing the problem. 1219 00:58:33,377 --> 00:58:36,078 SPEAKER: We are going to command an azimuth slew 1220 00:58:36,113 --> 00:58:39,715 and an elevation slew to the Saturn position... 1221 00:58:39,750 --> 00:58:41,350 STONE: It turns out the scan platform 1222 00:58:41,385 --> 00:58:43,485 has small motors to rotate it, 1223 00:58:43,521 --> 00:58:45,354 and we could run it at slow speed-- 1224 00:58:45,389 --> 00:58:46,688 tick, tick, tick, tick-- 1225 00:58:46,724 --> 00:58:49,925 fast...medium speed or very fast (makes turning noise). 1226 00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:51,860 We were of course wanting to look at lots of places, 1227 00:58:51,896 --> 00:58:54,396 so we had the thing looking lots of places, 1228 00:58:54,431 --> 00:58:59,368 and the lubrication wasn't adequate and it just jammed. 1229 00:58:59,403 --> 00:59:02,204 SMITH: It was frozen sort of like a car 1230 00:59:02,239 --> 00:59:04,306 stuck in the, stuck in the snow. 1231 00:59:04,341 --> 00:59:06,375 You try to go forward or backward little bit... 1232 00:59:06,410 --> 00:59:09,344 lil...and keep working on it and try to get it out, 1233 00:59:09,380 --> 00:59:11,213 and that's what we did with the scan platform. 1234 00:59:11,248 --> 00:59:14,082 We would try to push it a little bit in one direction 1235 00:59:14,118 --> 00:59:15,617 and it would yield a little bit, 1236 00:59:15,653 --> 00:59:17,586 and then we'd push it in the other direction, 1237 00:59:17,621 --> 00:59:19,154 and it would yield a little bit more, 1238 00:59:19,189 --> 00:59:22,624 and then we kept doing that back and forth, back and forth, 1239 00:59:22,660 --> 00:59:25,694 and finally that was enough 1240 00:59:25,729 --> 00:59:29,264 to get the lubrication into the gears. 1241 00:59:29,300 --> 00:59:32,434 SODERBLOM: It was freed up and back came the spacecraft 1242 00:59:32,469 --> 00:59:35,003 and back came the imaging system, 1243 00:59:35,039 --> 00:59:37,839 and there was Saturn on exit. 1244 00:59:40,144 --> 00:59:43,078 SMITH: [laughing] Yeah. 1245 00:59:43,113 --> 00:59:51,587 ["Us & Them," Pink Floyd] 1246 00:59:51,622 --> 00:59:55,223 TERRILE: We were looking at the shadow of Saturn on the rings, 1247 00:59:55,259 --> 01:00:00,062 and it was clearly from this wild, crazy angle. 1248 01:00:00,097 --> 01:00:03,999 Wow. Holy cow, we're on the other side of Saturn. 1249 01:00:04,034 --> 01:00:06,268 ["Us & Them," Pink Floyd] 1250 01:00:06,303 --> 01:00:20,916 ♪ Us and them ♪ 1251 01:00:20,951 --> 01:00:29,057 ♪ And after all we're only ordinary men... ♪ 1252 01:00:29,093 --> 01:00:31,460 SODERBLOM: We felt like we were there. 1253 01:00:31,495 --> 01:00:35,430 Nobody even thought about it. 1254 01:00:35,466 --> 01:00:38,734 Voyager was part of us. 1255 01:00:38,769 --> 01:00:39,901 We... 1256 01:00:39,937 --> 01:00:53,882 ♪ Me and you... ♪ 1257 01:00:53,917 --> 01:00:55,984 PORCO: All of planetary exploration to me 1258 01:00:56,020 --> 01:01:00,822 is a story about longing, it's a longing to know ourselves. 1259 01:01:00,858 --> 01:01:03,625 It's a longing to understand the significance 1260 01:01:03,661 --> 01:01:05,494 of our own existence. 1261 01:01:05,529 --> 01:01:07,095 It's a longing to communicate, 1262 01:01:07,131 --> 01:01:10,532 to say to the universe we're here, you know, know us. 1263 01:01:10,567 --> 01:01:13,502 You know, where are you? 1264 01:01:13,537 --> 01:01:16,505 ♪ Forward! He cried ♪ 1265 01:01:16,540 --> 01:01:26,548 ♪ from the rear and the front rank died ♪ 1266 01:01:26,583 --> 01:01:30,318 ♪ And the general sat, and the lines... ♪ 1267 01:01:30,354 --> 01:01:32,754 NARRATOR: In the grooves of the Golden Record 1268 01:01:32,790 --> 01:01:36,692 was another gift from us to them. 1269 01:01:36,727 --> 01:01:38,560 [guitar music] 1270 01:01:38,595 --> 01:01:42,097 DRAKE: The Voyager record has a set of pictures on it. 1271 01:01:42,132 --> 01:01:44,666 It depicts our civilization, 1272 01:01:44,702 --> 01:01:47,836 but we only had the ability to do about a hundred pictures, 1273 01:01:47,871 --> 01:01:50,172 that was as much data as we could send, 1274 01:01:50,207 --> 01:01:52,240 so that was kind of hard. 1275 01:01:52,276 --> 01:01:54,376 LOMBERG: It was a process of distillation. 1276 01:01:54,411 --> 01:01:56,044 You can't describe the Earth 1277 01:01:56,080 --> 01:01:58,013 in a hundred pictures. 1278 01:01:58,048 --> 01:02:00,849 You can't describe the Earth in a thousand pictures, 1279 01:02:00,884 --> 01:02:06,521 but what art is about is taking something that's small 1280 01:02:06,557 --> 01:02:08,557 but can represent the whole. 1281 01:02:08,592 --> 01:02:20,102 [guitar music] 1282 01:02:20,137 --> 01:02:21,703 DRAKE: We thought it was very important 1283 01:02:21,739 --> 01:02:24,906 to put some pictures of humans nude on the record 1284 01:02:24,942 --> 01:02:29,911 to show just what our anatomy and physiology was really like. 1285 01:02:29,947 --> 01:02:33,014 NASA had been seriously criticized 1286 01:02:33,050 --> 01:02:34,816 about the Pioneer plaque. 1287 01:02:34,852 --> 01:02:37,619 There were actually letters to the editors of newspapers 1288 01:02:37,654 --> 01:02:42,491 saying that NASA was sending smut to space. 1289 01:02:42,526 --> 01:02:45,961 NARRATOR: For Voyager, NASA decided to play it safe. 1290 01:02:45,996 --> 01:02:51,266 Still, they gave the aliens some hints about our bodies. 1291 01:02:51,301 --> 01:02:55,871 BELL: Now it's five years of cruising out to Uranus. 1292 01:02:55,906 --> 01:02:58,473 STONE: Uranus would be the most remote object yet 1293 01:02:58,509 --> 01:02:59,975 visited by a spacecraft, 1294 01:03:00,010 --> 01:03:01,943 and it's so remote that it was not even known 1295 01:03:01,979 --> 01:03:03,512 until 200 years ago, 1296 01:03:03,547 --> 01:03:05,213 and it's a great distance out there, 1297 01:03:05,249 --> 01:03:06,615 and if we'd launched directly from Earth 1298 01:03:06,650 --> 01:03:08,450 it would have taken thirty years to get there, 1299 01:03:08,485 --> 01:03:09,818 so we were very fortunate 1300 01:03:09,853 --> 01:03:12,354 that we could swing by Jupiter and Saturn on our way. 1301 01:03:12,389 --> 01:03:13,789 SMITH: I've been trying to figure this thing out 1302 01:03:13,824 --> 01:03:15,257 for the past 25 years, 1303 01:03:15,292 --> 01:03:17,759 and it's very frustrating in a telescope 1304 01:03:17,795 --> 01:03:19,227 to look at that tiny little disc, 1305 01:03:19,263 --> 01:03:22,664 so the next few days are going to be very exciting. 1306 01:03:22,699 --> 01:03:28,737 [piano music] 1307 01:03:28,772 --> 01:03:31,339 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: Once we got beyond Saturn, 1308 01:03:31,375 --> 01:03:34,509 essentially the engineers threw out the rulebook 1309 01:03:34,545 --> 01:03:38,046 and said how are we going to make this work? 1310 01:03:38,081 --> 01:03:41,716 How are we going to take pictures of planets 1311 01:03:41,752 --> 01:03:43,251 this far from the sun? 1312 01:03:43,287 --> 01:03:44,452 [piano music] 1313 01:03:44,488 --> 01:03:46,087 BELL: Voyager was the first 1314 01:03:46,123 --> 01:03:49,958 of a class of NASA spacecraft that could be reprogrammed. 1315 01:03:49,993 --> 01:03:51,526 They could take what was on the computer 1316 01:03:51,562 --> 01:03:52,794 and just wipe it away 1317 01:03:52,830 --> 01:03:55,330 and give it a whole new set of software. 1318 01:03:55,365 --> 01:03:59,801 They trained the spacecraft to pirouette like a ballet dancer, 1319 01:03:59,837 --> 01:04:02,137 basically you want to take a picture of that thing 1320 01:04:02,172 --> 01:04:03,605 and it's going past you really fast, 1321 01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:09,277 so you spin the whole spacecraft and follow it like this, 1322 01:04:09,313 --> 01:04:11,813 and so even though it was darker at Uranus 1323 01:04:11,849 --> 01:04:13,448 and really dark at Neptune, 1324 01:04:13,483 --> 01:04:16,351 you could leave the shutter open without smearing, 1325 01:04:16,386 --> 01:04:19,921 and that was just beautiful. 1326 01:04:19,957 --> 01:04:22,490 SODERBLOM: We had all of the rich set of goodies 1327 01:04:22,526 --> 01:04:29,030 from Jupiter and from Saturn, but Uranus was...was unknown. 1328 01:04:29,066 --> 01:04:31,166 [xylophone music] 1329 01:04:31,201 --> 01:04:33,335 NARRATOR: In January 1986, 1330 01:04:33,370 --> 01:04:36,137 Voyager 2 closed in on Uranus. 1331 01:04:38,008 --> 01:04:39,774 It would be by far 1332 01:04:39,810 --> 01:04:43,445 the most remote planetary encounter ever attempted. 1333 01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:56,524 [xylophone music] 1334 01:04:56,560 --> 01:04:58,360 TERRILE: It was like taking something 1335 01:04:58,395 --> 01:05:01,429 that was almost fictional, almost mythological, 1336 01:05:01,465 --> 01:05:06,768 and then seeing it as a real object. 1337 01:05:06,803 --> 01:05:09,304 BELL: Spacecraft flew through that system like a bull's eye 1338 01:05:09,339 --> 01:05:11,706 because Uranus is tilted on its side, 1339 01:05:11,742 --> 01:05:15,243 with this beautiful aquamarine blue methane atmosphere, 1340 01:05:15,279 --> 01:05:16,444 and all these pictures, 1341 01:05:16,480 --> 01:05:17,913 every single one of them is like whoa! 1342 01:05:17,948 --> 01:05:20,115 And you could hear people just whoa! 1343 01:05:20,150 --> 01:05:21,716 And everybody would be doing something 1344 01:05:21,752 --> 01:05:22,918 and somebody would go whoa! 1345 01:05:22,953 --> 01:05:24,252 And everybody would turn and look up. 1346 01:05:24,288 --> 01:05:26,054 Oh, my gosh, look at that! 1347 01:05:26,089 --> 01:05:27,255 There was no Internet, 1348 01:05:27,291 --> 01:05:30,959 there was no news stream going out to live CNN. 1349 01:05:30,994 --> 01:05:33,695 The only way to experience that sensation 1350 01:05:33,730 --> 01:05:36,665 of being one of only a small group of people 1351 01:05:36,700 --> 01:05:41,336 who saw a point of light become a world, 1352 01:05:41,371 --> 01:05:44,572 the only way to experience it was to be in that room. 1353 01:05:44,608 --> 01:05:46,675 STONE: Well, just about two minutes ago, 1354 01:05:46,710 --> 01:05:50,211 Voyager 2 passed through its closest approach to Uranus. 1355 01:05:50,247 --> 01:05:52,314 [applause] 1356 01:05:52,349 --> 01:05:57,485 SMITH: The new ring is right here. 1357 01:05:57,521 --> 01:06:00,255 Now, I don't... [laughter] 1358 01:06:00,290 --> 01:06:02,057 you're telling me you can't see it. 1359 01:06:02,092 --> 01:06:03,325 I can. 1360 01:06:03,360 --> 01:06:04,726 JOURNALIST: Dr. Soderblom, 1361 01:06:04,761 --> 01:06:06,194 as you whizzed through your explanation, 1362 01:06:06,229 --> 01:06:10,098 I couldn't put it all together, could you try that again? 1363 01:06:10,133 --> 01:06:11,099 SODERBLOM: Slower? 1364 01:06:11,134 --> 01:06:12,267 [laughter] 1365 01:06:12,302 --> 01:06:13,735 JOURNALIST: Slower and a few more details. 1366 01:06:13,770 --> 01:06:15,303 SODERBLOM: I thought that was pretty slow. 1367 01:06:15,339 --> 01:06:19,407 [guitar and strings music] 1368 01:06:19,443 --> 01:06:21,142 STONE: Every time we arrived at a new planet 1369 01:06:21,178 --> 01:06:22,310 there were always surprises, 1370 01:06:22,346 --> 01:06:24,312 even though we had gotten a lot smarter. 1371 01:06:24,348 --> 01:06:27,849 For instance, before Voyager, all the magnetic fields 1372 01:06:27,884 --> 01:06:31,386 have the magnetic pole near the rotation axis of the planet, 1373 01:06:31,421 --> 01:06:34,189 and that was true for Jupiter, it was true for Saturn, 1374 01:06:34,224 --> 01:06:39,060 and then we flew by Uranus and the pole was near the equator. 1375 01:06:39,096 --> 01:06:40,528 BAGENAL: There's been a lot of speculation 1376 01:06:40,564 --> 01:06:42,731 about the magnetosphere of Uranus. 1377 01:06:42,766 --> 01:06:45,266 Would there be one, what would it be like? 1378 01:06:45,302 --> 01:06:47,569 And the magnetosphere of Uranus 1379 01:06:47,604 --> 01:06:49,838 is far more weird and wonderful... 1380 01:06:49,873 --> 01:06:52,774 BAGENAL: We found the planet's tipped on its side, 1381 01:06:52,809 --> 01:06:55,243 but the magnetic field is then tipped 1382 01:06:55,278 --> 01:06:57,145 relative to the spin axis, 1383 01:06:57,180 --> 01:07:02,050 so you have this huge contortion in the magnetic field 1384 01:07:02,085 --> 01:07:06,654 as the planet spins around, just bizarre. 1385 01:07:11,728 --> 01:07:13,728 HAMMEL: At that point in its orbit, 1386 01:07:13,764 --> 01:07:18,233 the planet didn't look exciting, 1387 01:07:18,268 --> 01:07:21,903 and part of that is Uranus itself, 1388 01:07:21,938 --> 01:07:24,305 holding its secrets back. 1389 01:07:24,341 --> 01:07:28,676 SMITH: That had to be, I guess, one of the... 1390 01:07:28,712 --> 01:07:32,881 well, disappointments in that Uranus 1391 01:07:32,916 --> 01:07:34,949 was not more photogenic than it was. 1392 01:07:34,985 --> 01:07:37,652 It was actually pretty blah. 1393 01:07:37,687 --> 01:07:39,054 HAMMEL: Ah...poor Uranus. 1394 01:07:39,089 --> 01:07:40,922 [laughs] 1395 01:07:40,957 --> 01:07:42,123 Poor Uranus. 1396 01:07:42,159 --> 01:07:52,200 [guitar and piano music] 1397 01:07:52,202 --> 01:07:57,906 [guitar and piano music] 1398 01:07:57,941 --> 01:08:01,009 TERRILE: The big stars of the Uranus encounter 1399 01:08:01,044 --> 01:08:02,477 were actually the moons. 1400 01:08:02,512 --> 01:08:06,414 [guitar music] 1401 01:08:06,450 --> 01:08:07,882 KOHLHASE: If you're going to go to Neptune, 1402 01:08:07,918 --> 01:08:11,186 you still have to use Uranus for gravity assist. 1403 01:08:11,221 --> 01:08:15,457 The gravity assist aiming point at Uranus 1404 01:08:15,492 --> 01:08:20,161 just happened to be pretty close to the orbit of Miranda. 1405 01:08:20,197 --> 01:08:22,263 If Uranus has been the last stop, 1406 01:08:22,299 --> 01:08:25,200 the scientists might have wanted to go to a larger moon, 1407 01:08:25,235 --> 01:08:29,404 which ironically, I don't see how anything could have been 1408 01:08:29,439 --> 01:08:30,772 any more interesting than Miranda... 1409 01:08:30,807 --> 01:08:35,410 [string music] 1410 01:08:35,445 --> 01:08:37,879 It looked like a jumbled-up mess. 1411 01:08:37,914 --> 01:08:41,549 [string music] 1412 01:08:41,585 --> 01:08:44,385 HAMMEL: This moon looked like it had been ripped to pieces 1413 01:08:44,421 --> 01:08:46,955 and then just sort of shoved back together again. 1414 01:08:46,990 --> 01:08:48,756 SMITH: Whoa! Come look at this. 1415 01:08:48,792 --> 01:08:50,358 SPILKER: Going up to the screen and pointing and saying, 1416 01:08:50,393 --> 01:08:52,026 "did you...look at that, look at that." 1417 01:08:52,062 --> 01:08:54,863 HAMMEL: No...nobody was ready for Miranda. 1418 01:08:54,898 --> 01:08:58,032 SODERBLOM: There were enormous cliffs and gashes, 1419 01:08:58,068 --> 01:09:01,035 one of them, you can see the edge of a cliff, 1420 01:09:01,071 --> 01:09:03,471 it's got to be ten kilometers tall. 1421 01:09:03,507 --> 01:09:05,773 The gravity on Miranda is so weak, 1422 01:09:05,809 --> 01:09:07,642 if you jumped off that cliff, 1423 01:09:07,677 --> 01:09:12,413 you could read the newspaper on the way down, 1424 01:09:12,449 --> 01:09:13,648 but when you hit the bottom 1425 01:09:13,683 --> 01:09:15,283 you'd still be going a hundred miles an hour, 1426 01:09:15,318 --> 01:09:17,986 so it probably wouldn't... 1427 01:09:18,021 --> 01:09:21,356 it would be the last newspaper you read. 1428 01:09:21,391 --> 01:09:25,393 NARRATOR: At Uranus, Voyager detected intense radiation belts 1429 01:09:25,428 --> 01:09:29,864 and discovered two new rings and ten tiny moons. 1430 01:09:29,900 --> 01:09:35,203 BAGENAL: We were just about to present all our results, 1431 01:09:35,238 --> 01:09:36,738 we were all about to have 1432 01:09:36,773 --> 01:09:42,010 the big final finale press conference and... 1433 01:09:42,045 --> 01:09:43,711 came back from breakfast, 1434 01:09:43,747 --> 01:09:48,783 and I went to go watch the shuttle being launched... 1435 01:09:48,818 --> 01:09:50,885 VO IN ARCHIVE: We have main engines start... 1436 01:09:50,921 --> 01:09:56,124 4...3...2...1...and lift-off! 1437 01:09:56,159 --> 01:09:59,294 Lift off of the 25th space shuttle mission, 1438 01:09:59,329 --> 01:10:01,629 and it has cleared the tower. 1439 01:10:01,665 --> 01:10:03,064 BAGENAL: ...and we thought, OK, great, 1440 01:10:03,099 --> 01:10:04,299 we'll watch the shuttle launch 1441 01:10:04,334 --> 01:10:06,668 and then we'll go to the press conference, 1442 01:10:06,703 --> 01:10:09,704 but of course that was Challenger. 1443 01:10:09,739 --> 01:10:10,772 VO IN ARCHIVE: Engines throttling up. 1444 01:10:10,807 --> 01:10:12,407 Three engine now at 104%. 1445 01:10:12,442 --> 01:10:14,776 Challenger, go with throttle up. 1446 01:10:14,811 --> 01:10:16,611 Roger, go with throttle up. 1447 01:10:23,587 --> 01:10:25,787 [soft piano music] 1448 01:10:25,822 --> 01:10:27,589 SPILKER: People were just like astonished. 1449 01:10:27,624 --> 01:10:30,258 This gasp of like, oh, my, did you see that, 1450 01:10:30,293 --> 01:10:31,926 did it really blow up? 1451 01:10:31,962 --> 01:10:33,962 Because we had stopped in our meeting 1452 01:10:33,997 --> 01:10:35,463 so everyone could watch it, 1453 01:10:35,498 --> 01:10:38,900 and then there was just silence, people were crying. 1454 01:10:38,935 --> 01:10:40,435 [soft piano music] 1455 01:10:40,470 --> 01:10:43,171 SMITH: Well, what can you say? 1456 01:10:43,206 --> 01:10:47,675 You knew right away that a bunch of people were dead. 1457 01:10:47,711 --> 01:10:48,943 VO IN ARCHIVE: Flight Throttle. Go ahead. 1458 01:10:48,979 --> 01:10:54,616 RSO reports vehicle exploded. 1459 01:10:54,651 --> 01:10:56,084 Copy. 1460 01:10:56,119 --> 01:10:59,153 DODD: And then of course they showed replays and replays 1461 01:10:59,189 --> 01:11:03,291 and replays over and over and over again. 1462 01:11:03,326 --> 01:11:05,393 MAN IN ARCHIVE: We have no downlink. 1463 01:11:05,428 --> 01:11:08,196 OK, everybody, just stay off the telephones. 1464 01:11:08,231 --> 01:11:09,931 Make sure you maintain all your data, 1465 01:11:09,966 --> 01:11:11,899 start pulling it together. 1466 01:11:11,935 --> 01:11:13,468 SPILKER: The Challenger accident happened 1467 01:11:13,503 --> 01:11:15,536 as we were receding from Uranus. 1468 01:11:15,572 --> 01:11:18,673 I have this vivid memory of picture after picture 1469 01:11:18,708 --> 01:11:20,775 of the crescent Uranus coming back 1470 01:11:20,810 --> 01:11:23,478 and the replay of the Challenger explosion, 1471 01:11:23,513 --> 01:11:26,047 and it was just devastating. 1472 01:11:26,082 --> 01:11:29,517 RONALD REAGAN: Today is a day for mourning and remembering. 1473 01:11:29,552 --> 01:11:31,319 Nancy and I are pained to the core 1474 01:11:31,354 --> 01:11:33,755 over the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. 1475 01:11:33,790 --> 01:11:35,256 We know we share this pain 1476 01:11:35,292 --> 01:11:37,659 with all of the people of our country. 1477 01:11:37,694 --> 01:11:40,194 This is truly a national loss. 1478 01:11:40,230 --> 01:11:41,929 I know it's hard to understand, 1479 01:11:41,965 --> 01:11:45,033 but sometimes painful things like this happen. 1480 01:11:45,068 --> 01:11:48,970 It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. 1481 01:11:49,005 --> 01:11:53,941 It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. 1482 01:11:53,977 --> 01:11:57,211 The future doesn't belong to the faint hearted, 1483 01:11:57,247 --> 01:11:59,213 it belongs to the brave. 1484 01:11:59,249 --> 01:12:12,994 [sad string music plays] 1485 01:12:15,098 --> 01:12:17,298 DODD: During these closest approach time periods, 1486 01:12:17,334 --> 01:12:20,802 we would have hundreds of reporters come to JPL, 1487 01:12:20,837 --> 01:12:25,573 and when the Challenger exploded, everybody just left. 1488 01:12:25,608 --> 01:12:29,310 [nearly silent save for ring of unattended microphone] 1489 01:12:36,753 --> 01:12:42,357 [piano music] 1490 01:12:42,392 --> 01:12:44,258 KRAUSS: Those cosmic questions we hope to learn 1491 01:12:44,294 --> 01:12:45,560 by sending our machines out, 1492 01:12:45,595 --> 01:12:48,029 the very same questions that you and I and every child 1493 01:12:48,064 --> 01:12:49,464 has asked themselves. 1494 01:12:49,499 --> 01:12:50,998 Where do we come from, are we alone, 1495 01:12:51,034 --> 01:12:53,267 what's the universe made of, how will it end? 1496 01:12:53,303 --> 01:12:55,169 All of these basic questions 1497 01:12:55,205 --> 01:12:57,472 are the questions that drive science. 1498 01:12:57,507 --> 01:12:59,474 [piano music] 1499 01:12:59,509 --> 01:13:01,976 [traffic] 1500 01:13:05,448 --> 01:13:08,249 [machines beeping] 1501 01:13:08,284 --> 01:13:11,386 STONE: Finally at Neptune, Voyager has begun 1502 01:13:11,421 --> 01:13:14,322 the last of a decade's worth of encounters 1503 01:13:14,357 --> 01:13:15,957 with the outer planets. 1504 01:13:15,992 --> 01:13:17,859 BELL: It was another three and a half years 1505 01:13:17,894 --> 01:13:19,794 to get out to Neptune. 1506 01:13:19,829 --> 01:13:21,929 They had to reprogram the spacecraft again, 1507 01:13:21,965 --> 01:13:23,297 give it, teach it some new tricks, 1508 01:13:23,333 --> 01:13:25,099 to work in this even darker environment, 1509 01:13:25,135 --> 01:13:28,102 even colder environment. 1510 01:13:28,138 --> 01:13:29,537 BAGENAL: If we take the Earth 1511 01:13:29,572 --> 01:13:34,142 being one astronomical unit from the sun, or AU for short. 1512 01:13:34,177 --> 01:13:36,611 Neptune is 30 times that distance. 1513 01:13:36,646 --> 01:13:38,079 STONE: When we launched Voyager, 1514 01:13:38,114 --> 01:13:42,350 there was no capability to get any images back from 30 AU. 1515 01:13:42,385 --> 01:13:45,620 That capability happened all after launch. 1516 01:13:45,655 --> 01:13:48,689 It involved taking two 34-meter antennas 1517 01:13:48,725 --> 01:13:51,125 and adding them to a 70-meter antenna. 1518 01:13:51,161 --> 01:13:52,560 VLA RADIO CONTROL: Copy, we're ready to run that observation. 1519 01:13:52,595 --> 01:13:54,962 STONE: It meant using the entire Very Large Array in New Mexico, 1520 01:13:54,998 --> 01:13:58,399 27 antennas to collect the very weak signal 1521 01:13:58,435 --> 01:14:00,935 that we could get back from 30 AU. 1522 01:14:00,970 --> 01:14:03,371 BELL: The flybys past Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus 1523 01:14:03,406 --> 01:14:06,674 had sped up the spacecraft too, so it's going even faster, 1524 01:14:06,709 --> 01:14:10,678 so enormous amounts of pressure, and one shot. 1525 01:14:10,713 --> 01:14:13,181 [light keyboard music] 1526 01:14:13,216 --> 01:14:15,183 NARRATOR: In the summer of 1989, 1527 01:14:15,218 --> 01:14:21,222 Voyager 2 finally came up on the ice giant Neptune. 1528 01:14:21,257 --> 01:14:24,659 Thanks to slingshots at Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, 1529 01:14:24,694 --> 01:14:28,496 the trip was almost 20 years shorter than a direct approach, 1530 01:14:28,531 --> 01:14:30,398 one without gravity assist. 1531 01:14:30,433 --> 01:14:35,736 [music playing] 1532 01:14:35,772 --> 01:14:37,472 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: There it was just sitting 1533 01:14:37,507 --> 01:14:39,440 out on the edge of our solar system 1534 01:14:39,476 --> 01:14:42,677 waiting for somebody to come out and appreciate its beauty. 1535 01:14:42,712 --> 01:14:44,178 Just waiting for the day 1536 01:14:44,214 --> 01:14:49,250 that humans would get out there, and go wow! 1537 01:14:49,285 --> 01:14:50,985 HAMMEL: I had been taking pictures of Neptune 1538 01:14:51,020 --> 01:14:53,988 from the ground where we couldn't see very much. 1539 01:14:54,023 --> 01:14:56,958 You know, in my head imagining what it might look like 1540 01:14:56,993 --> 01:15:01,829 and seeing that turned into reality, it's a rush. 1541 01:15:01,865 --> 01:15:07,435 BAGENAL: Looking at this blue, bright blue orb, 1542 01:15:07,470 --> 01:15:09,470 it was evocative of the Earth, 1543 01:15:09,506 --> 01:15:13,741 which was bizarre for the last planet that we were flying by. 1544 01:15:13,776 --> 01:15:16,577 HAMMEL: I was a meticulous log taker 1545 01:15:16,613 --> 01:15:19,647 and I would make little notations in these logs 1546 01:15:19,682 --> 01:15:21,282 and I would draw little pictures, 1547 01:15:21,317 --> 01:15:23,651 and you could see what's this little dark spot, 1548 01:15:23,686 --> 01:15:26,387 bright clouds, I'm like wow! 1549 01:15:26,422 --> 01:15:28,155 Wow! Exclamation point! 1550 01:15:28,191 --> 01:15:30,725 And I'd draw pictures and arrows. 1551 01:15:30,760 --> 01:15:36,230 The most surprising thing was a giant dark spot. 1552 01:15:36,266 --> 01:15:38,666 Nobody had any idea that would be there. 1553 01:15:38,701 --> 01:15:41,736 It's huge. It's like a hole in the planet. 1554 01:15:41,771 --> 01:15:44,305 So we called it The Great Dark Spot 1555 01:15:44,340 --> 01:15:47,041 because we're not very original when it comes to names. 1556 01:15:47,076 --> 01:15:53,915 [electric guitar music] 1557 01:15:53,950 --> 01:15:56,384 INGERSOLL: We had to basically make a forecast 1558 01:15:56,419 --> 01:15:58,786 of the storms on Neptune 1559 01:15:58,821 --> 01:16:02,056 in order to point the cameras during the last day, 1560 01:16:02,091 --> 01:16:05,159 and at the same time there was a hurricane 1561 01:16:05,194 --> 01:16:07,895 off the east coast of the US, 1562 01:16:07,931 --> 01:16:10,831 and the weather forecasters 1563 01:16:10,867 --> 01:16:13,768 were trying to forecast that hurricane, 1564 01:16:13,803 --> 01:16:17,338 but they were trying to forecast it twelve hours in advance 1565 01:16:17,373 --> 01:16:18,973 and they were having a lot of trouble 1566 01:16:19,008 --> 01:16:21,342 because the storm kept changing position. 1567 01:16:21,377 --> 01:16:25,279 And we were just calmly plotting points on graph paper 1568 01:16:25,315 --> 01:16:27,448 and then said, OK, two weeks from now, 1569 01:16:27,483 --> 01:16:31,686 this storm is going to be right here and it usually was. 1570 01:16:31,721 --> 01:16:36,257 [electric guitar music] 1571 01:16:36,292 --> 01:16:39,060 BAGENAL: At Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, 1572 01:16:39,095 --> 01:16:41,796 the goal was to do a flyby 1573 01:16:41,831 --> 01:16:45,733 that would take the spacecraft on to the next planet. 1574 01:16:45,768 --> 01:16:47,535 When it came to Neptune 1575 01:16:47,570 --> 01:16:49,570 we knew that that was the last planet 1576 01:16:49,606 --> 01:16:51,072 that we were going to fly by, 1577 01:16:51,107 --> 01:16:54,909 and so we could take a different trajectory. 1578 01:16:54,944 --> 01:16:59,313 This allowed us to get a really spectacular view of the rings 1579 01:16:59,349 --> 01:17:01,549 and then look back on the system 1580 01:17:01,584 --> 01:17:05,152 in a way that was quite beautiful. 1581 01:17:05,188 --> 01:17:08,055 TERRILE: Think about imaging the rings of Neptune. 1582 01:17:08,091 --> 01:17:11,692 They have reflectivity which is twice as dark as soot, 1583 01:17:11,728 --> 01:17:13,327 and the light that's falling on them 1584 01:17:13,363 --> 01:17:16,731 is a thousand times fainter than on Earth. 1585 01:17:16,766 --> 01:17:19,066 So you have one one-thousandth the light 1586 01:17:19,102 --> 01:17:20,668 and you're trying to image something 1587 01:17:20,703 --> 01:17:24,372 which is twice as dark as soot against a jet-black background. 1588 01:17:24,407 --> 01:17:27,775 SMITH: More than one ring can be seen even in the raw images, 1589 01:17:27,810 --> 01:17:29,477 the so-called ring arcs, 1590 01:17:29,512 --> 01:17:33,514 and it seemed reasonable that this was indeed the lost arc 1591 01:17:33,549 --> 01:17:36,651 that our imaging team raiders were looking for. 1592 01:17:36,686 --> 01:17:41,188 CROWD: Oh dear! 1593 01:17:41,224 --> 01:17:42,990 SMITH: Now you're going to turn on me, right? 1594 01:17:43,026 --> 01:17:44,759 [laughter] 1595 01:17:44,794 --> 01:17:49,196 KOHLHASE: We knew at Neptune we wanted a close flyby of Triton, 1596 01:17:49,232 --> 01:17:52,033 which was a huge world around Neptune. 1597 01:17:52,068 --> 01:17:53,801 SODERBLOM: If you looked at them on the way in, 1598 01:17:53,836 --> 01:17:55,536 they weren't lined up. 1599 01:17:55,571 --> 01:17:57,438 One's up here; one's down here. 1600 01:17:57,473 --> 01:17:58,673 And so, what are you going to do? 1601 01:17:58,708 --> 01:18:00,241 Well, there was a way-- 1602 01:18:00,276 --> 01:18:03,878 fly over the north pole, very close to Neptune 1603 01:18:03,913 --> 01:18:06,914 to bend the spacecraft so it would go down. 1604 01:18:06,949 --> 01:18:09,617 BELL: But the meant getting to within just a few thousand miles 1605 01:18:09,652 --> 01:18:12,820 of the cloud tops skimming the surface. 1606 01:18:12,855 --> 01:18:17,024 And they had to hit that, you know, exactly right. 1607 01:18:17,060 --> 01:18:18,559 SODERBLOM: There was a lot of concern 1608 01:18:18,594 --> 01:18:22,129 that we didn't know enough about Neptune's atmosphere 1609 01:18:22,165 --> 01:18:27,234 to really be sure that the spacecraft would not tumble. 1610 01:18:27,270 --> 01:18:30,004 BELL: Just a slight error in the calculations 1611 01:18:30,039 --> 01:18:32,306 and instead of skimming across the cloud tops, 1612 01:18:32,341 --> 01:18:35,743 you're skimming into the clouds and the spacecraft burns up. 1613 01:18:35,778 --> 01:18:38,179 Slight error the other way, you go a little too far, 1614 01:18:38,214 --> 01:18:40,648 you don't bend enough, maybe you run right into Triton 1615 01:18:40,683 --> 01:18:42,616 and crash, and that's the end of the mission. 1616 01:18:42,652 --> 01:18:43,784 You don't have enough time, 1617 01:18:43,820 --> 01:18:46,353 you have to make your last best guess, 1618 01:18:46,389 --> 01:18:48,823 hit the send button. 1619 01:18:48,858 --> 01:18:50,157 [atmospheric suspenseful music] 1620 01:18:50,193 --> 01:18:51,792 It would have been just fascinating 1621 01:18:51,828 --> 01:18:53,794 to be hanging on to that spacecraft, right? 1622 01:18:53,830 --> 01:18:57,865 Skimming over these beautiful blue cloud tops of Neptune 1623 01:18:57,900 --> 01:19:00,167 and then as you come over the pole of Neptune 1624 01:19:00,203 --> 01:19:03,104 seeing that big moon Triton rise up... 1625 01:19:03,139 --> 01:19:11,178 [atmospheric suspenseful music] 1626 01:19:11,214 --> 01:19:13,414 TERRILE: After several billion miles of journey 1627 01:19:13,449 --> 01:19:15,049 to get us to within a few kilometers 1628 01:19:15,084 --> 01:19:16,250 of where we needed to be, 1629 01:19:16,285 --> 01:19:18,686 it's just absolutely remarkable. 1630 01:19:18,721 --> 01:19:22,156 You know, threading an incredible needle. 1631 01:19:22,191 --> 01:19:24,391 SODERBLOM: Southern hemisphere of Triton 1632 01:19:24,427 --> 01:19:27,762 is entirely covered with nitrogen ice, 1633 01:19:27,797 --> 01:19:32,299 and as we flew past, we were able to look down 1634 01:19:32,335 --> 01:19:36,771 at markings on the surface of the polar cap. 1635 01:19:36,806 --> 01:19:41,575 We were putting together a mosaic of Triton's globe, 1636 01:19:41,611 --> 01:19:45,513 but we couldn't get things to line up quite right. 1637 01:19:45,548 --> 01:19:49,316 Some of the dark streaks, two in particular would not line up. 1638 01:19:49,352 --> 01:19:50,851 BELL: He's like just scratching his head, 1639 01:19:50,887 --> 01:19:53,320 like I have no idea what's going on here. 1640 01:19:53,356 --> 01:19:55,656 This guy's one of the world's experts 1641 01:19:55,691 --> 01:19:58,192 on anything having to do with planets and moons, 1642 01:19:58,227 --> 01:19:59,827 and he can't figure this out. 1643 01:19:59,862 --> 01:20:03,697 SODERBLOM: I said, well, let's put it in a stereo viewer, 1644 01:20:03,733 --> 01:20:05,432 red and blue glasses. 1645 01:20:05,468 --> 01:20:08,235 And the images fused into a three-dimensional model 1646 01:20:08,271 --> 01:20:10,871 and up popped these geysers. 1647 01:20:10,907 --> 01:20:14,809 [atmospheric suspenseful music] 1648 01:20:14,844 --> 01:20:20,181 SODERBLOM: And I said holy moly, and so we knew what we had. 1649 01:20:20,216 --> 01:20:28,289 [music playing] 1650 01:20:28,324 --> 01:20:31,892 [music playing] 1651 01:20:31,928 --> 01:20:33,427 BAGENAL: These plumes. 1652 01:20:33,462 --> 01:20:38,833 Black geysers spewing out this stuff. 1653 01:20:38,868 --> 01:20:44,271 HAMMEL: The plumes extending out of the surface 1654 01:20:44,307 --> 01:20:46,707 for like kilometers. 1655 01:20:46,742 --> 01:20:50,144 TERRILE: We were seeing eruptions on a world 1656 01:20:50,179 --> 01:20:54,615 which should have been just a frozen cinder. 1657 01:20:54,650 --> 01:20:56,217 The last place we would have expected 1658 01:20:56,252 --> 01:20:59,520 to see further dynamics, further eruptions 1659 01:20:59,555 --> 01:21:02,089 was at a moon this remote in the solar system. 1660 01:21:02,124 --> 01:21:03,490 SODERBLOM: Just because an idea's crazy, 1661 01:21:03,526 --> 01:21:04,992 it's not necessarily wrong. 1662 01:21:05,027 --> 01:21:08,095 CROWD: [laughter] 1663 01:21:08,130 --> 01:21:11,065 NARRATOR: Geysers. Volcanoes on Io. 1664 01:21:11,100 --> 01:21:13,500 Hints of a giant ocean of liquid water 1665 01:21:13,536 --> 01:21:16,570 under Europa's icy crust. 1666 01:21:16,606 --> 01:21:20,374 Each of these features is evidence of a source of energy. 1667 01:21:20,409 --> 01:21:23,911 And that's a prerequisite for life as we know it. 1668 01:21:25,448 --> 01:21:27,748 SPILKER: We knew this was the last planet 1669 01:21:27,783 --> 01:21:29,917 Voyager would explore 1670 01:21:29,952 --> 01:21:32,786 before it headed on for the rest of its journey, 1671 01:21:32,822 --> 01:21:36,523 and so I think the times together as a team, 1672 01:21:36,559 --> 01:21:39,093 the times to look at the pictures, talk, 1673 01:21:39,128 --> 01:21:41,595 meet together, became more precious. 1674 01:21:41,631 --> 01:21:45,833 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: I was passing by the secretary's desk 1675 01:21:45,868 --> 01:21:47,334 and she said, oh, Candy, 1676 01:21:47,370 --> 01:21:50,604 there's a reporter that wants to talk to you. 1677 01:21:50,640 --> 01:21:54,041 And he said, the countdown clock 1678 01:21:54,076 --> 01:21:57,011 just went from minus, 1679 01:21:57,046 --> 01:22:01,582 counting down, to counting up. 1680 01:22:01,617 --> 01:22:05,653 Voyager's now leaving Neptune. 1681 01:22:05,688 --> 01:22:09,890 And he said how does that make you feel? 1682 01:22:09,926 --> 01:22:13,494 And in that moment, I dissolved into tears. 1683 01:22:13,529 --> 01:22:14,962 [piano music] 1684 01:22:14,997 --> 01:22:16,597 BELL: After the spacecraft went past, 1685 01:22:16,632 --> 01:22:17,965 it turned around and looked back, 1686 01:22:18,000 --> 01:22:20,901 and there's this beautiful crescent Neptune and Triton, 1687 01:22:20,937 --> 01:22:23,804 and people realized that's the end 1688 01:22:23,839 --> 01:22:25,806 of the planetary part of Voyager. 1689 01:22:25,841 --> 01:22:27,875 That's the last port of call, 1690 01:22:27,910 --> 01:22:31,912 the last thing we'll see in our solar system is now behind us. 1691 01:22:31,948 --> 01:22:36,650 [piano music] 1692 01:22:36,686 --> 01:22:40,487 SMITH: We could have enhanced the color a bit 1693 01:22:40,523 --> 01:22:42,122 to make a somewhat prettier picture, 1694 01:22:42,158 --> 01:22:45,092 but out of respect to the Voyager spacecraft 1695 01:22:45,127 --> 01:22:48,696 we decided to show it to you just as it is. 1696 01:22:51,801 --> 01:22:55,402 [applause] 1697 01:22:55,438 --> 01:22:58,839 [piano music] 1698 01:22:58,874 --> 01:23:00,040 SMITH: The way I looked at it 1699 01:23:00,076 --> 01:23:04,611 was gee, we did something really great. 1700 01:23:04,647 --> 01:23:07,481 Very, very successful mission. 1701 01:23:07,516 --> 01:23:09,083 SODERBLOM: A little weepy. 1702 01:23:09,118 --> 01:23:14,588 I mean it's...there was a lot of energy put into this mission. 1703 01:23:14,623 --> 01:23:18,192 SPEAKER: We have ignition and we have lift-off. 1704 01:23:18,227 --> 01:23:26,867 [piano music] 1705 01:23:26,902 --> 01:23:32,840 SODERBLOM: Years of intense effort. 1706 01:23:32,875 --> 01:23:35,342 It was the end of a sentimental journey. 1707 01:23:35,378 --> 01:23:39,346 [piano music] 1708 01:23:39,382 --> 01:23:40,848 KOHLHASE: We did it. 1709 01:23:40,883 --> 01:23:44,551 We pulled it off, and that's important. 1710 01:23:44,587 --> 01:23:46,420 It is. 1711 01:23:46,455 --> 01:23:47,688 [music: "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry] 1712 01:23:47,723 --> 01:23:49,223 ♪ Deep down in Lousiana close to New Orleans ♪ 1713 01:23:49,258 --> 01:23:52,059 ♪ Way back up in the woods among the evergreens ♪ 1714 01:23:52,094 --> 01:23:54,962 ♪ There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood ♪ 1715 01:23:54,997 --> 01:23:57,464 ♪ Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode ♪ 1716 01:23:57,500 --> 01:23:59,700 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: We had a big party at JPL, 1717 01:23:59,735 --> 01:24:01,168 Chuck Berry was there, 1718 01:24:01,203 --> 01:24:03,270 so that was a good send-off for Voyager. 1719 01:24:03,305 --> 01:24:04,905 CHUCK BERRY: ♪ Go, go ♪ 1720 01:24:04,940 --> 01:24:07,808 ♪ Go, Johnny, go, go ♪ 1721 01:24:07,843 --> 01:24:10,677 ♪ Go, Johnny, go, go ♪ 1722 01:24:10,713 --> 01:24:13,614 ♪ Go, Johnny, go, go ♪ 1723 01:24:13,649 --> 01:24:17,384 ♪ Go, Johnny, go, go ♪ 1724 01:24:17,420 --> 01:24:18,952 ♪ Johnny B. Goode ♪ 1725 01:24:18,988 --> 01:24:21,055 [music ends] 1726 01:24:21,090 --> 01:24:25,859 DODD: Rockstar moment and sail on Voyager. 1727 01:24:25,895 --> 01:24:27,428 CARL SAGAN: And I'm going to go get some sleep 1728 01:24:27,463 --> 01:24:29,630 or maybe I'll do a little more dancing... 1729 01:24:29,665 --> 01:24:30,931 Thank you very much, Lou? 1730 01:24:30,966 --> 01:24:34,601 [clapping] 1731 01:24:36,272 --> 01:24:37,504 BELL: Meanwhile Voyager 1 1732 01:24:37,540 --> 01:24:39,206 is still kind of cruising out there, 1733 01:24:39,241 --> 01:24:40,841 getting farther and farther out, 1734 01:24:40,876 --> 01:24:42,276 and a number of folks on the team, 1735 01:24:42,311 --> 01:24:43,744 including Carl Sagan, 1736 01:24:43,779 --> 01:24:47,681 had this idea that before we have to shut the cameras down, 1737 01:24:47,716 --> 01:24:50,584 let's turn around, look back towards the sun 1738 01:24:50,619 --> 01:24:53,087 and let's take a picture of our solar system 1739 01:24:53,122 --> 01:24:55,355 unlike any that had ever been taken before. 1740 01:24:55,391 --> 01:24:57,624 And there was actually opposition to it. 1741 01:24:57,660 --> 01:24:58,826 PORCO: They just didn't want to do it. 1742 01:24:58,861 --> 01:25:00,327 They couldn't get their heads around 1743 01:25:00,362 --> 01:25:02,596 what would be the point of taking a picture 1744 01:25:02,631 --> 01:25:04,798 of the Earth and Jupiter and so on 1745 01:25:04,834 --> 01:25:07,267 because they're just going to be little points of light. 1746 01:25:07,303 --> 01:25:10,137 So Carl being Carl 1747 01:25:10,172 --> 01:25:13,707 actually went all the way to the NASA administrator 1748 01:25:13,742 --> 01:25:16,944 and got him to direct the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1749 01:25:16,979 --> 01:25:19,446 to take this series of pictures. 1750 01:25:19,482 --> 01:25:21,782 SMITH: Absolutely zero science in it. 1751 01:25:21,817 --> 01:25:24,885 Absolutely none. 1752 01:25:24,920 --> 01:25:26,787 NARRATOR: From a unique vantage point, 1753 01:25:26,822 --> 01:25:29,089 nearly four billion miles away, 1754 01:25:29,125 --> 01:25:31,792 Voyager 1's cameras turned homeward 1755 01:25:31,827 --> 01:25:34,261 to take family snapshots. 1756 01:25:34,296 --> 01:25:37,631 It was Valentine's Day, 1990. 1757 01:25:37,666 --> 01:25:42,903 [music playing] 1758 01:25:48,444 --> 01:25:49,676 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: When we did our portrait 1759 01:25:49,712 --> 01:25:51,879 of each of the planets, 1760 01:25:51,914 --> 01:25:54,148 I was the first person to look at the pictures 1761 01:25:54,183 --> 01:25:56,049 and I knew every blemish, 1762 01:25:56,085 --> 01:25:59,052 and so I could pretty quickly go blemish, blemish, blemish, 1763 01:25:59,088 --> 01:26:01,989 and I thought, well, where's the Earth? 1764 01:26:02,024 --> 01:26:04,892 Where? How could we...you know? 1765 01:26:04,927 --> 01:26:07,761 And then I realized there was a lot of... 1766 01:26:07,796 --> 01:26:12,432 there were a lot of streaks of light in that image, 1767 01:26:12,468 --> 01:26:14,668 and I realized finally 1768 01:26:14,703 --> 01:26:20,374 that the Earth was sitting in one of those rays of light. 1769 01:26:20,409 --> 01:26:22,042 You know, I just sat there for a while 1770 01:26:22,077 --> 01:26:27,047 just kind of realizing wow, that's the Earth, you know, 1771 01:26:27,082 --> 01:26:29,650 that's Voyager looking back at the Earth, 1772 01:26:29,685 --> 01:26:31,218 and then once I had sort of recovered, 1773 01:26:31,253 --> 01:26:32,419 I started calling people. 1774 01:26:32,454 --> 01:26:33,720 I called Brad. 1775 01:26:33,756 --> 01:26:36,590 Brad, we got it, called Carl, Carl, we got it. 1776 01:26:36,625 --> 01:26:37,591 Called my dad. 1777 01:26:37,626 --> 01:26:39,193 [laughs] 1778 01:26:39,228 --> 01:26:41,395 STONE: And so this is a different kind of milestone 1779 01:26:41,430 --> 01:26:43,463 than the scientific milestones we've had. 1780 01:26:43,499 --> 01:26:45,265 One that is really symbolic... 1781 01:26:45,301 --> 01:26:47,367 PORCO: I'm an imaging scientist, so I first realized, 1782 01:26:47,403 --> 01:26:48,602 oh, this didn't turn out 1783 01:26:48,637 --> 01:26:50,370 the way we thought it was going to turn out, 1784 01:26:50,406 --> 01:26:53,373 and my first impulse is to take my hand 1785 01:26:53,409 --> 01:26:56,443 and wipe away the dust, because there was some dust on it. 1786 01:26:56,478 --> 01:27:00,080 Well, one of the pieces of dust that I wanted to wipe away 1787 01:27:00,115 --> 01:27:02,516 was the Earth. 1788 01:27:02,551 --> 01:27:05,385 But it didn't matter because in the hands of Carl, 1789 01:27:05,421 --> 01:27:10,190 he turned it into an allegory on the human condition. 1790 01:27:10,226 --> 01:27:12,759 CARL SAGAN: And the next slide. 1791 01:27:19,401 --> 01:27:20,934 The Earth in a sunbeam. 1792 01:27:23,806 --> 01:27:25,239 And in this color picture 1793 01:27:25,274 --> 01:27:28,609 you can see that it is in fact less than a pixel, 1794 01:27:28,644 --> 01:27:32,746 and this is where we live, on a blue dot. 1795 01:27:32,781 --> 01:27:35,682 On that blue dot, 1796 01:27:35,718 --> 01:27:39,886 that's where everyone you know and everyone you ever heard of 1797 01:27:39,922 --> 01:27:42,990 and every human being who ever lived 1798 01:27:43,025 --> 01:27:46,660 lived out their lives. 1799 01:27:46,695 --> 01:27:51,732 I think this perspective underscores our responsibility 1800 01:27:51,767 --> 01:27:55,802 to preserve and cherish that blue dot, 1801 01:27:55,838 --> 01:27:58,138 the only home we have. 1802 01:27:58,173 --> 01:27:59,139 ["Eclipse" by Pink Floyd begins to play] 1803 01:27:59,174 --> 01:28:00,774 ♪ All that you touch ♪ 1804 01:28:00,809 --> 01:28:03,443 ♪ And all that you see ♪ 1805 01:28:03,479 --> 01:28:06,513 ♪ All that you taste ♪ 1806 01:28:06,548 --> 01:28:08,782 ♪ All you feel ♪ 1807 01:28:08,817 --> 01:28:11,385 ♪ And all that you love ♪ 1808 01:28:11,420 --> 01:28:13,954 ♪ All that you hate ♪ 1809 01:28:13,989 --> 01:28:17,124 ♪ All you distrust ♪ 1810 01:28:17,159 --> 01:28:19,092 ♪ All you save ♪ 1811 01:28:19,128 --> 01:28:21,795 ♪ And all you create ♪ 1812 01:28:21,830 --> 01:28:24,398 ♪ And all you destroy ♪ 1813 01:28:24,433 --> 01:28:27,134 ♪ And all that you do ♪ 1814 01:28:27,169 --> 01:28:29,736 ♪ And all that you say ♪ 1815 01:28:29,772 --> 01:28:32,306 ♪ And all that you eat ♪ 1816 01:28:32,341 --> 01:28:34,841 ♪ And everyone you meet ♪ 1817 01:28:34,877 --> 01:28:37,511 ♪ And all that you slight ♪ 1818 01:28:37,546 --> 01:28:39,946 ♪ And everyone you fight ♪ 1819 01:28:39,982 --> 01:28:42,482 ♪ And all that is now ♪ 1820 01:28:42,518 --> 01:28:45,118 ♪ And all that is gone ♪ 1821 01:28:45,154 --> 01:28:47,721 ♪ And all that's to come ♪ 1822 01:28:47,756 --> 01:28:52,659 ♪ and everything under the sun is in tune ♪ 1823 01:28:52,695 --> 01:29:01,501 ♪ but the sun is eclipsed by the moon ♪ 1824 01:29:01,537 --> 01:29:03,804 NARRATOR: The two Voyagers still communicate with Earth 1825 01:29:03,839 --> 01:29:06,239 nearly every day. 1826 01:29:06,275 --> 01:29:10,143 It takes huge antennas to detect their faint signals, 1827 01:29:10,179 --> 01:29:13,914 now less than one trillionth of a watt. 1828 01:29:13,949 --> 01:29:15,882 The spacecraft continue to be tracked 1829 01:29:15,918 --> 01:29:19,319 as they begin the final part of their mission, 1830 01:29:19,355 --> 01:29:22,422 to travel beyond the edge of our solar system, 1831 01:29:22,458 --> 01:29:24,958 into interstellar space. 1832 01:29:24,993 --> 01:29:27,928 It's in this never travelled region between the stars 1833 01:29:27,963 --> 01:29:30,597 that Voyager and its Golden Record 1834 01:29:30,632 --> 01:29:33,967 will have a chance of being discovered. 1835 01:29:34,002 --> 01:29:36,937 KRIMIGIS: At the time we were designing Voyager, 1836 01:29:36,972 --> 01:29:41,241 interstellar space, where the boundary was, 1837 01:29:41,276 --> 01:29:43,877 was totally unknown. 1838 01:29:43,912 --> 01:29:47,748 We had our eyes on the interstellar mission. 1839 01:29:47,783 --> 01:29:50,283 Are we going to boost the spacecraft 1840 01:29:50,319 --> 01:29:54,788 to get out of our solar system and into the galaxy? 1841 01:29:54,823 --> 01:30:01,027 It was a shot in the dark because nobody knew how far. 1842 01:30:01,063 --> 01:30:03,230 Uncharted waters. 1843 01:30:03,265 --> 01:30:18,078 [inquisitive uplifting music] 1844 01:30:18,113 --> 01:30:21,014 BELL: The magnetic field of the sun can only extend so far, 1845 01:30:21,049 --> 01:30:23,884 it's a bubble around our star, all the stars have bubbles, 1846 01:30:23,919 --> 01:30:26,553 we can see the bubbles around other stars out there, 1847 01:30:26,588 --> 01:30:27,988 so we know that they have bubbles. 1848 01:30:28,023 --> 01:30:30,123 Where does our bubble end? 1849 01:30:30,159 --> 01:30:31,725 NARRATOR: Somewhere beyond Neptune 1850 01:30:31,760 --> 01:30:34,628 is the edge of the bubble around our sun. 1851 01:30:34,663 --> 01:30:37,731 At the heliopause two forces balance-- 1852 01:30:37,766 --> 01:30:39,833 the outward pressure of the solar wind 1853 01:30:39,868 --> 01:30:42,936 and the pressure of interstellar space. 1854 01:30:42,971 --> 01:30:47,207 But how far out it was, no one was sure. 1855 01:30:47,242 --> 01:30:48,375 DON GURNETT: We kept going 1856 01:30:48,410 --> 01:30:50,143 and years went by and years went by 1857 01:30:50,179 --> 01:30:53,747 and we don't detect the interstellar medium. 1858 01:30:53,782 --> 01:30:58,919 [music continues] 1859 01:30:58,954 --> 01:31:01,555 BELL: Throughout the 1990s, 1860 01:31:01,590 --> 01:31:04,090 still didn't find the edge of the bubble. 1861 01:31:04,126 --> 01:31:05,792 Throughout the 2000s, 1862 01:31:05,828 --> 01:31:08,428 still didn't find the edge of the bubble, 1863 01:31:08,464 --> 01:31:12,466 and then finally in 2012 Voyager 1, 1864 01:31:12,501 --> 01:31:15,402 which is going the fastest, which is the farthest, 1865 01:31:15,437 --> 01:31:17,471 started to see these funny things happen 1866 01:31:17,506 --> 01:31:18,972 to the squiggly lines. 1867 01:31:19,007 --> 01:31:20,640 This crazy spike. 1868 01:31:20,676 --> 01:31:21,608 And everybody goes, oh, is that it? 1869 01:31:21,643 --> 01:31:23,877 And then it goes back to normal. 1870 01:31:23,912 --> 01:31:27,347 And then it was just literally one magical day in... 1871 01:31:27,382 --> 01:31:31,785 it was in August of 2012 that everything changed 1872 01:31:31,820 --> 01:31:35,021 and it was like pfff just... popped out of the bubble. 1873 01:31:35,057 --> 01:31:37,491 Voyager 1 has left our solar system. 1874 01:31:37,526 --> 01:31:39,025 It's the first thing built by humans 1875 01:31:39,061 --> 01:31:40,527 that has left our solar system 1876 01:31:40,562 --> 01:31:41,862 and now it's in interstellar space. 1877 01:31:41,897 --> 01:31:42,896 [violin music] 1878 01:31:42,931 --> 01:31:44,397 VO IN ARCHIVE: NASA says that Voyager 1 1879 01:31:44,433 --> 01:31:46,967 has become the first man-made object 1880 01:31:47,002 --> 01:31:48,902 to reach interstellar space, 1881 01:31:48,937 --> 01:31:51,371 the cold dark region between stars. 1882 01:31:51,406 --> 01:31:53,373 OBAMA IN ARCHIVE: And we've slipped the outermost grasp 1883 01:31:53,408 --> 01:31:55,909 of our solar system with Voyager 1, 1884 01:31:55,944 --> 01:31:57,777 the first human-made object 1885 01:31:57,813 --> 01:32:01,181 to venture into interstellar space. 1886 01:32:01,216 --> 01:32:02,716 STONE: It's a wonderful achievement, actually. 1887 01:32:02,751 --> 01:32:03,850 When you think of it, it's historic, 1888 01:32:03,886 --> 01:32:06,853 it's our first step out of our bubble 1889 01:32:06,889 --> 01:32:09,656 which has been around all the planets 1890 01:32:09,691 --> 01:32:11,491 and around the Earth essentially forever, 1891 01:32:11,527 --> 01:32:15,228 and now finally some little thing that we have built 1892 01:32:15,264 --> 01:32:19,099 has left that bubble and is in the space between the stars. 1893 01:32:19,134 --> 01:32:20,800 PORCO: It was like humanity 1894 01:32:20,836 --> 01:32:24,070 had just become an interstellar species. 1895 01:32:24,106 --> 01:32:28,808 It was like knocking on eternity's door. 1896 01:32:28,844 --> 01:32:32,579 STERNBERG: When the Voyagers' power sources go dead 1897 01:32:32,614 --> 01:32:36,116 and when the spacecraft can no longer send back 1898 01:32:36,151 --> 01:32:38,218 any useful information, 1899 01:32:38,253 --> 01:32:42,088 that's really the point at which the Golden Record 1900 01:32:42,124 --> 01:32:46,493 becomes the primary function of those missions, 1901 01:32:46,528 --> 01:32:48,795 that when everything else is turned off, 1902 01:32:48,830 --> 01:32:53,433 those records are still floating somewhere in interstellar space, 1903 01:32:53,468 --> 01:32:57,070 completing the last part of the mission. 1904 01:32:57,105 --> 01:32:59,706 [splashing noise] 1905 01:32:59,741 --> 01:33:03,176 LOCATELL: The chance that advanced intelligence beyond us 1906 01:33:03,211 --> 01:33:07,047 would detect oh, hey, there is a radiating body 1907 01:33:07,082 --> 01:33:09,516 coming into our area, 1908 01:33:09,551 --> 01:33:13,353 let's go out and find out what this bottle in the ocean, 1909 01:33:13,388 --> 01:33:15,689 what message it might have. 1910 01:33:15,724 --> 01:33:19,793 Now is that a grand mystery? 1911 01:33:19,828 --> 01:33:21,094 Whoa! 1912 01:33:23,765 --> 01:33:25,966 NICK SAGAN: I love the optimism of it, 1913 01:33:26,001 --> 01:33:27,934 I love the idea that these are things 1914 01:33:27,970 --> 01:33:29,235 that are meaningful to us, 1915 01:33:29,271 --> 01:33:30,804 maybe you'll find them meaningful, too, 1916 01:33:30,839 --> 01:33:36,576 hypothetical alien, and yeah, it just touches my heart. 1917 01:33:39,247 --> 01:33:41,348 FERRIS: One thing we know about a metal record 1918 01:33:41,383 --> 01:33:43,450 with these grooves engraved on it 1919 01:33:43,485 --> 01:33:47,420 is that information is good for at least one billion years. 1920 01:33:47,456 --> 01:33:49,122 The inside of the record, 1921 01:33:49,157 --> 01:33:52,158 which was more protected from cosmic rays, 1922 01:33:52,194 --> 01:33:54,694 two billion years or more. 1923 01:33:54,730 --> 01:33:58,131 BELL: There's no wind, water, rain, weathering, 1924 01:33:58,166 --> 01:34:01,801 there's no planets or comets that they're going to run into, 1925 01:34:01,837 --> 01:34:07,273 and over thousands, millions, billions of years 1926 01:34:07,309 --> 01:34:11,344 they're predicted to remain pretty intact. 1927 01:34:11,380 --> 01:34:13,480 NICK SAGAN: Because there's no proof that there's anything 1928 01:34:13,515 --> 01:34:15,448 that Voyager's ever going to encounter, 1929 01:34:15,484 --> 01:34:19,019 ultimately, it's a story about us. 1930 01:34:19,054 --> 01:34:21,855 LOMBERG: Voyager is rarely out of my thoughts. 1931 01:34:21,890 --> 01:34:23,390 Always some little part of me 1932 01:34:23,425 --> 01:34:25,992 is wondering where is Voyager tonight. 1933 01:34:26,028 --> 01:34:28,395 Whenever I look up at the night stars, 1934 01:34:28,430 --> 01:34:33,199 I look in the direction that each of them is going. 1935 01:34:33,235 --> 01:34:36,469 SODERBLOM: There is never going to be another mission like it. 1936 01:34:36,505 --> 01:34:40,874 It was the first and last of its own kind. 1937 01:34:40,909 --> 01:34:45,078 KRAUSS: Maybe someday, another being might find Voyager 1938 01:34:45,113 --> 01:34:47,213 and at least know of our existence. 1939 01:34:47,249 --> 01:34:50,650 It's highly unlikely, but it's not impossible. 1940 01:34:50,686 --> 01:34:55,989 And that small possibility surely gives us hope. 1941 01:34:56,024 --> 01:34:58,992 LOCATELL: Is the universe any different than it was then? 1942 01:34:59,027 --> 01:35:00,560 No. 1943 01:35:00,595 --> 01:35:02,595 But are we different? 1944 01:35:02,631 --> 01:35:04,798 Absolutely! 1945 01:35:04,833 --> 01:35:10,970 The thrill of the discoveries, reaching the heliopause, 1946 01:35:11,006 --> 01:35:13,807 completing the Grand Tour, 1947 01:35:13,842 --> 01:35:18,645 I mean man, our child has just made it. 1948 01:35:18,680 --> 01:35:28,521 [guitar/xylophone music] 1949 01:35:28,557 --> 01:35:30,090 HANSEN-KOHARCHECK: We're the generation 1950 01:35:30,125 --> 01:35:32,292 that sent something out into space 1951 01:35:32,327 --> 01:35:34,994 that's not only going to outlive us, 1952 01:35:35,030 --> 01:35:38,732 it's going to outlive our star. 1953 01:35:38,767 --> 01:35:43,503 Four billion years from now when our sun turns into a red giant, 1954 01:35:43,538 --> 01:35:45,739 Voyager is still going to be trucking 1955 01:35:45,774 --> 01:35:48,541 out there through the stars, 1956 01:35:48,577 --> 01:35:52,078 and the songs of our time are going to be out there. 1957 01:35:52,114 --> 01:35:54,414 Chuck Berry is still out there... 1958 01:35:54,449 --> 01:35:56,049 We'll still be out there. 1959 01:35:56,084 --> 01:35:59,486 [contemporary guitar interpretation 1960 01:35:59,521 --> 01:36:03,189 of "Johnny B. Goode" plays over credits] 1961 01:36:03,225 --> 01:36:10,530 [music continues] 1962 01:36:10,565 --> 01:36:25,145 [music continues] 1963 01:36:25,180 --> 01:36:39,793 [music continues] 1964 01:37:12,427 --> 01:37:18,998 [crickets chirping] 1965 01:37:19,100 --> 01:37:20,567 NARRATOR: For as long as humanity 1966 01:37:20,669 --> 01:37:23,002 has gazed up at the sky, 1967 01:37:23,038 --> 01:37:25,872 we've wondered: 1968 01:37:25,907 --> 01:37:28,641 What's out there? 1969 01:37:28,677 --> 01:37:31,744 Are there any other worlds like ours? 1970 01:37:31,780 --> 01:37:37,517 [crickets chirping] 1971 01:37:37,552 --> 01:37:39,552 CAROLYN PORCO: We knew very little about the solar system 1972 01:37:39,588 --> 01:37:41,788 before we started sending spacecraft there. 1973 01:37:41,823 --> 01:37:44,591 The outer planets were just tiny points of light, 1974 01:37:44,626 --> 01:37:46,392 we knew very little about them. 1975 01:37:46,428 --> 01:37:49,362 And much less about the moons in orbit around them. 1976 01:37:49,397 --> 01:37:50,830 [radio chatter] [rocket ignition] 1977 01:37:50,866 --> 01:37:53,433 NARRATOR: But in the 40 years since NASA's Voyager missions 1978 01:37:53,468 --> 01:37:55,935 began their grand tour of the outer planets, 1979 01:37:55,971 --> 01:37:59,873 we've made huge leaps in space exploration. 1980 01:37:59,908 --> 01:38:02,775 We've sent rovers to explore Mars, 1981 01:38:02,811 --> 01:38:05,845 discovered volcanoes on distant moons, 1982 01:38:05,881 --> 01:38:08,781 and found frozen worlds that hide oceans 1983 01:38:08,817 --> 01:38:10,683 beneath thick crusts of ice. 1984 01:38:10,719 --> 01:38:12,352 [crackling] 1985 01:38:12,387 --> 01:38:15,021 Features and processes once thought unique to Earth 1986 01:38:15,056 --> 01:38:17,490 are turning up all over the solar system, 1987 01:38:17,525 --> 01:38:19,359 and there's a growing optimism 1988 01:38:19,394 --> 01:38:23,897 that one day we will find life, somewhere out among the stars. 1989 01:38:23,932 --> 01:38:25,665 [radio chatter] [rocket ignition] 1990 01:38:25,700 --> 01:38:28,368 More and more, that search for extraterrestrial life 1991 01:38:28,403 --> 01:38:30,403 is driving exploration. 1992 01:38:30,438 --> 01:38:33,072 Finding it would revolutionize our understanding 1993 01:38:33,108 --> 01:38:34,807 of our place in the cosmos. 1994 01:38:34,843 --> 01:38:37,443 [boom] 1995 01:38:37,479 --> 01:38:39,913 PORCO: Copernicus completely revamped 1996 01:38:39,948 --> 01:38:42,916 our views about our universe 1997 01:38:42,951 --> 01:38:45,151 when he postulated the sun, and not the Earth, 1998 01:38:45,186 --> 01:38:47,854 was at the center of the solar system. 1999 01:38:47,889 --> 01:38:50,823 Darwin announced that all of life on Earth, 2000 01:38:50,859 --> 01:38:53,793 including humans, came from a common root. 2001 01:38:53,828 --> 01:38:56,462 And now, we are searching for evidence 2002 01:38:56,498 --> 01:39:00,099 that life began and evolved somewhere other than Earth. 2003 01:39:00,135 --> 01:39:04,304 A completely independent second genesis. 2004 01:39:04,339 --> 01:39:09,542 And to find it would force us to rewrite the story of life. 2005 01:39:09,577 --> 01:39:15,114 [music swells] 2006 01:39:22,223 --> 01:39:23,823 NARRATOR: NASA's Voyager missions 2007 01:39:23,925 --> 01:39:27,427 were an epic drive-by of the outer planets. 2008 01:39:30,832 --> 01:39:33,733 Carolyn Porco began her career on Voyager,, 2009 01:39:33,768 --> 01:39:35,134 helping to transform 2010 01:39:35,170 --> 01:39:37,704 our understanding of the solar system 2011 01:39:37,739 --> 01:39:39,906 and unravel the mystery and beauty 2012 01:39:39,941 --> 01:39:42,775 of the gas giants and their moons. 2013 01:39:42,811 --> 01:39:44,744 [projector whirring] 2014 01:39:44,779 --> 01:39:48,614 In 1990, she was selected as the lead imaging scientist 2015 01:39:48,650 --> 01:39:51,451 on a next-generation NASA mission, called Cassini. 2016 01:39:51,486 --> 01:39:52,885 VOICE ON RADIO: 3...2...1... 2017 01:39:52,921 --> 01:39:55,588 and lift-off of the Cassini spacecraft 2018 01:39:55,623 --> 01:39:57,557 on a billion-mile trek to Saturn. 2019 01:39:57,592 --> 01:39:59,859 NARRATOR: Launched in 1997, 2020 01:39:59,894 --> 01:40:03,997 Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for the last 13 years, 2021 01:40:04,032 --> 01:40:06,699 gathering data and beaming back spectacular images 2022 01:40:06,735 --> 01:40:07,734 of the planet... 2023 01:40:07,769 --> 01:40:08,968 [camera shutter] 2024 01:40:09,004 --> 01:40:09,969 its rings... 2025 01:40:10,005 --> 01:40:11,070 [camera shutter] 2026 01:40:11,106 --> 01:40:12,672 and many of its 62 moons. 2027 01:40:12,707 --> 01:40:15,208 [camera shutter] 2028 01:40:15,243 --> 01:40:16,943 Carolyn was initially fascinated 2029 01:40:16,978 --> 01:40:19,078 by the interactions of the rings and moons... 2030 01:40:19,114 --> 01:40:20,546 [radio static] 2031 01:40:20,582 --> 01:40:23,049 but a major discovery in 2005 2032 01:40:23,084 --> 01:40:27,086 pushed her toward the search for life. 2033 01:40:27,122 --> 01:40:34,193 [dust crackling] 2034 01:40:34,229 --> 01:40:37,597 PORCO: We had planned to take a close look at Enceladus, 2035 01:40:37,632 --> 01:40:43,069 which is this tiny moon in orbit around Saturn. 2036 01:40:43,104 --> 01:40:45,805 NARRATOR: What Cassini revealed...was spectacular. 2037 01:40:45,840 --> 01:40:47,673 [camera shutter] 2038 01:40:47,709 --> 01:40:50,910 PORCO: In November of 2005, 2039 01:40:50,945 --> 01:40:56,949 we saw dozens of geysers coming from Enceladus. 2040 01:40:56,985 --> 01:40:58,284 [dust crackling] 2041 01:40:58,319 --> 01:41:02,889 Narrow spiky-looking jets of fine icy particles 2042 01:41:02,924 --> 01:41:05,024 erupting from the south pole. 2043 01:41:05,060 --> 01:41:09,228 [static crackling] 2044 01:41:09,264 --> 01:41:13,866 NARRATOR: Enceladus--a moon less than 500 miles around. 2045 01:41:13,902 --> 01:41:15,935 And because of its icy surface, 2046 01:41:15,970 --> 01:41:20,206 one of the brightest objects in the solar system. 2047 01:41:20,241 --> 01:41:22,008 And in the southern hemisphere, 2048 01:41:22,043 --> 01:41:25,244 mysterious fractures nicknamed "tiger stripes"-- 2049 01:41:25,280 --> 01:41:27,213 the source of the watery jets, 2050 01:41:27,248 --> 01:41:30,683 and a link to a liquid ocean beneath the ice. 2051 01:41:30,718 --> 01:41:32,885 PORCO: Once we found the geysers 2052 01:41:32,921 --> 01:41:35,988 and knew that they were coming from liquid water, 2053 01:41:36,024 --> 01:41:38,524 I realized this had tremendous implications 2054 01:41:38,560 --> 01:41:42,261 for the study of life elsewhere in the solar system. 2055 01:41:42,297 --> 01:41:44,130 NARRATOR: Tremendous implications, 2056 01:41:44,165 --> 01:41:47,800 because liquid water is considered crucial for life. 2057 01:41:47,836 --> 01:41:50,603 And that made Enceladus an alluring candidate 2058 01:41:50,638 --> 01:41:53,706 as a home for life beyond Earth. 2059 01:41:53,741 --> 01:41:55,575 PORCO: I kind of did a pivot. 2060 01:41:55,610 --> 01:42:01,147 I just started to throw myself into the study of Enceladus. 2061 01:42:01,182 --> 01:42:02,949 NARRATOR: The search for life 2062 01:42:02,984 --> 01:42:07,353 on places like Enceladus, Mars, or Jupiter's icy moon Europa 2063 01:42:07,388 --> 01:42:10,990 represents a new wave in space exploration. 2064 01:42:11,025 --> 01:42:13,092 But the quest is still rooted in what we know 2065 01:42:13,128 --> 01:42:15,094 about the history of life on Earth. 2066 01:42:15,130 --> 01:42:17,063 [birds chirping] 2067 01:42:17,098 --> 01:42:20,099 Today life is rich and varied, 2068 01:42:20,135 --> 01:42:24,137 found almost everywhere, in wondrous forms. 2069 01:42:24,172 --> 01:42:25,905 [bats squeaking] 2070 01:42:25,940 --> 01:42:27,640 [crowd screaming in excitement] 2071 01:42:27,675 --> 01:42:30,109 But only in the last 500 million years or so 2072 01:42:30,145 --> 01:42:31,811 did it begin evolving 2073 01:42:31,846 --> 01:42:34,814 into the animals and plants we now know. 2074 01:42:34,849 --> 01:42:37,884 Before that, for some 3 billion years, 2075 01:42:37,919 --> 01:42:42,622 the planet was teeming with life that came in only one size: 2076 01:42:42,657 --> 01:42:44,991 microscopic. 2077 01:42:47,095 --> 01:42:49,328 Because microbes were the first forms of life 2078 01:42:49,364 --> 01:42:50,997 to appear on Earth 2079 01:42:51,032 --> 01:42:53,166 and have endured for billions of years, 2080 01:42:53,201 --> 01:42:55,268 scientists believe they are our best bet 2081 01:42:55,303 --> 01:42:59,071 for the size and shape of life elsewhere in the solar system. 2082 01:42:59,107 --> 01:43:01,007 [whoosh] 2083 01:43:01,042 --> 01:43:04,343 But they're not the easiest creatures to find. 2084 01:43:04,379 --> 01:43:07,180 [birds chirping] [indistinct chatting] 2085 01:43:07,215 --> 01:43:08,714 Carolyn is meeting 2086 01:43:08,750 --> 01:43:10,950 with evolutionary biologist Andy Knoll, 2087 01:43:10,985 --> 01:43:12,752 who studies ancient life on Earth, 2088 01:43:12,787 --> 01:43:15,054 and the clues it left behind. 2089 01:43:15,089 --> 01:43:17,790 He's also helping guide NASA's rover teams 2090 01:43:17,825 --> 01:43:21,327 as they search for evidence of ancient life on Mars. 2091 01:43:21,362 --> 01:43:24,096 [rover whirrs] 2092 01:43:24,132 --> 01:43:25,831 PORCO: So what do you actually do 2093 01:43:25,867 --> 01:43:27,867 in searching for early life on Earth, 2094 01:43:27,902 --> 01:43:29,835 and how does that translate to Mars? 2095 01:43:29,871 --> 01:43:31,837 ANDY KNOLL: It turns out, when you look outside, 2096 01:43:31,873 --> 01:43:33,673 you see plants and animals, 2097 01:43:33,708 --> 01:43:34,907 there's conspicuous forms of life. 2098 01:43:34,943 --> 01:43:36,242 [jungle sounds] 2099 01:43:36,277 --> 01:43:37,643 [seagulls squawking] [crickets chirping] 2100 01:43:37,679 --> 01:43:39,779 Those are evolutionary latecomers. 2101 01:43:39,814 --> 01:43:42,882 Most of the history of life on Earth is microbial 2102 01:43:42,917 --> 01:43:47,687 and over the years we've learned how to search successfully 2103 01:43:47,722 --> 01:43:51,057 for both physical and chemical signatures 2104 01:43:51,092 --> 01:43:53,659 of ancient microbial life on Earth. 2105 01:43:53,695 --> 01:43:55,428 And once you learn how to do that 2106 01:43:55,463 --> 01:43:59,699 then it's a fairly easy matter to export it to Mars. 2107 01:43:59,734 --> 01:44:01,167 Let me show you an example. 2108 01:44:04,806 --> 01:44:10,042 So what you're looking at here is this so-called stromatolite, 2109 01:44:10,078 --> 01:44:13,312 and we see these wavy laminations 2110 01:44:13,348 --> 01:44:17,216 which actually represent microbial life 2111 01:44:17,252 --> 01:44:19,252 that trapped and bound sediments 2112 01:44:19,287 --> 01:44:21,821 and built up this reef-life structure... 2113 01:44:21,856 --> 01:44:24,957 This particular specimen is 2.7 billion years old... 2114 01:44:24,993 --> 01:44:26,325 PORCO: Wow. 2115 01:44:26,361 --> 01:44:27,994 KNOLL: ...and it is an unambiguous signature 2116 01:44:28,029 --> 01:44:29,195 of life on Earth. 2117 01:44:29,230 --> 01:44:30,396 PORCO: Okay, very interesting. 2118 01:44:30,431 --> 01:44:33,199 So this is what you referred to 2119 01:44:33,234 --> 01:44:36,736 as the physical remains or the physical evidence... 2120 01:44:36,771 --> 01:44:38,037 KNOLL: That's right. 2121 01:44:38,072 --> 01:44:39,672 PORCO: ...of life, but then you said... 2122 01:44:39,707 --> 01:44:40,973 you're also looking for chemical evidence, 2123 01:44:41,009 --> 01:44:42,775 how do you do that? 2124 01:44:42,810 --> 01:44:46,846 KNOLL: Okay, well, all life that we know of is cellular. 2125 01:44:46,881 --> 01:44:50,449 All cells that we know of have DNA and RNA, 2126 01:44:50,485 --> 01:44:54,220 which are the information library of the cell-- 2127 01:44:54,255 --> 01:44:56,289 that doesn't preserve very well. 2128 01:44:56,324 --> 01:44:59,759 Cells have proteins that do the structural work, 2129 01:44:59,794 --> 01:45:02,461 and enzymatic work of the cell, 2130 01:45:02,497 --> 01:45:04,864 they don't preserve very well either. 2131 01:45:04,899 --> 01:45:07,833 But then there's a third constituent called lipids, 2132 01:45:07,869 --> 01:45:10,336 which make up the membranes of cells, 2133 01:45:10,371 --> 01:45:14,340 and membranes actually separate the cell from its environment. 2134 01:45:14,375 --> 01:45:17,443 And the good news there is that some lipids 2135 01:45:17,478 --> 01:45:20,880 actually preserve very well in the geologic record. 2136 01:45:20,915 --> 01:45:22,815 PORCO: How do you find those molecules? 2137 01:45:22,850 --> 01:45:27,119 KNOLL: Well, as sediments accumulate on the seafloor, 2138 01:45:27,155 --> 01:45:31,023 organic matter will get buried with those sediments. 2139 01:45:31,059 --> 01:45:34,293 And if you extract that organic matter, 2140 01:45:34,329 --> 01:45:38,397 you'll find lipids, and those lipids can be related 2141 01:45:38,433 --> 01:45:41,233 to the types of organisms that made them. 2142 01:45:41,269 --> 01:45:42,935 NARRATOR: These lipids-- 2143 01:45:42,970 --> 01:45:46,405 preserved in rocks nearly 2.5 billion years old-- 2144 01:45:46,441 --> 01:45:48,407 are signatures of life. 2145 01:45:48,443 --> 01:45:51,177 In this case, evidence of early life on Earth. 2146 01:45:51,212 --> 01:45:52,812 [wind] 2147 01:45:52,847 --> 01:45:55,247 Jump to Mars, where Andy and the rover team 2148 01:45:55,283 --> 01:45:57,149 are looking for exactly the same thing. 2149 01:45:57,185 --> 01:45:58,150 [rover whirrs] 2150 01:45:58,186 --> 01:45:59,785 [sand slides] 2151 01:45:59,821 --> 01:46:02,188 [rover buzzes] 2152 01:46:02,223 --> 01:46:04,023 [rover drives away] 2153 01:46:04,058 --> 01:46:09,028 PORCO: One time in its history Mars had bodies of water on it. 2154 01:46:09,063 --> 01:46:12,031 We don't know how long those bodies of water lasted, 2155 01:46:12,066 --> 01:46:14,367 so where on Mars are you going to look? 2156 01:46:14,402 --> 01:46:18,037 KNOLL: Really it's a matter of saying where was there water? 2157 01:46:18,072 --> 01:46:22,007 Where did that water result in sedimentary rock deposits 2158 01:46:22,043 --> 01:46:24,877 capable of preserving a signature of life? 2159 01:46:24,912 --> 01:46:26,512 And can the rover get there? 2160 01:46:26,547 --> 01:46:28,481 I mean in some ways we're in the golden age 2161 01:46:28,516 --> 01:46:30,216 of Mars exploration, 2162 01:46:30,251 --> 01:46:35,020 we've found rocks that are capable of preserving 2163 01:46:35,056 --> 01:46:37,189 various physical and chemical signatures. 2164 01:46:37,225 --> 01:46:38,457 PORCO: Right. 2165 01:46:38,493 --> 01:46:40,092 KNOLL: And we actually have instruments 2166 01:46:40,128 --> 01:46:42,895 that can detect organic molecules. 2167 01:46:42,930 --> 01:46:44,997 What we have not yet found 2168 01:46:45,032 --> 01:46:49,201 is any strong, you know, biosignatures. 2169 01:46:49,237 --> 01:46:50,403 [rover buzzing] 2170 01:46:50,438 --> 01:46:52,171 NARRATOR: They'll keep looking, 2171 01:46:52,206 --> 01:46:55,007 and someday soon astronauts could join the search. 2172 01:46:55,042 --> 01:46:56,809 But in the meantime, 2173 01:46:56,844 --> 01:47:01,147 Carolyn is pushing for a shift in focus to Enceladus. 2174 01:47:01,182 --> 01:47:04,950 There, they can have access to water that is still flowing, 2175 01:47:04,986 --> 01:47:06,986 and search not for fossilized evidence 2176 01:47:07,021 --> 01:47:09,355 of life billions of years old, 2177 01:47:09,390 --> 01:47:12,925 but for signatures of life that could be living right now. 2178 01:47:12,960 --> 01:47:14,560 [particles crackle in the air] 2179 01:47:14,595 --> 01:47:17,596 PORCO: Those of us interested in water in places like Enceladus, 2180 01:47:17,632 --> 01:47:20,032 we're in a different position 2181 01:47:20,067 --> 01:47:22,568 because we're not going to be picking up rocks. 2182 01:47:22,603 --> 01:47:26,939 We're looking at it completely from the chemical point of view. 2183 01:47:26,974 --> 01:47:29,341 NARRATOR: That's the beauty of Enceladus. 2184 01:47:29,377 --> 01:47:32,378 The plume is offering free samples of the liquid ocean 2185 01:47:32,413 --> 01:47:35,514 to anyone who stops by. 2186 01:47:35,550 --> 01:47:36,482 [particles falling and crackling in the air] 2187 01:47:36,517 --> 01:47:38,484 What those samples contain 2188 01:47:38,519 --> 01:47:40,352 is the billion-dollar question-- 2189 01:47:40,388 --> 01:47:43,956 one Cassini made a valiant first attempt to answer. 2190 01:47:43,991 --> 01:47:47,326 [voices murmuring and voice over radio] 2191 01:47:47,361 --> 01:47:49,495 Soon after the plume was discovered, 2192 01:47:49,530 --> 01:47:55,100 the team reprogrammed the craft to fly right through it. 2193 01:47:55,136 --> 01:47:57,203 [crackling of radio signal] 2194 01:47:57,238 --> 01:48:01,040 NPR REPORTER: In today's news from Saturn, a NASA spacecraft 2195 01:48:01,075 --> 01:48:04,643 is flying through some geysers on one of the planet's moons. 2196 01:48:04,679 --> 01:48:06,679 [plumes shooting out particles that crackle in the air] 2197 01:48:06,714 --> 01:48:10,282 PORCO: Cassini's instruments managed to return information 2198 01:48:10,318 --> 01:48:12,585 about the content, 2199 01:48:12,620 --> 01:48:15,154 water vapor and carbon dioxide, 2200 01:48:15,189 --> 01:48:18,891 and methane and simple organic compounds, 2201 01:48:18,926 --> 01:48:21,527 and even ammonia were found in the plume. 2202 01:48:21,562 --> 01:48:23,329 [particles crackling in the air] 2203 01:48:23,364 --> 01:48:26,599 NARRATOR: These simple chemicals were present and necessary 2204 01:48:26,634 --> 01:48:31,003 for the formation of life on early Earth. 2205 01:48:31,038 --> 01:48:33,305 Enceladus is now two for two. 2206 01:48:33,341 --> 01:48:35,207 It has a liquid ocean, 2207 01:48:35,243 --> 01:48:38,911 and the right starting materials for life. 2208 01:48:38,946 --> 01:48:41,146 And further analysis of the samples 2209 01:48:41,182 --> 01:48:43,983 revealed another exciting surprise. 2210 01:48:44,018 --> 01:48:45,384 PORCO: When my Cassini colleagues 2211 01:48:45,419 --> 01:48:47,353 analyzed the particles in the plume, 2212 01:48:47,388 --> 01:48:52,057 they found microscopic particles of silica. 2213 01:48:52,093 --> 01:48:56,262 And this is very good indication of hydrothermal vents, 2214 01:48:56,297 --> 01:48:58,297 because at hydrothermal vents 2215 01:48:58,332 --> 01:49:01,233 you have hot, mineral-laden fluids 2216 01:49:01,269 --> 01:49:04,036 being injected into the cold ocean 2217 01:49:04,071 --> 01:49:05,971 and these particles like silica 2218 01:49:06,007 --> 01:49:08,040 get carried from the bottom of the ocean 2219 01:49:08,075 --> 01:49:11,243 all the way up to the base of the ice shell, 2220 01:49:11,279 --> 01:49:13,546 and they get forced out the fractures. 2221 01:49:13,581 --> 01:49:15,047 [particles crackling as they shoot out fractures] 2222 01:49:15,082 --> 01:49:17,116 And so this is how we know, 2223 01:49:17,151 --> 01:49:19,618 there are likely hydrothermal vents 2224 01:49:19,654 --> 01:49:23,022 on the seafloor of Enceladus. 2225 01:49:23,057 --> 01:49:27,226 NARRATOR: This was a find with exciting implications. 2226 01:49:27,261 --> 01:49:30,996 On Earth, deep sea vents support life-- 2227 01:49:31,032 --> 01:49:34,466 in fact, entire ecosystems of strange creatures 2228 01:49:34,502 --> 01:49:37,670 get their energy directly from the vent chemicals, 2229 01:49:37,705 --> 01:49:40,239 or by eating those that do. 2230 01:49:45,012 --> 01:49:48,480 [rumbling and bubbling of vents] 2231 01:49:48,516 --> 01:49:51,584 [birds chirping] 2232 01:49:51,619 --> 01:49:55,187 At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 2233 01:49:55,222 --> 01:49:58,157 planetary chemist Laurie Barge is investigating 2234 01:49:58,192 --> 01:50:00,526 how the chemicals spewing from hydrothermal vents 2235 01:50:00,561 --> 01:50:02,394 fuel life-- 2236 01:50:02,430 --> 01:50:04,730 and whether they could be involved in creating it. 2237 01:50:04,765 --> 01:50:07,666 [whirring and buzzing of machinery] 2238 01:50:07,702 --> 01:50:10,736 PORCO: Aha, so this is the famous chimney. 2239 01:50:10,771 --> 01:50:13,005 LAURIE BARGE: Yeah, so this is where we simulate 2240 01:50:13,040 --> 01:50:16,575 the hydrothermal vent, injecting through cracks in the seafloor. 2241 01:50:16,611 --> 01:50:20,012 And then this is your ocean, which contains anything 2242 01:50:20,047 --> 01:50:21,680 that would be reacting with this fluid. 2243 01:50:21,716 --> 01:50:24,116 PORCO: So that's a simulation 2244 01:50:24,151 --> 01:50:26,118 of what could be happening on Enceladus? 2245 01:50:26,153 --> 01:50:27,753 BARGE: Right, exactly. 2246 01:50:27,788 --> 01:50:30,055 NARRATOR: The simulations test how the chemicals interact 2247 01:50:30,091 --> 01:50:32,224 with each other and the seawater, 2248 01:50:32,259 --> 01:50:35,361 and how different combinations produce different results. 2249 01:50:35,396 --> 01:50:37,129 BARGE: Vents are more than just the chimney itself, 2250 01:50:37,164 --> 01:50:38,764 it actually has all this sediment 2251 01:50:38,799 --> 01:50:41,133 around it and underneath it. 2252 01:50:41,168 --> 01:50:43,035 And that sediment is also very reactive, 2253 01:50:43,070 --> 01:50:45,070 because it gives you a lot of surface area. 2254 01:50:45,106 --> 01:50:46,672 So when you have this pile of minerals, 2255 01:50:46,707 --> 01:50:49,241 all those mineral surfaces are available for reacting. 2256 01:50:49,276 --> 01:50:50,643 That stuff can come up 2257 01:50:50,678 --> 01:50:53,078 and if it can interact with mineral surfaces 2258 01:50:53,114 --> 01:50:54,680 then it might be able to concentrate 2259 01:50:54,715 --> 01:50:58,150 and make things like amino acids or maybe nucleotides. 2260 01:50:58,185 --> 01:50:59,685 NARRATOR: These are the building blocks 2261 01:50:59,720 --> 01:51:03,789 of the very large molecules-- proteins, DNA and RNA-- 2262 01:51:03,824 --> 01:51:07,760 that govern life as we know it. 2263 01:51:07,795 --> 01:51:09,395 While Laurie and others 2264 01:51:09,430 --> 01:51:11,130 are trying to create them in their labs, 2265 01:51:11,165 --> 01:51:13,432 Carolyn is thinking bigger, and farther afield. 2266 01:51:13,467 --> 01:51:14,767 [heels clacking] 2267 01:51:14,802 --> 01:51:17,269 She wants to hunt them down in the wild, 2268 01:51:17,304 --> 01:51:19,505 and believes she knows just where to look. 2269 01:51:19,540 --> 01:51:24,643 [plumes shooting out particles that crackle in the air] 2270 01:51:24,679 --> 01:51:26,612 PORCO: Enceladus checks all the boxes. 2271 01:51:26,647 --> 01:51:29,214 It's really no more complicated than that. 2272 01:51:29,250 --> 01:51:33,552 It has liquid water, it has abundant energy, 2273 01:51:33,587 --> 01:51:35,187 it has organic compounds. 2274 01:51:35,222 --> 01:51:37,756 It even has evidence for hydrothermal activity 2275 01:51:37,792 --> 01:51:40,626 at the bottom of its ocean. 2276 01:51:40,661 --> 01:51:44,129 NARRATOR: Jupiter's moon Europa is also a good target. 2277 01:51:44,165 --> 01:51:47,332 Beneath its icy surface, the moon is believed to conceal 2278 01:51:47,368 --> 01:51:51,804 a global ocean twice the volume of Earth's. 2279 01:51:51,839 --> 01:51:55,407 NASA recently approved a new mission to explore it. 2280 01:51:55,443 --> 01:51:59,278 But the moon poses some serious challenges. 2281 01:51:59,313 --> 01:52:00,879 PORCO: Europa is embedded 2282 01:52:00,915 --> 01:52:03,882 in Jupiter's very intense radiation field. 2283 01:52:03,918 --> 01:52:08,654 It's nasty, and it can quickly destroy organic materials, 2284 01:52:08,689 --> 01:52:10,489 and even, eventually, 2285 01:52:10,524 --> 01:52:13,826 the spacecraft that you send there to find them. 2286 01:52:13,861 --> 01:52:19,465 And in the meantime Enceladus is spewing its ocean into space. 2287 01:52:19,500 --> 01:52:23,168 You fly through it, and you can just do tremendous things. 2288 01:52:23,204 --> 01:52:25,804 If you could land on its surface you could do even more. 2289 01:52:25,840 --> 01:52:27,673 [spacecraft whooshing through space] 2290 01:52:27,708 --> 01:52:30,342 NARRATOR: For Carolyn, a return to Enceladus 2291 01:52:30,377 --> 01:52:32,778 is not just wishful thinking. 2292 01:52:32,813 --> 01:52:35,547 Competition for NASA dollars is fierce, 2293 01:52:35,583 --> 01:52:37,149 but she and her colleagues 2294 01:52:37,184 --> 01:52:39,284 recently submitted an official proposal 2295 01:52:39,320 --> 01:52:41,487 to do further testing of the plume 2296 01:52:41,522 --> 01:52:44,356 with a more advanced orbiter. 2297 01:52:44,391 --> 01:52:47,326 After that, she's hoping for a lander, 2298 01:52:47,361 --> 01:52:50,162 and has been working on 3-D visualizations 2299 01:52:50,197 --> 01:52:52,364 of what these missions might look like. 2300 01:52:52,399 --> 01:52:54,833 PORCO: We already know where would be the best place to land. 2301 01:52:54,869 --> 01:52:56,635 JOHNNY FISK: Okay. 2302 01:52:56,670 --> 01:52:59,304 PORCO: And that is, in this other picture that we took. 2303 01:52:59,340 --> 01:53:01,907 You could see the geysers are very jam packed there. 2304 01:53:01,942 --> 01:53:03,442 Okay, very close together. 2305 01:53:03,477 --> 01:53:04,476 FISK: That's what I would think, right? 2306 01:53:04,512 --> 01:53:05,911 You would want to get 2307 01:53:05,946 --> 01:53:07,579 right in the middle of the valley, yeah, yeah. 2308 01:53:07,615 --> 01:53:09,248 PORCO: That would, that would be lovely, really. 2309 01:53:09,283 --> 01:53:13,318 But even just getting in the vicinity of these fractures 2310 01:53:13,354 --> 01:53:17,322 would be good because you have material just falling on you. 2311 01:53:17,358 --> 01:53:18,690 [rumble of spacecraft flying through space] 2312 01:53:18,726 --> 01:53:20,425 NARRATOR: The orbiter would carry instruments 2313 01:53:20,461 --> 01:53:22,127 far more powerful than Cassini's, 2314 01:53:22,163 --> 01:53:24,163 able to sniff out life itself, 2315 01:53:24,198 --> 01:53:26,265 or detect the chemical biosignatures 2316 01:53:26,300 --> 01:53:27,633 life leaves behind. 2317 01:53:27,668 --> 01:53:29,501 [crackle of particles flying through the air] 2318 01:53:29,537 --> 01:53:32,171 The lander would do even more-- 2319 01:53:32,206 --> 01:53:34,239 gathering samples of larger particles 2320 01:53:34,275 --> 01:53:36,408 that fall back to the surface like snow. 2321 01:53:36,443 --> 01:53:38,243 [whoosh of lander shooting off of spacecraft 2322 01:53:38,279 --> 01:53:39,778 and thud of its landing] 2323 01:53:39,814 --> 01:53:41,580 [crackle of particles flying through the air] 2324 01:53:41,615 --> 01:53:43,248 PORCO: Material from the plumes, 2325 01:53:43,284 --> 01:53:45,350 which means of course material from the oceans, 2326 01:53:45,386 --> 01:53:46,885 which means materials 2327 01:53:46,921 --> 01:53:49,822 from in and around the hydrothermal vents. 2328 01:53:49,857 --> 01:53:52,324 And that's what makes this so exciting. 2329 01:53:52,359 --> 01:53:54,193 All you have to do is just stand back 2330 01:53:54,228 --> 01:53:57,329 and look at the big picture and think about the magnitude 2331 01:53:57,364 --> 01:53:59,865 of the questions we're trying to ask. 2332 01:53:59,900 --> 01:54:02,301 We could find life. 2333 01:54:02,336 --> 01:54:04,636 NARRATOR: Such missions, if they're approved, 2334 01:54:04,672 --> 01:54:06,972 are still at least a decade away. 2335 01:54:07,007 --> 01:54:11,510 But Carolyn and her colleagues are charging ahead, undeterred. 2336 01:54:11,545 --> 01:54:14,613 A decade means nothing when the stakes are this high. 2337 01:54:14,648 --> 01:54:16,515 [crackle of particles flying through the air] 2338 01:54:16,550 --> 01:54:18,317 PORCO: Anything we find at this point 2339 01:54:18,352 --> 01:54:21,253 just pushes us all that much closer 2340 01:54:21,288 --> 01:54:24,156 to understanding life's origins. 2341 01:54:24,191 --> 01:54:26,391 [blowing of particles in the wind] 2342 01:54:26,427 --> 01:54:31,396 Right now all of life we know of happens on this one planet. 2343 01:54:31,432 --> 01:54:33,599 And our planet has gone hog wild with life. 2344 01:54:33,634 --> 01:54:34,600 [whoosh of dolphins swimming through ocean] 2345 01:54:34,635 --> 01:54:37,636 But it's all based on one root. 2346 01:54:37,671 --> 01:54:43,442 That's one biochemical recipe operating on one small planet, 2347 01:54:43,477 --> 01:54:45,811 in one small solar system 2348 01:54:45,846 --> 01:54:50,015 in the corner of one ordinary galaxy. 2349 01:54:50,050 --> 01:54:52,885 So the chances are excellent 2350 01:54:52,920 --> 01:54:55,654 that there is life somewhere else. 2351 01:54:55,689 --> 01:54:58,790 and finding it elsewhere, anywhere... 2352 01:54:58,826 --> 01:55:00,792 just once...in any form... 2353 01:55:00,828 --> 01:55:01,994 [child laughing] 2354 01:55:02,029 --> 01:55:04,329 would finally be proof 2355 01:55:04,365 --> 01:55:09,301 that we are but one of many manifestations 2356 01:55:09,336 --> 01:55:13,238 that life can take in the cosmos. 2357 01:55:13,274 --> 01:55:21,813 [music playing]