Reviews for The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission

by Jim Bell

Library Journal
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NASA launched two Voyager probes in 1977, hoping to explore Jupiter and possibly Saturn. The wildly successful mission continued to Uranus, Neptune, and beyond; in 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Voyager 2 should traverse the ill-defined edge of the solar system soon, possibly even this year. With warmth and gentle, self-deprecating humor, planetary scientist Bell (The Space Book: From the Beginning to the End of Time, 250 Milestones in the History of Space & Astronomy) recaps Voyager's surprising discoveries, notes how the mission has influenced subsequent research and exploration, and summarizes recent observations from the boundary between the solar wind "bubble" and the rest of the Milky Way. The book offers a brief bibliography. (Unfortunately, while the finished title will include color images, these weren't available for review.) Some older books about Voyager cover more thoroughly technical details and specific findings, but the substance of this work is its focus on the human side of the story. Bell's interviews of friends and colleagues illustrate the uncommon devotion of the mission personnel and their strong emotional ties to the project. VERDICT A highly enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in popular science.-Nancy R. Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An expensive, taxpayer-financed project designed by committee and employing thousands of government workers turned out beautifully. This was the first of many miracles of the Voyager mission, two space probes that conducted one of the greatest scientific explorations of the 20th century. Planetary Society President Bell (Earth and Space Exploration/Arizona State Univ; The Space Book: From the Beginning to the End of Time, 250 Milestones in the History of Space Astronomy, 2013, etc.) mixes his autobiography with an enthusiastic history of Voyager, enthusiasm that, for once, is entirely justified. A high school student during the 1977 launches, Bell haunted Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Cal Tech undergraduate during the 1980s as data poured in. It is still arriving. Ten chapters recount the stages of the mission, most of which are milestones of their own. The probes themselves are miracles of old technology: eight-track tapes, computers weaker than ones in our pocketsnot the cellphones but the keys that unlock our cars. Four chapters describe flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, each lasting days or less, during which instruments returned dazzling photographs and surprising, unexpected information about the planets and their moons. No one planned what followed, but many instruments continued to function, so scientists continued to listen. In 2012, Voyager 1 passed beyond the sun's influence to enter true interstellar space; Voyager 2 will follow, and both will transmit until power runs out around 2025. "We are all livingright nowin an Amazing Golden Age of Exploration, of our planet and of our solar system," writes the author. Uninterested in sending men into space (China is the only nation with an ongoing manned program), Congress remains willing to finance unmanned projects with strictly scientific objectives. These have yielded rich rewards, and Bell delivers an exuberant account of one of the most rewarding. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Publishers Weekly
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Bell (The Space Book), president of the Planetary Society, delivers a lucid account of the magnificent scientific accomplishments of the Voyager Missions with a cheerfulness that it deserves. Both probes were launched in 1977; Voyager 1 left the solar system in 2013, after returning breathtaking photographs of the outer planets, and Voyager 2 will do so in a few years. They should be able to "stay in communication with Earth and operate at least one instrument until sometime around 2025." The Voyager probes exploited a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which made it possible for a single spacecraft to pass by all four. Approved in 1972 after more ambitious probes were rejected, their construction was a miracle of improvisation by workaholic engineers and brilliant project managers, working with budgets so inadequate that some defects were not fixed after it was decided they would not spoil the mission. Bell describes the flybys, which produced an avalanche of new discoveries, but he gives equal space to the craft themselves, whose instruments (analog tapes, feeble computers) are museum curiosities today. Nevertheless, they worked to a marvelous degree, and readers will have no trouble sharing Bell's exuberance at a remarkable human accomplishment. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.