The fact that Voyager outlived every congressman that approved funding for the voyager mission is a testament to how well these things were designed.

My dad built the Voyagers. He died early 2010 so he missed seeing all the excitement about them leaving the solar system . He built lots of space faring vehicles as well as many other important technologies. Most people in the world would have used something that he developed.

An item not mentioned: The reason the probes can still be heard is that there have been huge advances in the receivers used for communication. A very important part of this amazing journey has been work done here on Earth to improve the equipment used to communicate with the space probes.

Voyager took off barely 75 years after the Wright Brothers managed to stay airborne. My Grandmother was born in the same year that the Wright Brothers took to the air. It is quite incredible what has been achieved.

At 12 I saw Sputnik 2 tumble and flash across the sky. At 19, I serviced supersonic fighter avionics, at 23 started working for IBM installing, troubleshooting and fixing computers in the era of core memory and punch cards. In '75 it was OS code troubleshooting, in '85 I was writing OS code for PCs. And now, long retired, my FitBit has more computing power than flew on any Apollo mission. What a trip, it has been. My paternal grandparents were born before the American Civl War began, they lived on a farm without electricity or plumbing, she died in 1904 and never rode in a car. My grandfather, i met when I was 2. He could read, my father born in 1895. He never learned to read and worked in coal mines in the era before dynamite, black powder when the miners work headlamps with open an flame and mules were used to pull coal from the mine. And I'm going to build a couple of PCs this year but I seriously thinking of just buying them. What crazy, wonderful era in which to live.

That the memory deck still works is probably the most amazing mechanical aspect of the Voyagers.

Meanwhile, my refrigerator's broken again.

When we lose contact with the Voyagers I will probably cry. What good friends to humanity they have been.

You should have mentioned the RAM. 48k of plated wire memory, a technology that was already 15 years obsolete when Voyager was launched. On the good side though, the memory junctions are so huge, compared to modern TTL based memory, that the plated wire memory is almost indestructible, and immune to damage or data corruption from cosmic radiation.

In my opinion, the Voyager program was the most ambitious and well executed effort we ever made for space exploration. And after all, they are still functioning almost 47 years later, absolutely amazing !

Your comment about teaching old dogs new tricks brought to mind one of the most critical features that contributed to Voyagers' longevity: the ability to be reprogrammed remotely. This allowed NASA to correct errors and add new capabilities as needed, something they included in subsequent probes to great effect. Perhaps the best example was the Galileo probe whose high gain antenna failed to deploy, requiring a complete rewrite of the data storage and transmission routines to use the low gain antennas at over ten times their designed data rate, implementing brand new data compression technology. We use that technology today in JPEG and MPEG files.

One of the advantages of Voyager's base programming being on magnetic discs, it that even if Voyager goes into standby due to reduction or lack of communication with Earth, once the connection to Earth is retored, Voyagers can reboot itself from its onboard data discs.

Many don’t know that at the last minute they realized that they needed radiation shielding for the instruments. It was feared that Jupiter’s radiation would cause systems to fail. So the engineers hit up every local supermarket and bought up all the aluminum foil they could get. They cleaned and prepped it, then installed it. So, the Voyagers are cruising the cosmos with grocery store shielding. 😊

Hats off to the scientists and engineers that helped create these amazing machines.

I don’t know why people are amazed. A refrigerator from 1977 still works better than a new one

In my opinion, the Voyager probes are some of the best ever feats of science and engineering in recent history.

Here we are 50 years later and I can’t even get 10 years out of a water heater. Progress is awesome!

The simplicity of the voyager probes, while frustrating for how little data it can return to us from the farthest fringes of the solar system, is likely the only thing that kept it alive this long... fewer points of failure

Voyager Probes should be considered among Earth’s greatest ever creations. Voyager 1 is the first man made object to ever leave our solar system. I love that machine like no other machine. It is beautiful and awe inspiring. Thank you for this video.

This doesn't just apply to long range missions, but also to large complicated projects that have a long development time. I remember when the first space shuttle finally got off the launch pad, it was said that the onboard computers were already almost a decade behind the then-current technology.

I was born in October of '77, just 1-2 months after they were launched. Ever since I was old enough to learn about them and understand what they were, I've been fascinated by their journey. Just thinking about it can bring tears to my eyes. It'll be a sad day when we finally lose contact or have to shut them down.

As someone who enjoys maintaining retro computers, I can fully appreciate the passion the NASA engineers must have to keep these old beasts running! I wonder if they still give the retired engineers phone calls for advice? I would be curious about the amount of people working at NASA who could still actively code in machine language and understand the componentry fully on those things! Also loved the Deep Space Control room stills from across the decades, really shows the progression!

So unbelievable, I remember this when I was 16 years old being very poor and living in a Boston Housing Project watching on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show just before they were Launched , it gave me a diversion from life and was so exciting (and unbelievable) no way imagining they would still be operational or still traveling, they were supposed to end a long time ago and people didn't think they would even last or survive as long as planned.

The Pioneer 10 & 11 also lasted way beyond their design life. They stopped functioning only when the RTGs couldn't produce enough power to keep them running. The Voyagers will have a similar fate.

My uncle was just two years out of college when he went to work for JPL. Has his degree in metallurgy with a minor in computer science. Voyager 1 was already in space when my uncle was asked to join the team to troubleshoot some problems (I don’t know exactly what problems he was troubleshooting). My uncle worked as a metallurgist for 45 years at JPL and has worked on every unmanned space probe that JPL has sent to space. Fun fact the first voyager launched was given the name voyager 2 while the second voyager was given the name voyager 1. Reason: the math hippies did there math and said that the second voyager launched aka voyager 1 would be traveling faster and would be the first man made object to go interstellar.

I was 9 years old when the two voyagers were launched. The documentaries that ran on network tv sparked a life-long interest in engineering through a degree and a decades long career. Taking a five year mission to 45+ years is an engineering achievement that should be lauded and studied, imho.

i just have to say congrats to the voyager teams!!!!! amazing work all of you!

My grandfather worked at JPL and on the Voyager project. I recall receiving photos before they were released to the public (still have some of them). His part was with the antennae sending receiving of radio waves (not sure if it was the earth or voyager side). Some of that technology is what makes cell phone communication possible. It's so wonderful to see that the voyagers continue.

The Voyager probes have always fascinated me and I've always felt very attached to them. Maybe it's partly because we are about the same age. When I was a teenager, over 30 years ago, I already saw them as old but awesome pieces of technology. As time passes, they keep getting older and more awesome by continuing to do amazing science where nothing human made has ever gone before. When we finally lose contact with them, I'll be very sad. It'll be like loosing someone who's adventures I followed all my life.

Having found myself among the human race in 1971, I got to follow these probes from childhood to late teens. I still consider it to be a major highlight of my youth. I still find it mind boggling that there had never had such a close look at the outer planets before then. It happened in my lifetime, because I'm old!

The Voyager probes are the genesis of my fascination with space, engineering and probably even sci-fi. For many of my generation it was the Space Shuttle, but for me it was these already 15-year old probes that grabbed me. And for all the incredible missions we conduct today, the two old probes still add their contributions to scientific discovery even now. It sounds weird even to me but I will genuinely shed a tear when their power reserves drop to the level where they are put into hibernation. For me, they rank as one of the greatest achievements of human kind, and I would make a case for them to rank as the greatest.

This is a great video of an extraordinary era in engineering. This was a time when brilliant minds made the most of what was available and thought in the long-game.

What amazes me is that the technology of the Voyagers is outlasting the engineers and scientists who designed them

I was surprised by the mention of Odetics, Inc. the builder of the flight recording system in the Voyager. It's the subcontractors who are often forgotten.

Loved your use of farther. I hate it when people use further when referring to distance.

That's so cool. There's poetry in sending these machines to where there is no return, stuck with the best technology we had at the time of launching. Radiating a signal until either power or transmission fails.

Wonderful video. My grandparents (all four of which I had into adulthood) were born between 1911 and 1916. They were all born within a decade or so of the first powered flight by the Wright brothers in 1903. They all lived to see Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon on July 20th, 1969. I was born 5 days later, and was therefore a child of 8 when the Voyager probes were launched. Carl Sagan was (and is) a hero of mine. Space exploration, for the first time, was science reality and not just science fiction. Every time one of the Voyager probes flew past a planet, I was awestruck. Sometimes we'd have to wait years between those planetary visits. Jupiter in 1979, Saturn the following year in 1980, For Uranus we had to wait until 1986 - a seeming eternity to my young self. Finally, Neptune in 1989. I was 20 years old that year, and am now 54 as I sit and type this. Imagine a car you bought new in 1977 lasting to today without ever visiting a mechanic. THAT is what these scientists accomplished. Of course, it's far more impressive than even that. I'm grateful that I lived during these exciting times; the robotic probes on Mars, the New Horizons probe giving us the first clear images of Pluto and Charon... I wonder if I'll live long enough to see man step foot on Mars. Maybe I'll die 5 days later. Wouldn't that be poetic?

Im not at all surprised, I have a Walkman from the 1980's that will run for up to 32 hours continuously with only one AA battery. Even more surprising is that in the late 90's I have a MiniDisc recorder that has two lasers, one to heat the disc and the other to read and write the music, a motor and controller to spin the disc, as well as power a display and again all on one AA battery..

I Told you eight-track tapes were the best!! I hope V'ger has a long happy existence in another dimension.

Astrum is a wonderful YT Channel and I'm such a Fan ! Your calm gentle narration delivers Us with facts that astound without the hype & drama. Per Ardua ad ASTRUM !

The Backup Thrusters built by Rocket Research of Redmond Washington had to fire at -- 1/10th of the minimum thrust for 1/10th of the minimum time specified in the NASA Contract Specifications. AND had to do this 4 times . JPL set us up with direct video feed in Redmond and whole staff at Rocket Research when Wild Cheering when signal was re-established.😅

I remember the Apollo missions, mariner, vikings, voyagers, skylab, the space shuttles...great stuff to fuel a young man's imagination. So neat voyagers are still going strong.

My uncle (dad's brother) was in charge of the accounting on the project that created the nuclear power supplies, and I work in the same building today. I have the award poster he got for his efforts, and it hung in my cube for years. Talk about a cool project!

I just remember the news reports in the 80s where incredible discoveries about Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings were made. Voyager 1 and 2 are one of mankind's greatest endeavours.

45 years! Such extraordinary engineering and quality of construction is impressive!

One of mankind’s best engineering feats.

Fascinating and well constructed. Thank you!

Thank you for the love for these incredible machines!❤

I was lucky enough to get a press pass to be at JPL during the Voyager-2 flyby of Saturn. I had just graduated high school and had interviewed a JPL scientist a few months earlier. He had connections and that got me in. It was awesome to be there as the pictures from each moon, ring, and planetary encounter came in and it was awesome to talk with the scientists at JPL and ask questions during the many press conferences that I had only seen on TV before. It is sad to think that many of the scientists that worked on the Voyager mission are no longer with us and that the two spacecraft will sail off into the darkness never to be heard from again. Nevertheless, I will always remember the summer of 1981 and my time being part of the Voyager experience. Voyager changed my view of the solar system in a grand way! It was like something out of a science fiction fantasy.

The man behind the Voyager’s was Gary Flandro. His family lived in our neighborhood for a few years. A good man for sure, brilliant and extremely under appreciated.

Love your content ! Thanks 4 your hard work!

For me the saddest thing is that I have been following the Voyagers most of my life, ( I'm nearly 64 years old) and if all goes well, I probably won't see the end of their travels. But what an amazing journey to go so far and still be in touch with us. You really can say 'Wow!!'

Good comment on the word “attitude”. I worked at NASA early on in the Space Station, on a project to verify the use of the Soyuz vehicle as an ACRV (Assured Crew Return Vehicle). Several times I gave presentations to Russian engineers. They didn’t know English (well, a few did but didn’t let on we believed). The Russians brought over translators, but these were from their fledgling tourist industry and didn’t understand technical jargon. So I would say a few sentences, the translator would repeat in Russian, then I’d go on a few more sentences. I started talking about attitude control on the ACRV, and I would get quizzical looks from the Russians. So I queried the translators and figured out their definition of attitude was a way of thinking, or mental state, very unlike my usage. So I had to change my own language. As an aside, some of the translators were young attractive women. I wanted to see if I could get one out on a date. But my boss said no fraternization! I was bummed.

This is one of my favorite aspects of computing, and an underrated one: Cresting radical efficiency even if unnecessary. Making every clock cycle and every bit you have count.

Not *every single* project of NASA's has worked out perfectly, but the overwhelming majority of successes, is staggering. Particularly space probes, telescopes, landings of other planets, rovers etc. The launch side of things has been hampered and directed by interference from Congress. That both the Voyagers are still operational, is truly incredible and a testament to the brilliance and meticulousness, of the project management and all others involved. I note that they are actually a bit *over* 45 years in space by now, so did Alex record this last year?

I love your videos, especially this one. Please continue on this level! I enjoy this content very much.

I think that if nasa had as much funding as the military we could’ve been on mars or further by now if we could do this in 1977.

I still have the National Geographic magazines with those first photos of Jupiter and Saturn. The Voyagers are something all of humanity can be proud of. I hope some day another spacefaring intelligence finds one and admires it.

0:34 - I appreciate the reference to how long space travel can last and what that means for the technologies of the various long-term projects. It reminds me of a science fiction novel I read in the late 80s (unfortunately I can't remember the title or the author). The story began with the launch of mankind's first spaceship, which transported a large crew in cryostasis to an (uninhabited) planet in another solar system. This journey was to take around 400 years. As the spaceship approached its destination as planned, the crew were awakened from cryostasis as requested and were astonished to discover that the planet was already inhabited... with people from Earth who had arrived 100 years earlier, but had only set off 250 years after the first launch from Earth. Space technology had developed so far in those 250 years, that the journey itself only took 50 years and the first spaceship launched was overtaken with ease (and unnoticed because the route naturally had a slightly different course)

What a fascinating glimpse at history -- thank you, Phil!

I remember very vaguely the start of the probes. It was a big deal for my parents so naturally I was interested, too. I didn't really understand what I saw, but my parents were fascinated. I am born in 1969. It is amazing that after all that time the probes are still going.

I am just amazed with that 8 track DTR...how the recording tape was able to hold up in such a harsh freezing environment.

Bless you sir for creating content like this. Incredibly fascinating!!

All these topics of future missions and new spacecraft makes me look forward to old age as when those older years arrive there will be so much to learn and so much to see...

It’s an “OLD MACHINE!” I thought “yea it is, wait a min, I’m old then”

Voyager is 45 year old and communication takes 21 hrs to recieve. In 45 years Voyager has travelled less than 1 light day the closest star system to us is 4.7 light years away Let that sink in everyone

I remember when Voyager was absolute state of the art. When they first started returning photos of the outer planets, it was absolutely stunning and inspiring in a way I can't put into words. The eruption on Io... the sound of Jupiter's bow shock... these were amazing moments.

I have followed this mission since it was launched and can clearly recall excitedly downloading the first images of Neptune from JPL over FTP. Great article as usual, thanks Alex, but it amuses me how often the graphics show Voyager flying backwards! Surely the antenna dish will always be pointing back at Earth... 🥴

A brand new PhD student, in 1977 could have spent not only his entire career working on Voyager, that scientists child could have been born, gone to school gotten their own PhD then spent their entire career working on Voyage.

I remember when these Voyagers left Earth. The fact that they're still working today with their 1970's technology literally blows my mind.

it is truly amazing how well these ancient probes are STILL going even now, these are older than I am, i love modern tech but these things, I feel compelled to make sure my nieces and nephews (and hopefully someday my own kids) know about them and the durability they have.

What a great episode after the Voyager 2 glitch correction was carried out. I was in primary school when the teacher brought a portable radio into the classroom and let us hear the signal from Sputnik1. Ever since then I have been intrigued by space exploration so the Voyager missions are always on my list of news to look out for. This retrospective look at the life of Voyager 1 has been great and I will be watching it again.

If you have to switch to a backup system after 43yrs continous operation then my friend they did extraordinarily great job. 👏

This reminds me of old, masterfully-handcrafted swords, violins, and other stuff that, though antiquated, work well because of the passion and experience put into making them.

Groovy episode you guys! Far out!

It is a humbling experience to see just HOW slow the speed of light is in the context of the universe. Just like shooting a rubber band at a friend next to you and it hitting 20 years later...

An absolutely breathtaking feat of engineering! A testimony of how well trained, visionary and dedicated the entire Voyager Team is. There must be two, possibly three generations of brilliant NASA scientists and affiliated suppliers who've worked on Voyager(s) these past 46 years.

Cool that these things have been flying into outer space in the time of my whole life (40+ years). They have been working that whole time and I remember the things they photographed and studied since my earliest memory of astronomy. Amazing they still exist and are still travelling and will travel millions of years after my life is over

Fascinating video - thank you

I was Nineteen when they Launched the Voyagers, And not long after that I met and Married The love of my life. We used to watch Dr Carl Sagon on TV describing the universe with such passion and joy, It was thrilling to watch and listen to. Your presentation reminded me very much of those times, Thank you for that from an old Scots Guy

Fantastic - This episode, showed the detail that went into the build of these probes. Amazing how computers have moved on! I'm from the 286 era. Gets me, how they can accurately piggy back from one planet to another.

Truly inspirational video. The story of Voyagers is an inspiration to anyone that dreams with the ultimate frontier. Sometimes humanity surprises itself inspite all of its faults. Have a nice day.

I was 16 years old when those two machines were launched. They were built back in the days when things were still made to last. They certainly did a great job when it came to the Voyagers

So what specifically was snuck on besides the standard equipment discussed?

it's amazing that voyager is still transmitting data after 50 years in space, it's a super nintendo, it never dies

Wow, classic 8-track , hard to find tapes for them anymore. 👍✌️👍

Highlighting the importance of keeping things as simple as possible. By adding complexity, you're automatically adding more potential failure points, and keeping things operational and reliable is key. You can't really make anything "too strong" or "too reliable" for something like this. I remember the launch of Voyager 2. I was 7 years old, and it set fire to my imagination. I've been a science and sci-fi fan ever since.

When I look at mankinds ventures into space, it is interesting (to me at least) that the space shuttle represents when I started. In the 70s when it was really being developed, my parents were figuring out how they wanted to plan their family. Leading me to be conceived not long (some months) after they started putting STS-1 together on LC-39 and born a few months before its launch in April of 1981. Those 3 decades of the STS program basically coincide with the first 3 decades of my life. As someone who loves basically anything about space (I'm more about cosmology and DSOs, so manned spaceflight is certainly part of it, but not so much as things like the work by Slipher and Hubble a century and more back, things like the STS's role with the Hubble Telescope cannot be ignored either). Stuff like the Voyager program and Skylab represent to me, the period of space exploration and related sciences immediately prior to "my" period. That they did so much with so little in such programs is something that I will forever admire.

I just want to know how it’s possible it hasn’t had something run into it. Space must be really really empty

Voyager 2 was launched almost 3 months to the day after I was born, strange to think they've been travelling out there for my entire life. 🇦🇺

The concept of software programmable devices was a key feature with Voyagers and this principle is still used today in all fields.

The MIPS CPU that was used in the PS1, it's design have been used in the 2015 New Horizon space probe. The CPU have been radiation hardened, but it is basically the same. It was chosen because it was power efficient and if i remember correctly it also was less prone to bitflip.

8:20 the DTR on Voyager 1 is still operational: the PWS instrument writes its data to the DTR, and about once every 6 months this data is played back and sent to Earth. The latest tape playback session I could find was on January 25, 2023.

I'm surprised we haven't deliberately made deep space probes since the 70's. These two were accidentally brilliant.

I'm glad the engineers ignored Nixon and made sure the probes would last for all four major planets. My childhood education on the outer planets came directly from Voyager, I learned those things in real-time along with the rest of the world. What a GIFT to all of us.

Love Voyager video's! i was born between the launches of 2 & 1 coming up on 47 years together

What a wonderful return on an investment! Congratulations to the scientists and engineers who created and built the Voyagers! So much respect for your efforts and expertise! You have truly enriched the generations.

Great stuff.

The keel of the USS Nimitz, which is still on active duty was laid down on 22 June 1968. Some designs are made to last. Voyagers haven’t been maintained, so still an amazing record.

Voyager 1 and 2 are amazing. They have traveled so far and are still working even if most of the instruments have been turned off to save power. I know from watching your vids one has recorded strange sounds that are very eerie. I wish they could power up the cameras again just to see what they can see. There must be something there even if it is just stars in the distance. Great stuff Astrum.