21 years since Voyager 2 passed Neptune - anyone else watch it live on PBS?

[samalex]

Hey Guys ..

I just saw this article on Wired:
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/08/0825voyager2-neptune

Has it really been 21 years since Voyager 2 passed Neptune? I was only 13 at the time, but I stayed up and watched Neptune All Night on PBS and even recorded about 6 hours of it on VHS (still have someplace). I can't believe it's been so long... Also I can't believe I can measure geek events in my life in decades :)

Anyone else watch it 21 years ago tonight? I just found YouTube has a few clips from it on there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ-Ct-c5as8), and if I can find my tape and get my old VCR working I might try to digitize some of the footage I have and post it as well.

Take care --

Sam

[MasterNetra]

Hey Guys ..

I just saw this article on Wired:
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/08/0825voyager2-neptune

Has it really been 21 years since Voyager 2 passed Neptune? I was only 13 at the time, but I stayed up and watched Neptune All Night on PBS and even recorded about 6 hours of it on VHS (still have someplace). I can't believe it's been so long... Also I can't believe I can measure geek events in my life in decades :)

Anyone else watch it 21 years ago tonight? I just found YouTube has a few clips from it on there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ-Ct-c5as8), and if I can find my tape and get my old VCR working I might try to digitize some of the footage I have and post it as well.

Take care --

Sam

I would of been around 3 at the time, so unlikely.

[poohbear_be]

I was about 7, but definetly remember the event! Watched it on Belgian television!

[LowSky]

I wish NASA did cool stuff these days... Now all they do is fly freight to a space stations, or launch television satellites.

We should have had people on Mars and a Moon Base by now.

Lets put this into perspective, if you count the date from which Columbus landed in the Caribbean within 50 years they had done a whole lot of colonizing the America's.

So like I said a Moon Base and Mars trips shouldn't be so hard.
Come on We got to the moon with a rocket that had less computing skills than a graphic calculator.

[Little Bones]

I wish NASA did cool stuff these days... Now all they do is fly freight to a space stations, or launch television satellites.

We should have had people on Mars and a Moon Base by now.

Lets put this into perspective, if you count the date from which Columbus landed in the Caribbean within 50 years they had done a whole lot of colonizing the America's.

So like I said a Moon Base and Mars trips shouldn't be so hard.
Come on We got to the moon with a rocket that had less computing skills than a graphic calculator.

Good point. I'd like to see us set up a base on The Moon or Mars.

[juancarlospaco]

Maybe Voyager 2 its on a Black Hole right now... :(

[samalex]

Good point. I'd like to see us set up a base on The Moon or Mars.

I completely agree... I don't know if us visiting other bodies in space has become so common place that people don't care, or maybe technology has just reached that point where we're no longer in awe of such things. As a 13 year old watching those pictures coming in live I was glued to the TV all night. NASA needs to do whatever it can to rekindle that type of spark, whether it be a webcam on Mars or the Moon, something in orbit that might be able to allow amateur coders to write software that takes advantage of scientific equipment or cameras, or whatever. Unfortunately lots of projects got cut this year with the economy being what it is.



Maybe Voyager 2 its on a Black Hole right now... :(

As far as I know NASA is still getting info from both Voyager 1 and 2, and periodically I even read about an amateur radio operator picking-up the signals as well.

Sam

[donkyhotay]

Lets put this into perspective, if you count the date from which Columbus landed in the Caribbean within 50 years they had done a whole lot of colonizing the America's.

That perspective is a little skewed, yes in 50 years they had done a lot of colonizing of a *fertile, non-hostile environment*. A better example would be antarctica, it was first sighted in 1820, had a couple landings from 1821 on but these were mostly ships sealing ships that got blown off course or making a quick stop while catching seals in the area. The first actual "settlement" didn't occur until 1899. Even then there has never been any true colonization of antarctica, partly because of international treaty but mostly because it costs so much to keep someone alive down there since there is no practical way to grow food. Now take that and then compare that to mars, antarctica is a paradise compared to mars. Mars is even colder, no breathable air, and not even the option of trying to live on the coast and eat seals, fish, penguins, etc. It's also much more remote. It's 8.5 months to fly to mars and thats when the planets are in alignment. I agree with you're point that NASA should focus more on setting up establishments on other worlds rather then being a launch service for telecom satellites. We're pretty vulnerable here and it wouldn't take much to wipe us out. Besides, eventually the sun is going to expand, sterlize the earth, and if we're still here when that happens then we won't be even a footnote in the history of the universe. However colonizing the moon/mars isn't a very simple matter.

[mips]

I wish NASA did cool stuff these days... Now all they do is fly freight to a space stations, or launch television satellites.


You kids have no clue. Every time they launch a shuttle or rocket it's cool stuff. Even though it seems routine it's still very complex & dangerous. Anything to do with space is dangerous and have lots of risks attached. Do you have any idea what it takes to get payload into space?

Problem is people got so used to it they assumed it's a piece of cake like driving a car to the mall to get a hamburger.

I'm not American but I reckon NASA rocks, they are the stuff dreams are made of!

[Oxwivi]

I was -3 years old at that time. Need I say more?

[Paqman]

I wish NASA did cool stuff these days...

They are. You don't like Hubble and the other Great Observatories, or the Mars rovers, or Cassini, or WMAP and COBE? Exploration in the spirit of Voyager is very much alive and kicking. We'll be sending a lot of missions to the outer planets over the next few decades, and should find out loads of amazing things.

[Oxwivi]

But I still don't get why look out in the space when we know less than 1% of the oceans down at earth.

[lisati]

Thoughts of things going wrong with the V'ger program come to mind - was this the origin of the Borg by any chance? :D

Back in my younger days, it was stuff like being the first to land on the moon that captured the public's imagination. I remember watching a delayed broadcast of the first moon landing and being thrilled.

On a side note, did anyone else notice that Balok (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0090167/) was in attendance at mission control for the Apollo 13 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/) flight?

[juancarlospaco]

But I still don't get why look out in the space when we know less than 1% of the oceans down at earth.

Because of the Kraken (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken)! :D