Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery by Stephen J. Pyne; Viking/Penguin Group (USA); New York, New York; (hard cover); $29.95; 2010.
This is an exceptional book by an award-winning environmental historian and author – a volume that provides matchless insight into robotic space travel contrasted to Antarctic and deep ocean exploration.
The two NASA Voyager spacecraft were lofted in 1977. Their departure and long distance voyaging from Earth, Pyne suggests, may well be singled out as “the grand gesture of a Third Great Age of Discovery.”
What is so unique about this book is detailing why mechanized surrogates for human explorers fit into our history and cultural heritage.
Voyager is seen by the author as much a marker for exploration as the exploits of Magellan, Columbus, and Cook. The Renaissance and Enlightenment — the First and Second Ages of Discovery — launched humans across vast stretches of the unknown to find new worlds.
Similarly, caught by the sensors of the Voyager craft, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were relay-revealed to us as stunning worlds of complexity and beauty.
Many often forget that the dual NASA probes were sent out on the “Grand Tour” – a slingshot approach that used gravity-assist between worlds to maximize the targets that each Voyager could investigate. The author digs in deep to reveal both the people and the technology that permitted such a bold assault on our solar system.
Pyne has given the reader a wonderful tale, one that captures not only the ambitious traverses of two robots but also the true meaning of momentum. That is, an account of hurling machines into the void as well as humanity’s never-ending, on-going thirst for discovery, inspiration, and perspective about our place in the cosmos.
By the way, if you’re curious to know the current whereabouts of the Voyager Interstellar missions, go to: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/
For more information about this book, go to:
http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670021833,00.html?Voyager_Stephen_J._Pyne
By Leonard David