Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched a month
apart in late summer in 1977 after many alarms
and close calls they successfully arrived
months apart at the Jupiter system.
The modern ships that sailed to the planets
are unmanned they are beautifully constructed
semi-intelligent robots.
Voyager's eyes are two television cameras
designed to take tens of thousands of pictures
in the outer solar system.
Along with other instruments they are mounted
on a scan platform which points at passing
planets.
Voyager's brains are three integrated computers
set amidships it communicates with earth through
a large radio antenna mounted like a sail.
Voyager bears a message for any alien civilization
it may one day encounter in interstellar space.
Its louvers open and shut to help control
the onboard temperature.
But Voyager cruises so far from the sun that
it cannot depend on solar power instead it
has a small nuclear power plant quarantined
from the rest of the ship.
Voyager's passage by Jupiter accelerated it
towards a close encounter with the planet
Saturn.
Saturn's gravity will propel it on to Uranus
and in this game of cosmic billiards after
Uranus it will plunge on past Neptune leaving
the solar system and becoming an interstellar
spacecraft.
And if Voyager should sometime in its distant
future encounter beings from some other civilization
in space it bears a message.
A phonograph record golden delicate with instructions
for use.
