The Farthest Page #4

Why would these people expose themselves

to our voracious appetite?

They must be very altruistic, you know?

[whale sounds]

[radio signals scrambling

and faint radio chatter]

NARRATOR:
In 1972, preparation

for the mission got underway.

Other great journeys of discovery...

by Magellan, Columbus, Da Gama...

all involved more than one ship.

And so would Voyager.

Two spacecraft would be built...

two chances for success.

[birds and wildlife noises]

BELL:

One of the things I just admire most

about the engineers who built Voyager

is that they're always thinking

about the most improbable things

happening.

You know, you want to take those people

on a camping trip with you

because they will think of...

well, you've got to bring...

what if these bugs come out,

what if the tent gets flooded,

what if you run out of gas,

what if you can't

start the fire, you know.

They're the what if people,

and when you're sending

something out into space

you can't go do a service call,

you can't bring it back,

so your what if list

had better be like that long

or you're not going to be able

to survive.

[machines spinning and grinding]

FRANK LOCATELL:

These projects begin

with a conceptualization period.

How do we arrange the spacecraft,

how do we take

the communications system,

this large 12-foot diameter

fixed antenna,

and arrange it relative

to the propulsion system?

The spacecraft took on

the dimension of being a child,

and our design teams, you know,

were like kind of parents.

This was actually a nurturing process.

Bringing that child,

if you will, into reality.

CASANI:
All spacecraft are made

basically of the same things,

silicon and aluminum, that's about it.

You know, that's probably 95% of it.

Silicon and aluminum is cheap

until you start making stuff

out if it, you know.

[beeping machines

and low bass drum beats]

RICH TERRILE:
1972 was when

you had the technology freeze,

remember we launched in 1977,

so you freeze technology

several years earlier,

and at the time the biggest

computers in the world

were comparable to the kinds of things

we have in our pockets today,

and I'm not talking about a cell phone.

I'm actually talking about a key fob.

CASANI:

What's wrong with 70s technology?

I mean, you're looking at me,

I'm a 30s technology, right?

I don't apologize for the limitations

that we were working with at the time.

We milked the technology

for what we could get from it.

ED STONE:

Voyager is about 800 kilograms.

Its main antenna is 12 feet in diameter,

which was the largest we could launch.

BELL:

There's this body,

this ten-sided can called the bus,

and that's got all the

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