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iggnaseous's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating retrospective of the Voyager's mission, intertwined with the life of the author, who becomes a planetary scientist. Bell takes his readers to "the edge of space," riding along with the probes. He demonstrates that science fact is as interesting as science fiction.
Some things I learned:
* The Voyagers were initially pitched as a Jupiter-Saturn mission, with hopes that the probes might survive out to the outer planets and then (eventually) into interstellar space. At every stage after that, NASA had to fight to continue their funding!
* Voyager 1's grand tour was "sacrificed" to gain a better look at Saturn's Titan, which was thought to be one of the most interesting objects in the solar system (and it is).
* Voyager 2 is still the only human-made object to visit Uranus and Neptune up-close.
* Both probes are still operational and in communication with Earth.
Some things I learned:
* The Voyagers were initially pitched as a Jupiter-Saturn mission, with hopes that the probes might survive out to the outer planets and then (eventually) into interstellar space. At every stage after that, NASA had to fight to continue their funding!
* Voyager 1's grand tour was "sacrificed" to gain a better look at Saturn's Titan, which was thought to be one of the most interesting objects in the solar system (and it is).
* Voyager 2 is still the only human-made object to visit Uranus and Neptune up-close.
* Both probes are still operational and in communication with Earth.
lady_valhella's review against another edition
5.0
Inspirational! I am considering a change of profession now! I feel like I am in middle school when my curiosity about space sciences was at its peak.
stampest's review against another edition
3.0
While full of interesting tidbits the book was slow overall. I enjoyed the casual, conversational style but felt it lacked the personal stories needed to truly make it as autobiographical as I expected it to be. It was just an odd mix of slightly-outsider observations, planetary details, and a bit of space related fangirling.
jpv0's review
5.0
I love space. Space missions, thinking about other planets/worlds/alien life. It's all so cool to me. I also read a huge amount, primarily science fiction and fantasy. One thing I get less of though is non-fiction, and from time to time I try to fix that.
[b:The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission|22571516|The Interstellar Age Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission|Jim Bell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404484684l/22571516._SX50_.jpg|42038013] is a great way to change that. (That's quite the title).
In a nutshell, it's a story of the Voyager missions, going into background years (centuries) before they were even launched up through each of the fly-bys, and into a more than decent sprinkling of the human side of the story.
There are some wonderful scientific tidbits in there that I half knew but really liked getting numbers for.
I work with computer hardware and software day in and out, so seeing just how underpowered Voyager was compared to modern devices? Awesome.
Learning about how they reprogrammed it and added compression remotely (about as remotely as has ever been done...) to better change in software what hardware couldn't change? Awesome.
Realizing that these are human devices mind numbingly far away from us... and yet we can still talk to them and get data back? Awesome.
The human half of the story... I'm still not sure what to think about it. It ends up being rather more personal, with the author's tangential involvement taking up a lot of the story. And... I didn't always care about it. Get me back to the technology and SCIENCE! But really, without the human part of it, we never would have had this mission. We never would have had this book. So for that at least, it makes it work.
All together, it's a wonderful story and a well written book. Well worth the read.
[b:The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission|22571516|The Interstellar Age Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission|Jim Bell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404484684l/22571516._SX50_.jpg|42038013] is a great way to change that. (That's quite the title).
In a nutshell, it's a story of the Voyager missions, going into background years (centuries) before they were even launched up through each of the fly-bys, and into a more than decent sprinkling of the human side of the story.
There are some wonderful scientific tidbits in there that I half knew but really liked getting numbers for.
I work with computer hardware and software day in and out, so seeing just how underpowered Voyager was compared to modern devices? Awesome.
Learning about how they reprogrammed it and added compression remotely (about as remotely as has ever been done...) to better change in software what hardware couldn't change? Awesome.
Realizing that these are human devices mind numbingly far away from us... and yet we can still talk to them and get data back? Awesome.
The human half of the story... I'm still not sure what to think about it. It ends up being rather more personal, with the author's tangential involvement taking up a lot of the story. And... I didn't always care about it. Get me back to the technology and SCIENCE! But really, without the human part of it, we never would have had this mission. We never would have had this book. So for that at least, it makes it work.
All together, it's a wonderful story and a well written book. Well worth the read.
nsdodgers's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting and awe inspiring, although at times it feels a little too basic with its presentation of the science.
runoutofpages's review
3.0
I really enjoyed the writing in the book, Jim Bell really knows how to make non-fiction read like fiction. I do wish some of the topics covered went into more depth as I was left wanted to know more (and looking some things up after reading the book) but overall it was an enjoyable read.
kreadsbooks's review
5.0
This was the first book that I read that had me fall in love with reading about space, missions, space probes. I found it at my library and I absolutely loved reading about Voyagers and the mission for them. I need to get a actual copy of this book because it’s what started my love for all things outer space.
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