Project Voyager: to the Giant Planets

"Project Voyager: to the Giant Planets" goes through the Voyager spacecrafts' encounters with Jupiter and Saturn with some stunning vintage animation. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jonathon Smith for finding this video and JPL for allowing me to post it. Fantastic, eh?

Intro music: "New Perspective" from Music Loops.

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[allenfogarty]

Voyager is one of humanities greatest achievements

[WilliamJakespeareProps]

I love the "re-entering the world of computer graphics" bit

[camarocarl]

Love the spooky space background music, also the calm, slow pace of the speaker. So much more enjoyable that todays speed talkers. Thanks for posting this vintage gem.

[johannes]

I love seventies computer graphics ! ;) ... Thank you Amy for sharing this gem

[xgalmichelleevans]

This is extremely early computer animation, most likely from James Blinn at JPL. He kept working to refine and expand his animation about the various Voyager flybys. During the pre-encounter phase for Voyager 2 in August 1981, Blinn released his latest and greatest creation that was shown to all of us in the Media Corp. He titled the production "Previews of Coming Attractions." It had detailed graphic images of the V-2 Saturn encounter, then we also saw what was to come for both Uranus and Neptune. It was truly beautiful animation, and I believe it helped to inspire other CG artists to work harder in Hollywood, which has led to what we have today.

I got an actual movie film copy of the production, and transferred it to video tape, where I also added a music track. It was my first adventure on that sort of thing, and was a lot of fun, and in many ways, it is still the favorite video production I ever did. Later they released video for things such as the Galileo arrival at Jupiter, and that got added to my production about the end of the Voyager encounters in 1989, and included footage from the Voyager Wrap Party with Carl Sagan, Chuck Berry, and former NASA Administrator Thomas Paine.

I will always treasure the Voyager program, not only for the science and stunning images returned, but it was the program where I truly learned my craft of writing, as I covered each new encounter.

[lazerkate]

This is wonderful. Apart from the fantastic music, I really got the sense of how breakthrough this project was going to be as it unfolded. We are spoilt now with hi-res photos (and confusingly realistic CGI) but you can really feel the unknown here - which is what makes exploration so exciting.

[fubarmodelyard]

40 years and still going. one of NASA's greatest achievements. thanks for sharing

[goofyiest]

The engineering for that series of flybys still astounds me.

[liquividy]

I remember watching Voyager 2 encounter Neptune in the late 80s. It was broadcast live, 24/7 on some cable channels. Interesting that the original plan didn't have a Neptune encounter and they weren't even sure about Uranus!

[KeithGolon]

Love these documentaries. They're slower, you learn more, and you don't get crazy-in-the-head. Unlike the ADHD crap they make today with unnecessary over-animated graphics, 0.6 second scene length, and constant camera shaking and cacophony of noise.

[EoinMadsen]

The music in that presentation is _amazing_.

[ComputerLearning]

I remember watching this on 16mm film in the late 70's when I was in middle school.

[rogerwilco]

The Voyager missions are amazing achievements. Providing useful science to this day.
The video is nice as well, I think the images around 10:54 have been used a lot, I remember seeing those before, nice to see their original source.

[orlinn]

Thank you for sharing this AMAZING video! I could only imagine living back then and hearing about this mission! I would have spent countless hours at libraries trying to figure out as much information as I could!

[robertoneill]

I've never seen this in its entirety before. Thanks a lot for sharing x

[missinglincoln]

Remember, people: computer power like that enabled the Rebel Alliance to take out the Death Star.

[abrahamchapman]

I don't understand why this and other historical space footage is not all put on a government website for public access.

[josephweydemann]

I wish I had found this before now. My father and his team designed the star tracker or mapping system for the Voyager probes. I was allowed to watch them mount the star tracker at JPL in Cali. I was 13 talk about geeking out. We were invited to Voyager 2 launch. The most incredible event not family related that I have seen. I love your videos.

[kirkthiets]

I watched that stuff in 2nd grade.
Love it!

[IgnemFeram]

Awesome video! I just get a good kick out of these old graphics. It's great seeing how the presented these missions back in the day. And that retro soundtrack!