Flyby of Neptune

Its mission was to reach and analyze the gas giants. Loyd Searle was writing for the Boston business journal and was writing on the topic of VAX which was the program used to interpret Voyager II’s data. Loyd Searle offered some interesting ideas to research about the Space Craft’s journey around Neptune. Loyd Searle was present at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) when the data was being received from Voyager II coming back from the far side of Neptune. Even though Voyager II’s “Grand Tour” through our solar system turned out to be impossible the information gathered from Neptune was revealing, and the “Golden Records” which are on board in hope of being found by other intelligent life forms.

Voyager II’s possible secondary mission could be to find other intelligent life forms. On board Voyager II there are records commonly referred to as the “golden records” (Brancolini). There are two sides to these, one side contains sounds, and the other contains pictures (Brancolini). In these records there is information on the planets of our solar system, the Earth, music, and sounds that occur on Earth. These records are for other intelligent life forms who may intercept the space probe. They contain a “pulsar” map which could lead the recipients to Earth (The Golden Records). Voyager II has not yet encountered any such life form. It has passed by Neptune and gathered information on its voyage.

Voyager II’s first intention to make a “grand tour” of our solar system proved impossible but it did reach the gas giants, particularly Neptune (Gino). The space craft’s journey was supposed to be only five years but it has already celebrated its Thirtieth anniversary (Brancolini).The “grand tour” of our solar system was going to be carried out by Voyager II by swinging by the planets using gravity to gain momentum. While this was happening it would be taking in data from its surroundings and streaming them back to JPL. On its journey around Neptune the space craft was temporarily unable to transmit data when it passed on the far side. When it came back to the near side it was coming around the planet towards the direction of Earth. As it did so in the JPL, coming from the signal that VAX translated, there was a screeching noise which has been theorized to have been the solar wind carrying solar particles which were flinging themselves against the craft (Searle). This phenomenon can be categorized as “bow shock” (Searle).