The Interstellar Age

The Story of the NASA Men and Women Who Flew the Forty-Year Voyager Mission

By: Jim Bell

Narrated by: Jim Bell

Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of the men and women who drove the Voyager spacecraft mission, told by a scientist who was there from the beginning.

The Voyager spacecraft are our farthest-flung emissaries--11.3 billion miles away from the crew who built and still operate them decades after their launch.

Voyager 1 left the solar system in 2012; its sister craft, Voyager 2, will do so in 2015. The fantastic journey began in 1977, before the first episode of Cosmos aired. The mission was planned as a grand tour beyond the moon; beyond Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; and maybe even into interstellar space. The fact that it actually happened makes this humanity's greatest space mission.

In The Interstellar Age, award-winning planetary scientist Jim Bell reveals what drove and continues to drive the members of this extraordinary team, including Ed Stone, Voyager's chief scientist and the one-time head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab; Charley Kohlhase, an orbital dynamics engineer who helped to design many of the critical slingshot maneuvers around planets that enabled the Voyagers to travel so far; and the geologist whose earthbound experience would prove of little help in interpreting the strange new landscapes revealed in the Voyagers' astoundingly clear images of moons and planets.

Speeding through space at a mind-bending 11 miles a second, Voyager 1 is now beyond our solar system's planets. It carries with it artifacts of human civilization. By the time Voyager 1 passes its first star in about 40,000 years, the gold record on the spacecraft, containing various music and images, including Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," will still be playable.

©2015 Jim Bell (P)2015 Penguin Audio

interesting and fun if you like space

exploratoration is it's own reward. explore space vicariously through this book. Author did a surprisingly good job narrating.

Very Engaging Book

One would not automatically think that a book about an unmanned probe would be very interesting. Jim Bell, however, weaves a very entertaining tale of the almost 40 years (and still going) of the Voyager program and the men and women who have devoted years to it (in some cases, most of their careers). The scientific discoveries by the little probes are pretty astonishing. It is also amazing that the scientists have achieved so much with what now seems like ancient technology (8 track tape recorders!).

The book is also a loosely autobiographic account by Mr. Bell, as well as biographical sketches of some of his colleagues. This approach adds considerable human interest to the book.

Finally, Mr. Bell chose to narrate the book himself. Although this normally comes with an alarm, there is no problem here. Mr. Bell is a very engaging narrator.

Brilliant

Absolutely loved it. Amazing journey through our solar system with the people who made it happen. I listened to it twice in one week.

Exciting, Inspiring, and interesting.

Exciting, Inspiring, and interesting! I've read SF for years... It was a lot of fun to listen to real science being done by real people, and see how SF writers could be inspired by it. I was born in 84, so most of what the Voyager missions accomplished were before my time, but the fact that we're still learning from them even today made me feel a part of the excitement and awe. Jim Bell's passion is obvious in this narrative, and him reading made it that much better. I'll be re-listening soon.

Wonderful personal journey through a space program

This is an outstanding account of the Voyager missions through the solar system and through the lives of the many scientists and engineers that made it all happen. I was a bit surprised by the fact that this is nearly as much an autobiography as a history of Voyager, but Jim Bell writes well enough that it did not come off as a cry for attention, and indeed gave the book a very personal feel.

I have no doubt that every large space mission has an incredible story to tell, but Voyager was so far-reaching and has done so much that it deserves this treatment more than most. I highly recommend this book, and hope to find similar books about other missions (such as the Mars rovers - hint, hint, Dr. Bell!) in the future.

Very interesting, not too technical.

Any additional comments?

The author does a great job of explaining the subject in detail without turning the text into a rocket science technical manual. There are pieces of the personal stories which were very interesting that I wish had been expanded more but it was overall still very good. Highly recommend for anyone even remotely interested in the subject of space exploration with a personal touch.

Inspiring.

Amazing hearing first hand the ups and downs of the Voyagers. Those two little guys carry a piece of all of us. Good luck Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 you each have a message to deliver.

Truly an exciting an informative story.

Truly an exciting an informative story. As a high school science teacher I am often on the look-out for such an interesting portrayal of our solar system and the adventures that have been attempted within it. Great job.

Interstellar age... a trip through time!

Fantastic summary of the missions. This is a must for all space buffs. My father worked on a team that helped launch the probes and he always had an interest in the continuing missions. He would have greatly enjoyed this audio book if he were still with us.

Excellent

An interesting and informative read on the nearly 40 year long journey that is the Voyager missions.