been traveling 33 years
December 15, 2010 (Wednesday)
The space probe Voyager I is in the process of leaving this solar system, 33 years after leaving Earth. It is still sending back data that includes pictures and new data heretofore unknown. And it is doing it with the technology of 1977. Amazing.
The First Baptist Church of Rockport bought its first computers in 1987, ten years after Voyager began its awesome journey. The technology of those early personal computers is so out of date now that no one would dream of designing a new computer utilizing that ancient circuitry. Almost everything about computers has changed since then. Voyager and its computers are ten years older than those first PC’s, yet they still work. They sent back information recently about solar wind that surprised the scientists. They are learning a lot from this recent data, and the new information will be useful in new research that will eventually improve the quality of life on Earth.
As a matter of fact, we would not have personal computers today if there had been no space program. Going into space required electronics that would not weigh much and yet would be able to handle the jobs assigned to the missiles, satellites, vehicles, etc. that are essential to the space programs. Miniaturization was the key to new inventions and the spin-offs from such inventions were technologies that have been beneficial to our society in general. There is probably no area of life today that remains untouched by modern technology.
Galileo was punished for looking through a crude telescope. People kept looking, however, and we are glad they did. We continue to resist scientific discovery today. When will we ever learn?
Voyager has taken pictures of Earth from great distances, the latest of which show our planet to be a tiny speck in the dark void of space. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3 NIV).