NASA Voyager Display

Hi everyone, Bics here with a build featuring NASA's Voyager Program, one of human-kinds greatest exploits out into the cosmos. It's also rapidly approaching its 50th anniversary, so I felt a tribute was well earned. Check this out:

This ~400 piece set has a couple parts, the first of which is -no surprise- The Voyager probe. The voyager program was born and launched in the late 70's with an ambitious goal: visit all the outer planets. It took a purpose built, cutting-edge probe to met the challenge, one with generators and batteries, cameras and sensors galore. The accommodating of such hardware produced a rather spindly conglomeration. It took some experimenting to capture the essence in Lego, but it possesses a lot of charm. The real probes were designed for outer space, so it never needed to defy gravity like this model, hence the need for part two: The Stand.

Stands: Stands are dumb. They're boring to build, but regrettably necessary in this case. Here I've disguised it as a fun Record Diorama, celebrating the host of people who pulled off this fantastic endeavor. Humanity rode on the shoulders of greatness, so I thought it fitting to honor a few here. The first is Gary Flandro. His was the genius behind the Voyager flight paths, taking advantage of the roughly once-every-175 yr. opportunity to fly by all the outer planets, gaining speed at each. And what good was taking the Grand Tour without people do some science? One such person was Carolyn Porco. While the world (understandably) gawked over our first close-up pictures, she dug into the data. There were many discoveries, like new moons and rings and oceans. Some of those finds spawned further missions, like Cassini. And when the last planet was passed, there was still more to do. Possessing ludicrous speed, the Voyager probes were to become the first man-made objects to leave our solar system. There's science enough in that, but Carl Sagan thought of one additional mission. This was our first venture into interstellar space. What would our first step presage? Would it be sterile? Would it be hostile? As fate had it, it was a simple yet profound "hello". Carl's team orchestrated the addiction of two gold plated records to hitch rides outbound. On them was etched the sights and sounds of our earth, its people and places, and as many greetings as could be fit. While it's an entertaining thought to imagine what might become of the records should they defy all odds and find intelligent life, it's maybe just as interesting what the records say about us to ourselves.

Thanks for sticking through to the end of this. I'm sure the build pictures were much more fun to look at. You deserve a hi-five -insert high-five slap sound- . If you like Voyager or NASA sets, don't hesitate to give this a thumbs up. Votes are free after all. Either way, thanks again for stopping by. Who knows, if this gets enough votes, maybe we'd have this set available for Voyager's 50th Anniversary!

Happy building,

Bics