These are the Voyages...

Courtesy of NASA

I am happy to announce that humanity has finally done it! We have finally reached interstellar space... well sort of... As of September 12, 2013, The Voyager 1 spacecraft, (which I have written on before,) has passed beyond the determined line that marks the end of our solar system. Currently this little piece of 1977 technology is being bombarded by particles that were created in stars other than our own, and its still transmitting data back to Earth. It's still functioning! (It just goes to show that they don't make them like they used to back in 1977... George Lucas can attest to that.)

What boggles and saddens me, is that this isn't bigger news. Everyone is too wrapped up in the Emmy's, or how Obamacare will collapse Western society, or even wondering what next inanimate object Miley Cyrus is going to twerk up against, to care about this monumental moment for our species. We have sent a piece of technology, a man-made craft that has one thousand percent less memory than a standard smartphone, beyond the limits of our solar system. Right now Voyager is 18.7 billion kilometers (or 11.6 billion miles for the Americans of the world.) It is traveling at a rate of 38,120 mph. That means that at present it takes almost 17 hours for the light from the sun to reach Voyager 1, but why care about that because, "Look Justin 'King Joffrey' Beiber is holding something."

I can only hope that one day we will look back at this moment and realize its importance in retrospect. I know it is not as exciting as Armstrong on the moon, or when we sent the cast of Jersey Shore to Mars, ("What we haven't done that yet?") but sometimes the biggest history is created by the quiet moments. I can only hope that one day when my ancestors walk through the museum of the future they will stop and marvel at the Voyager spacecraft, recovered by humanity from its long journey, (as opposed to it returning to us on its own as an alien entity that has the hots for the dad from 7th Heaven,) and marvel at how much was accomplished with so little. Perhaps, then Voyager will finally hang in its place of honor both on a wall and in our hearts, (right next to that signed photo of Senator Kardashian.)
 

To learn more check out NASA's page on the Voyager Intersteller Space Mission.