"Resolution on Saturn" A CLASSIC "NOVA" Science Special

mrrsm

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Back in the 1980’s ...years before the arrival of the Desktop Computer and The Internet and The I-Phone... the average size of the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT-TV) Televisions we watched the Three Major Stations on was under a single Square Foot. Many of the shows displayed on the VHF and UHF Channels were limited and one particular channel was dedicated for Public Television. Back then... their programming was funded as Commercial Free TV partially paid for by Federal Taxes at a time in our nation when Art, Literature and Science were put up on a Public Pedestal that was being provided to us as the means to feed and stimulate the minds and imaginations of ALL Americans. In those days... the FCC protected the airways from the private ownership of the Big Communication Conglomerates and held the standard that these radiant energies and communication frequencies would be used “For the Public Good”.

WGBH-TV Boston had programs called “NOVA”... and of course Carl Sagan’s “COSMOS” shows that are now a very familiar face on most Public TV channels, had very inauspicious beginnings and were very catalytic in gaining support for the kinds of obscure High Science ordinarily only accessible to Graduate Science Students. But sadly... in the present day... not one nickel of Federal Tax money is ever spent on such programming and it is only made possible by grants from Major Corporations, Private Benefactors making Large Donations and from the general population of Americans willing to reach into their pockets and shell out a few modest dollars for their cause.

The attached video is a very rare “NOVA” called “Resolution on Saturn”... that has been salvaged from an old VHS Tape of the TV Program...and yet...it is an outstanding example of what happened when the knowledge and solution of “The Three Body Problem...” mathematical dilemma in celestial mechanics finally occurred. The solution raised the questions about whether the investigation of the Outer Solar System would ever be possible if the serendipitous ‘once in every 176 years’ alignment of the Major Planets on one side of the Sun in the ecliptic plane. If so, this could be used to accelerate two tiny Voyager Spacecraft on a “Grand Tour” of the Outer Planets and show Earthbound Human Beings dazzling close-up images that would otherwise be impossible to resolve.

What is particularly poignant and gripping about this video are the few places during the production where music from Wagner’s Opera “The Ring of the Neibelung” and “Gotterdammerung” are woven into the views of indescribable Planetary Motion and Beauty... and even when viewed on a low definition screen way back then... that powerful and melancholy music along with the views of Jupiter and Saturn... was breathtaking. So Please ... be patient with some low quality issues... and enjoy this thought provoking, well narrated program:

PS.... Since being launched back in 1977.... The two Voyager Spacecraft are now still dormant but alive... and one of them has finally left our Solar System entirely and is hurtling along at 35,000 MPH out into Interstellar Space towards its next encounter with the nearest star...


...and here is an updated video on the Voyager Spacecraft:

 
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