It’s Official! On December 10, 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 entered interstellar space, beyond the bounds of our Solar System. The space probe was launched on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets.
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited all four gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — and discovered 16 moons, as well as phenomena like Neptune’s mysteriously transient Great Dark Spot, the cracks in Europa’s ice shell, and ring features at every planet.
How does this important milestone relate to Science Fiction?
According to MEMORY ALPHA for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the fictional Voyager 6 probe around which V’ger was built — was actually a full-scale mock-up of the real world Voyager 1 and 2 probes from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories.
How cool is that?
And now…Voyager 2 has gone “where no man has gone before”.
Theorizing as to why the probe had returned to Earth, Spock said, “V’ger must evolve. Its knowledge has reached the limits of this universe…and what it requires…is the answer to its question, ‘Is there nothing more?'”
“What more is there than the universe?” McCoy asked.
“Other dimensions,” Decker replied, “Higher levels of being.”
“The existence of which cannot be proven logically,” said Spock.
“What it needs in order to evolve…” said Kirk, “is a human quality. Our capacity to leap beyond logic.”
Science cannot answer every question. When seeking answers about “otherworldly” visitors coming to Earth, we must take into account the wealth of human experience. Good, reliable people from every walk of life have been telling us for decades about remarkable encounters across the globe. Competent researchers like Budd Hopkins, John Mack and David Jacobs have documented the phenomenon of Alien abduction, attempting to unravel its meaning and purpose.
The “truth” can be a hard thing to accept. Especially when “official” sources like the government and newsmedia try to manipulate public opinion, convincing many to reject it.
It is much easier to accept the Lies, because they tell us what we want to hear. The concept of “world acquisition” as presented by Jacobs is indeed frightening…carefully disguised so as not to trigger alarm. It becomes a lot more difficult to fend off “invaders” who merge themselves with the human race slowly over time. The history of mankind is replete with examples of “foreigners” from one culture invading another–rejected violently at first, but eventually accepted as part of the norm.
In almost every case, the greatest obstacle we face is FEAR; Fear of Strangers with “strange ways”, Fear of any “worldview” that does not jive with our own, Fear of discovery that our assumptions about “them” are wrong–all aspects of the same fear–Fear of the Unknown.
The human race is still evolving. Every time cultures long separated begin to merge, it represents another step in our evolution. This process may be bigger than we think, extending beyond the Earth, to other planets across the universe. What if Extraterrestrial visitation and migration is all part of it?
To accept that kind of change requires courage, and a willingness to go beyond Fear–to embrace a new kind of reality. The ET’s are not just coming. They’re already here. They’ve been here for a very long time.