It's Quieter in the Twilight

This is a documentary about the last few engineers working to keep the Voyager program going. There has over a thousand people working on the program over the fifty years since their launches. It has been ground breaking, awe-inspiring, and garnered world-wide attention. It's 2018 when they crossed the heliopause. Now, there are less than a dozen long-timers in a non-descript office trying to keep the mission going. It takes Voyager 1 approximately 20 hours to transmit back to Earth and power is draining. The team has to turn off various instruments to save the last bit of juice. These are the last sentinels standing guard on the wall.

Billy Miossi's documentary It's Quieter in the Twilight is the true story about the hero scientists who quietly keep the machine running deep into both their inescapable twilights.

It's Quieter in the Twilight is the Voyager team's story more so that the Voyager probes, although Voyager 1 and 2 both get their share of the spotlight. Miossi captures their mundane office space; an HQ with drop ceiling tiles and wood paneled conference rooms and a cubicle filled with discarded monitors and out-of-toner printers that exist in every office worldwide. Simultaneously, he unabashedly honors the workers within, most of whom are in their seventies. Along with respecting their vitality one must celebrate their diversity. The command team consists of a Korean woman, a Black man from Mississippi, and two South American Latinos. Truly, this is the best of the best the world has to offer and they deserve every accolade.

This is more than a celebration of nerd advancement. This is a commemoration of human achievement. Of perseverance in a task where a lucky few have found a reason to get up every day - even during the complex era of the pandemic. A team that gets to see what is happening out there, right now, in that Final Frontier. Their story is a remarkable one. And, to borrow another phrase, their adventure continues.

It's Quieter in the Twilight is an important and fascinating documentary, in two ways.

First, it's a look at what happens to a scientific program after the glory days have passed. It's a reminder of how awesome Voyagers 1 and 2 have been - and how they are now even more awesome as they've become the furthest man-made objects in the universe, by an incomprehensibly vast margin. It's an acknowledgement that these probes, primitive by today's standards, are still sending back priceless data, after decades hurtling through space. And it's a jaw-dropping reminder that these little craft are still responding to commands from Earth - in a sense a human presence, traveling a long way beyond the furthest planet in our Solar System, even beyond the limits of the Solar System itself.

Second, this film gives us a feeling for the kind of individuals who take on this kind of responsibility. Managing these two ageing yet priceless spacecraft does not bring accolades, and yet it's difficult, demanding work. The people involved today have been with the Voyager program almost since the very start. They've dedicated their lives to this one mission, both when it was in the media spotlight - during fly-bys of the outer planets - and today, when there are no obvious moments of glory.

It's Quieter in the Twilight does a great job of letting us get to know the latter-day Voyager team. It's a rare celebration of how great deeds are often accomplished not by single heroic acts, but by the dedicated effort of regular people over a long period of time.

Anyone who feels excited and inspired by space exploration should see this documentary. It's absolutely one of the best.