Voyager's Alien Message (Gold Disk)

The Voyager craft carried with it a message from earth, addressed to any alien civilisation it may encounter.


Very good image:


antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...


solarsystem.nasa.gov...

It sure did. Makes you wonder exactly what the gov't hoped to find on the moons of Jupiter....or am I thinking of the wrong program again? Even so, I'm not so sure it was a great Idea, being that Voyager isn't likely to be discovered by a race of intelligents near pluto, is it?

I'm certain that on the back of the disk, it says something like

"Did we really have to send this when you're already coming here?"

or

"The CIA made us do it."


[Edited on 20-9-2003 by heelstone]

Probably it said "Unauthorized use, rebroadcast or dissemination of this disc in any form is strictly forbidden under penalty of the fbi!"

You guys should read Murmurs of Earth by Carl Sagan. It describes not only why each image, message, and sound on that disk was chosen, but also how they were transcribed on it. It's a very interesting read, as it, more or less, is kind of a shorthand description of the human race. Look for it a library/used bookstore.

It was a good idea and a lot of thought went into it.

But was it enough?

I mean what is a really advanced culture found it?

Would they think we were idiots?

They should have put this videos in there of some great TV shows or something?

Exactly. I dont think they would know what the picture actually meant (if there are ETs) because they may not even have the same logic or thinking processes as us.

I think I know what Im trying to say.

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Explanation: Launched twenty-five years ago, NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are now over 10 billion kilometers from the Sun. Still operational, the Voyagers are being tracked and commanded through the Deep Space Network. Having traveled beyond the outer planets, these remarkable spacecraft are only the third and fourth human built artifacts to escape our solar system, following in the footsteps of Pioneer 10 and 11. A 12-inch gold plated copper disk containing recorded sounds and images representing human cultures and life on Earth, is affixed to each Voyager - a message in a bottle cast into the cosmic sea. The recorded material was selected by a committee chaired by the late Carl Sagan. Simple diagrams on the cover (visible above) represent symbolically the spacecraft's origin and give instructions for playing the disk. The exotic construction of the disks should provide them with a long lifetime as they coast through interstellar space. The two spacecraft will not make a close approach to another planetary system for at least 40,000 years.

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Why must all aliens be uber smart?

I know they must have what they consider idiots in their society... unless they have a hive mind.


What if a "reject" of their race found it first? :p



"yeah, you push it"

It's not the first spacecraft to carry one.
I believe one of the early Pioneers (the one that has left our Solar System) carried a similar message aboard.
In addition to the design on the Voyager it also carried a picture of a naked man and woman. There was some controversy over the situation of their hands because the designers showed them as being raised and some were worried that any aliens might see this as an aggressive gesture.

Incidentally, the thing that looks like a load of lines emenating from a central point is actually a quasar map. It pinpoints Earth's position and let's any alien know exactly where we are in the universe.

Let's just hope whoever finds it is friendly!!!

THENEA and deltanine,
Read the book I mentioned. It's explains how they selected photos and abstract symbols on their probability for 'translation' or cognitive apprehension. They also didn't just toss in photos without standards to reference them by... Included were mathematical 'keys' that they could decipher and, thereby, understand some of the measurements depicted in the photos.

Lysergic,
They didn't assume all aliens were smart. They just assumed that aliens that could intercept a spacecraft going hundreds of thousands of miles an hour were smart.

And, again, it should be emphasized that the 'photos' are encoded on the gold disk themselves, much as graphics for your video games are put 'in' a CD-Rom. The Voyagers have such discs, but the Pioneers only have plaques.

Do any of you remember the episode of Star Trek Voyager when they had to pick up some thing close to this gold disc but it was the size of a small ship. It turned out to be on a palent and the whole planet was destroyed. The civilization that lived there blamed Captain Janeway for the destruction of there planet. What if this gold disx may some how cause the destruction of a planet? well its eco system.

Interesting. I those gold discs are pretty neat. I did not really know much about them until I did a report on voyager.

onlyinmydreams.



I think that Carl Sagan was a visionary he died much too young.

We should have done a better job portraying human values and culture.

We sent the probe out hoping that an advanced culture would find it and not a less advanced one.

By just focusing on science we sold ourselves short I think.

Mind you we could catch the attention of a group of parasites that would come here to take advantage of us, not that a good portion of humanity is not that way now.

Voyager isn't going to be seen, because aliens aren't real!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J/K they ARE????????????????????

and Pizza isn't really good for you either...

The Sounds of Earth

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On the chance that someone is out there, NASA approved the placement of a phonograph record on each of the Voyager spacecraft.


The recording, called "Sounds of Earth" fits on a 12-inch, copper disc containing greetings from Earth people in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural sounds of surf, wind and thunder, and birds, whales and other animals.

The record also contains electronic information that an advanced technological civilization could convert into diagrams, pictures and printed words, including a message from President Carter. (Courtesy NASA)



Large Image Of Voyager Craft:

www.solarviews.com...