Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
The Voyager spacecraft are the third and fourth human artifacts to escape entirely fromthe solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager in outstripping thegravitational attraction of the Sun, both carried small metal plaques identifying theirtime and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them inthe distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious messageaboard Voyager I and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of ourworld to extraterrestrials.
The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper diskcontaining sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture onEarth. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by CarlSagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and avariety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales,and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras,and spoken greetings from Earth-people in 55 languages, and printed messages fromPresident Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim.
Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge andneedle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft andindicate how the record is to be played; The 115 images are encoded in analog form. Theremainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions persecond. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken inSumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect.Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 95 minute selection ofmusic, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music.
Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both were beyond the orbitof Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space. It will be forty thousand yearsbefore they come within a light year of a star, called AC + 79 3888, and millions of yearsbefore either might make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan hasnoted, "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there areadvanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottleinto the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."
In my view, the Voyager artifacts will eventually be recovered by aninterstellar spacefaring civilization - us. In several centuries, when our travels havetaken us far beyond the Voyagers, we will recover them and put them in the Smithsonian orits remote descendant. Or maybe we will allow them to travel on and humans with ahistorical interest will go visit them like we now visit Independence Hall or theAcropolis.
| Sumerian | Cantonese | Spanish | Hindi | Turkish | Armenian | Marathi |
| Swedish | Kannada | Akkadian | Russian | Indonesian | Vietnamese | Nyanja |
| Welsh | Polish | Ukrainian | Telugu | Thai | Hittite | Korean |
| Kechua | Sinhalese | Italian | Netali | Persian | Oriya | Punjabi |
| Hebrew | Arabic | Dutch | Greek | Nguni | Mandarin | Urdu |
| English | French | Bengali | Japanese | Wu | Ila (Zambia) | Burmese |
| Amoy (Min dialect) | Portuguese | Rajasthani | Serbian | Hungarian | Aramaic | Czech |
| Roumanian | German | Latin | Sotho | Gujorati | Luganda |
| Whales | Birds | Laughter | Riveter | Tractor |
| Kiss | Planets (music) | Hyena | Fire | Morse code |
| Volcanoes | Elephant | Tools | Truck | Baby |
| Ships | Auto gears | Life signs-EEG, EKG | Mud pots | Chimpanzee |
| Dogs. domestic | Horse and cart | Jet | Rain | Wild dog |
| Herding sheep | Horse and carriage | Lift-off of Saturn 5 rocket | Pulsar | Surf |
| Footsteps and heartbeats | Blacksmith shop | Train whistle | Crickets, frogs | Sawing |
| Calibration circle | Solar location map | Mathematical definitions |
| Physical unit definitions | Solar system parameters | The Sun |
| Solar spectrum | Mercury | Mars |
| Jupiter | Earth | Space view of Egypt, Red Sea, Sinai Peninsula and the Nile |
| Chemical definitions | DNA structure | DNA structure magnified |
| Cells and cell division | Anatomy (eight) | Human sex organs |
| Diagram of conception | Conception | Fertilized ovum |
| Fetus diagram | Fetus | Diagram of male and female |
| Birth | Nursing mother | Father and daughter (Malaysia) |
| Group of children | Diagram of family ages | Family portrait |
| Diagram of continental drift | Structure of Earth | Heron Island (Great Barrier Reef of Australia) |
| Seashore | Snake River and Grand Tetons | Sand dunes |
| Monument Valley | Forest scene with mushrooms | Leaf |
| Fallen leaves | Sequoia | Snowflake |
| Tree with daffodils | Flying insect with flowers | Diagram of vertebrate evolution |
| Seashell (Xancidae) | Dolphins | School of fish |
| Tree toad | Crocodile | Eagle |
| Waterhold | Jane Goodall and chimps | Sketch of Bushmen |
| Bushmen hunters | Man from Guatemala | Dancer from Bali |
| Andean girls | Thailand craftsman | Elephant |
| Old man with beard and glasses (Turkey) | Old man with dog and flowers | Mountain climber |
| Cathy Rigby | Sprinters | Schoolroom |
| Children with globe | Cotton harvest | Grape picker |
| Supermarket | Underwater scene with diver and fish | Fishing boat with nets |
| Cooking fish | Chinese dinner party | Demonstration of licking, eating and drinking |
| Great Wall of China | House construction (African) | Construction scene (Amish country) |
| House (Africa) | House (New England) | Modern house (Cloudcroft, New Mexico |
| House interior with artist and fire | Taj Mahal | English city (Oxford) |
| Boston | UN Building, day | UN Building, night |
| Sydney Opera House | Artisan with drill | Factory interior |
| Museum | X-ray of hand | Woman with microscope |
| Street scene, Asia (Pakistan) | Rush hour traffic, India | Modern highway (Ithaca) |
| Golden Gate Bridge | Train | Airplane in flight |
| Airport (Toronto) | Antarctic expedition | Radio telescope (Westerbork, Netherlands) |
| Radio telescope (Arecibo) | Page of book (Newton, System of the World) | Astronaut in space |
| Titan Centaur launch | Sunset with birds | String quartet (Quartetto Italiano) |
| Violin with music score (Cavatina) |
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Created 8 April 1998, Last Update 15 January 2020