Our Voyagers allow us to broaden the definition of what it means to be human
Forty years ago, NASA launched to explore the outer solar system. The twin spacecraft both visited Jupiter and Saturn; from there Voyager I explored the hazy moon Titan, while Voyager II became the first (and, to date, only) probe to explore Uranus and Neptune. Since they move too quickly and have too little propellant to stop themselves, both spacecraft are now on what NASA calls their, exploring the space between the stars as they head out into the galaxy. Both craft carry: 12-inch phonographic gold-plated copper records, along with needles and cartridges, all designed to last indefinitely in interstellar space. Inscribed on the records’ covers are instructions for their use and a sort of “map” designed to describe the Earth’s location in the galaxy in a way that extraterrestrials might understand. The grooves of the records record both ordinary. A team led by astronomer Carl Sagan selected the contents, chosen to embody a message representative of all of humanity. They settled on elements such as audio, the brain waves of “a young woman in love” (actually the project’s creative director Ann Druyan, days after) , a wide-ranging selection of from to, from around the world, including Saan Hunters, city traffic and a nursing mother and child Since we still have not detected any alien life, we cannot know to what degree the records would be properly interpreted. Researchers still debate what. For instance, should they include a star map identifying Earth? Should we focus on ourselves, or all life on Earth? Should we present ourselves as we are, or as comics artist Jack Kirby would have had it, as “the with which we’ ve clothed ourselves since time immemorial”? But the records serve a broader purpose than spreading the word that we’ re here on our blue marble. After all, given the vast distances between the stars, it’s not realistic to expect an answer to these messages within many human lifetimes. So why send them and does their content even matter? Referring to earlier, similar efforts with the, Carl Sagan, “the greater significance of is not as a message to out there; it is as a message to back here.” The real audience of these kinds of messages is not ET, but humanity. In this light, 40 years’ hindsight shows the experiment to be quite a success, as they continue to inspire research and reflection.
