The "golden record" on the Voyager space probe...

[antiquark]

I thought this was neat. It's a slide show of all the images placed on Voyager space probe. The idea is that aliens will find the probe in a million years, look at the pics, and say, "nice people these humans, lets go conquer them!" 🙂

http://goldenrecord.org/

Actually what surprised me was that I recognized a few of the photographers who took the pics. In particular:

- David (Allen?) Harvey (two shots)
- William Albert Allard
- Ansel Adams (two shots)

The probes were launched in 1977, which gives an idea of the era. It's quaint how the slide show makes a big deal of air travel... now it's a tedious chore! I bet many of those shots were taken with Leicas.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

 

[andersju]

Thanks for the link! Reading about these things is always mind-boggling for me:

"Operating for 33 years, 5 months, and 8 days, the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. It was the first probe to leave Solar System and is the farthest human-made object from Earth." ... "It is estimated that both Voyager craft have sufficient electrical power to operate their radio transmitters until at least 2025, which will be over 48 years after launch." ... "As of February 10th, 2011, Voyager 1 was about 116.133AU (17.242 billion km, or 10.788 billion miles) or about 0.00183 of a light-year from the Sun. Radio signals traveling at the speed of light between Voyager 1 and Earth take 16.14 hours to cross the distance between the two."

Pioneer 10 is also out there somewhere:

"Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 carry a gold-anodized aluminium plaque in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems." ... "On January 23, 2003, the last, very weak signal from Pioneer 10 was received when it was 12 billion-kilometers (80 AU) from Earth." ... "Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus at approximately 2.6 AU per year. If Aldebaran had zero relative velocity, it would take Pioneer 10 approximately 2 million years to reach the star."

We're pretty small on this pale blue dot eh?! 🙂

 

[Ken Smith]

The probes were launched in 1977, which gives an idea of the era. It's quaint how the slide show makes a big deal of air travel... now it's a tedious chore! I bet many of those shots were taken with Leicas.

You have to realize that in the 70's, air travel really became a thing for the general public and transitioned to something not just for business travel or the rich. You were also fed on the flight. The decade when the 747 became operational and the world got smaller travel wise. The Voyager launch was also a big thing and like the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo launches before it - was televised in most school classrooms. What you gotta realize - we were still hyped from the success of the Apollo program and putting men on the moon. It was time when Americans still had the urge to explore something else besides what's on the next channel and we still had a sense of Manifest Destiny. And yes - some photos were probably taken with a Leica - more importantly with film. If you said you had a camera - no one asked if it was film. It was the year my Dad brought me a Yashica GSN home from a busness trip to Japan.

The 70's - been there - done that - minus the Disco scene. Rock'n Roll all the way Man!

By the way - thanks for the link. Several weeks ago our daughters mentioned something silly (to them) about a record being sent into space. I was able to show them what was on the record.

 

[Trooper]

"Operating for 33 years, 5 months, and 8 days

While dealing with space debris and radiation without any ongoing maintenance...

...and yet the Superdive on my 2 year-old Macbook just crapped out.

 

[Ken Smith]

...and the Superdive on my 2 year-old Macbook just crapped out.

There was a time when things were made to last a lifetime - and they were built with pride. Now they're made to hopefully outlast the 90 day to 1 year warranty. The tax payers got their money's worth out of the Voyager program - and some.