1977:
Voyager Record Cover
"The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But … the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet."
Voyager 1 and 2 were the third and fourth human artifacts to leave the solar system and encounter interstellar space. Pioneers 10 and 11 had done so previously, carrying small metal plaques identifying their place of origin for the benefit of any extraterrestrials who might encounter them in the distant future. For the Voyager missions, NASA built on the Pioneer 10 and 11 experiences and decided to affix a "time capsule" to the exterior of the two spacecraft. The purpose: to communicate with life beyond Earth.
The result was the Voyager Sounds of Earth record, a 1970s-era analogue disk. The brainchild of Cornell University astrophysicist Carl Sagan, the record contained sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. U.S. President Jimmy Carter recorded greetings to this life beyond, evocatively commenting, "This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours."
A gold-plated aluminum cover protected the Sounds of Earth disk, each Voyager spacecraft carrying an identical set. The cover featured etchings providing instructions for playing the recording. Secured in plain view, on the outside of the spacecraft, the cover and record came complete with a stylus cartridge for playing the disk. Sagan believed that barring a major collision with something else, the spacecraft and record should last for as long as a billion years. The record itself consisted of two 12-inch gold-plated copper disks, bonded back to back. The side that faced toward the spacecraft contained 122 images, as well as human greetings in 55 languages, various sounds of Earth, and music selections. The outer side consisted entirely of music. Sagan, who led the committee that decided what to include on the disk, sought to represent the broad range of the human experience. The spoken greetings included Akkadian (spoken in Sumer about 6,000 years ago) and Wu, a modern Chinese dialect, as well as many other current languages. The music included an eclectic 90-minute musical program, in which Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode" and Mozart's "Magic Flute" vied with a Zairian Pygmy girls' initiation song, a shakuhachi piece from Japan, and "Dark Was the Night," written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson.
The Voyager record captured the imagination of Americans. It represented a message in a bottle cast into the cosmic ocean, and speculation abounded about the possibilities of contact with life beyond this planet. The 1979 feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture reflected the public's heightened interest in worlds beyond our own. In this film, a massive and menacing spacecraft known as V'ger returns to Earth. As the plot unfolds, the crew of the USS Enterprise defeat V'ger, which turns out to be a damaged Voyager spacecraft, seeking its origins, that is led back to Earth by the Voyager record. In addition, the 1984 film Starman featured an alien visiting Earth, invited here by the Voyager record. The potential for alien contact via the Voyager record is remote, but remains a tantalizing possibility.
The Voyager record in the Museum's collection transferred from NASA in 1978.
After Sputnik is a testament to the unique story-telling power of the "real stuff." New, richly detailed photography of each artifact and "behind-the-scenes" essays reveal the many ways in which space became part of the fabric of our lives.
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