THE GOLDEN RECORDS OF HUMANITY Elfreda Harvey (LVI

On 5 September 1977, NASA launched two spacecrafts – Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 – on a planetary grand tour. Their purpose was to study our neighbouring planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, yet their initial plan was only to fly to Jupiter and Saturn.

The mission was time-critical as they were assisted by the gravitational pull of the planets which were in the optimal layout in our solar system. With the planets aligned, which only takes place roughly once every 175 years, the planets’ gravitational pulls would act as a slingshot, allowing the spacecraft to gain orbital speed, covering a much greater distance. Consequently, the crafts did not require as much fuel which meant they could carry more scientific instruments.

To this day, the two voyagers are the farthest human-made objects to have travelled from Earth. Voyager 1 was the first to reach interstellar space and scientists believe that it will reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud in 300 years. Voyager 1 is about 23.29 billion km (14.47 billion miles) away from Earth and travelling at 61,030 km/h (37,922 mph).

Since their launch, the Voyagers have sent home some of the most breath-taking images of our planetary neighbours. This includes the famous pale blue dot image in which Earth is barely a pixel against the stellar glow of the sun. The spacecraft are equipped with instruments to measure cosmic rays, plasma waves, magnetic fields and other data.

Four decades after their launch, the Voyagers still communicate with us, breaking the initial prediction of the mission only lasting five years. However, due to its incredibly immense distance from Earth, radio signals take more than fifteen hours to reach Earth.

Such longevity comes at a cost, the cameras onboard the space crafts have been turned off and less than half of the instruments are still functioning. Those working are being continuously reprogrammed to extend their performance, but NASA expects radio communications to cease completely by 2025. By then, the instruments will fail to produce sufficient heat to keep them at a stable temperature against the extremes of outer space. The machines will become too cold and the signals too weak, so everything will gradually stop working.

The Voyager missions were unique in their ambition and scale yet one can realise that similar missions as grand as these have been made in the past. For example, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, launched in 1973, paved the way for the Voyager missions. Yet, what made the Voyager mission even more special was a record placed onboard the spacecrafts. The record, designed by Carl Sagan, Frank Drake and Linda Salzman, was made to expand the human sphere, make contact with extra-terrestrials and welcome a new partnership with mankind.

The record is made of a phonograph record which at the time was the most advanced method of coding. Although these only had a runtime of 30 minutes, it felt impossible for the creators to represent humanity in only that short amount of time. Luckily, solutions were engineered, and the phonograph was able to have a runtime of 90 minutes.

With what we know, we don’t share the same languages with our interstellar friends, nor life experiences. Yet, what we can share are facts of reality, from physics, chemistry, and mathematics. These became the guiding principles of the record.

After including these on the cover of the record [1], Sagan’s team contemplated the fact that however small the chance of the record being found by extra-terrestrials, guiding principles shouldn’t be all they should know about us. The team at NASA, agreed with their point and came up with the idea of adding music, language and photos to the record – creating something like humanity’s very own mix tape.

At every step in creating the record, the team wanted to make sure that its contents were as representative of Earth’s population as possible. Music was a key element as it seemed to be a credible attempt to convey human emotions. The record contains music from Bach and Beethoven, which were chosen to highlight the mathematical properties of music. It also included music from ancient China, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Congo and Peru, reflecting the diversity of music on our planet.

The record also included an audio essay, with sounds from volcanoes, thunder and other natural phenomena, ending with more modern creations, such as a rocket lift-off, which tell the story of our civilisation chronologically by sound. It also includes greetings from 55 different languages and includes the famous line from Carl Sagan’s son, Nick, ‘Hello from the children of planet Earth’.

Photos were also a way to show the meaning of our humanity [2]. 115 images, encoded in analogue form, are all arbitrary images with some describing constants and others demonstrating the scale of things. Some may seem completely irrelevant, such as the photo above, which captures the subtle mischief and joy of doing something you should not. It is hoped that those looking at them find meaning in them as they provide a space for exploration into the human psyche.

Although the record captures some of the most beautiful aspects about our life on this planet, the record also captures less beautiful ones. For example, Sagan wanted greetings from UN delegates, but realised almost all were men. NASA refused to include images of explosions as they feared they may be perceived as hostile and offensive. The team offered to include a picture of a nude couple to show a critical aspect of human lives – reproduction. NASA turned that down as they feared a negative public reaction, so a silhouette was used.

The record is a gold-plated copper disc, protected by an electroplated aluminium cover which should last a billion years. This will be at that time when the Sun will have expanded to the point where it engulfs our planet and destroys life on Earth. The record would then be the last evidence of our humanity.

If the record had been made today, it would have higher definition images and more storage, so could have included much more content. Yet limitations in the 1970s may have had advantages. The restriction to 90 minutes and 115 images meant they had to carefully select every pixel and syllable used.

We may never know when the endlessly drifting Voyager spacecrafts are encountered by an extra-terrestrial civilization. One can see the Golden Record as a gift from humanity to the cosmos. Some may also see it as a gift to humanity, embodying a sense of possibility and hope which is as relevant now as it was in 1977. The Voyager Interstellar Record is a reminder of what we can achieve when we are at our best and an example that our future really is up to all of us.

You can follow the Voyagers live on the NASA website using this link: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ mission/status/

You can also see what music, images, sounds and greetings were used on the record using this link: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whatson-the-record/