![]() The inscriptions feature the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that were designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. Now mostly referred to as the Pioneer Plaque, a small gold-anodised aluminium plate was mounted on each spacecraft. Who are we? What do we have in common? What is life on Earth like? The Interstellar Artefacts What methods, channels to use? Secondly, an equally important question, namely to describe what human life is like. Firstly, how to represent our lifeforms to other imagined lifeforms, separated from us by time, space and biological and cultural factors beyond our imagination. Together with the technological challenges, many questions arise. ![]() Beyond any doubt, the scientific team in charge of message development led by Carl Sagan embarked on a challenging endeavour. Alike in form, yet different in the volume of information provided, the task of these metal artefacts is to inform the receiver about the creators of the spacecraft. ![]() In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first manmade object to have entered interstellar space.Īnother thing makes those two space missions special: the messages mounted on the exterior of both Pioneers and Voyagers ( Figure 2 and Figure 3). The Pioneer and Voyager missions hold important positions in space exploration and together with science data delivered, they made many historic firsts such as the first Jupiter flyby (1973, Pioneer 10), the first Saturn flyby (1979, Pioneer 11), the first photograph of the whole Solar System (1990, Voyager 1), the famous Pale Blue Dot photo on which the earth appears as a bright pixel (1990, Voyager 1). Heading for the Aldebaran, in Taurus (The Bull) constellation, NASA estimates it will take Pioneer 10 over 2 million years to reach it 2 The Voyagers were launched in 1977 with the primary mission objective to “extend the NASA exploration of the Solar System beyond the neighbourhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun’s sphere of influence, and possibly beyond.” 1 Until 1998, when the Voyager two that travels at higher speed got ahead, Pioneer 10 held the primacy in being the most distant spacecraft from earth. After successful exploration of the Jovian system, the Pioneers continued their journey to Saturn, Uranus and beyond, into deep space. Its twin, Pioneer 11, followed 1 year later. In 1972, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Pioneer 10 spacecraft on its mission to Jupiter, as NASA’s first mission to the outer planets. Among the first methods that were used was to send a message using either vehicles used for travelling in space or to transmit a signal via radio telescope. Are we alone? Is there other life out there? If yes, what is it like? Is it humanoid? With the advent of the Space Age, era beginning in the form of the first space travel in 1957 (Sputnik 1) and the concurrent advancements in space technologies, it became more plausible for scientists to take on the age-old question and attempt to actively search for life beyond our planet. Human fascination with, and curiosity about, the yet unanswered question about whether we are the only life forms and the only intelligent species in the Universe has been puzzling generations of thinkers, scientists, and writers. The Pioneering Missions of the Pioneer and Voyager Probes ![]() The overview includes the visual and audio part of the Voyager message and is focused around the questions for what types of information were included, what methods were used to communicate the information and how were humans introduced to the unknown receiver. ![]() After a description of the two famous American interstellar messages, this article gives a basic introduction to their contents using some of the photographs available in the public domain. Having left the boundaries of the Solar System and moving through interstellar space, the space probes still carry messages with information about their makers and their era. National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA). This article gives a brief overview of how human life is represented on the 1972 Pioneer Pioneer 11 plaques and on the 1977 Voyager 1 and 2 Golden Records, sent on their journeys to deep space by the U.S. 2The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.1Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom. ![]()
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