Talk:Voyager Golden Record
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I have now inverted the image of the disc so that it matches the diagram below. - Lee M 14:21, 28 Sep 2003 (UTC)
The replacement image was in turn replaced by a thumbnail that linked to a bigger image - but upside down once more. I took the right-side-up version, created a new thumbnail from it and replaced the previous versions with them. Phew. So now everything matches the diagram, although it would be better to have a full-size picture of the record adjacent to the full-size diagram, or alternatively to superimpose the diagram key onto the full-size image. Lee M 23:24, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Are the captions for the images of the record and its cover swapped? - Arteitle 10:26, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)
I decided that they were, and fixed them. - Arteitle 17:26, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Radioactivity?
Since there is a uranium lining on the record, does this mean it is radioactive and could be harmful for use? Let's say a human were to find the record and touch it and such, would they suffer from radiation poisoning? 76.116.109.221 (talk) 23:16, 20 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Copyright Reasons?
Originally based on public domain text from the NASA Website (http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html), where selected images and sounds from the record can be found. Much of the Voyager records, however, is only available in compiled form to extraterrestrials for copyright reasons.
What does this mean? Gaurav 15:13, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)
A weak joke, one assumes? Richard W.M. Jones 18:35, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- From the NASA Voyager website FAQ section: [1] Jonathunder 15:33, 2004 Dec 6 (UTC)
Carl Sagan and his colleagues did the assemblage of the information on the Voyager Golden Phonograph Record. Most of the material they used was copyrighted by the creators/owners and Sagan had to get copyright releases in order to assemble the original record. Subsequently, Warner Multimedia was able to obtain copyright releases for the 1992 version of "Murmurs of Earth", by Carl Sagan, et al and included all the sounds and songs on the CDROM set that accompanied the Warner New Media release of the book. We have included on the Voyager web site (http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov) only that information for which we were able to get release, that's why everything, especially the music and the photos, is not there. Unfortunately, the book and CDROM are no longer being published....
I don't think government property/documents can be copyrighted Dudtz 9/8/05 6:26 PM EST
I'm not sure of the truth or falsehood of that statement, but it doesn't matter - the contents of the record aren't government property, they're the property of many many people being used by the government with permission.
- I think there's copyrighted material in this article. See http://re-lab.net/welcome/ for the original text. I think the text about the languages is taken over. --U:Dgb 18:14, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Male-Female interaction
The following statement can be found in the article:
"After NASA received much criticism over the "smut" on the Pioneer plaque (the line drawings of a naked man and woman) from the Christian right that objected to "using tax dollars to send pornography into space" they chose not to include anything on the subject of male-female interaction."
However, I have been looking (on the NASA website) at some of the images that were place on the record and they include:
- Diagram of conception
- Diagram of male and female
- Diagram of vertebrate evolution (including a diagram of naked humans, which seems to be similar to the diagram on the Pioneer Plaque)
I am therefore not sure that the above statement in correct. Does anybody else have any thoughts/input on this? Cheers TigerShark 09:05, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
- "Anything on the subject of male-female interaction" is incorrect. However, the VGR team had desired to include a photograph of a nude man and woman holding hands; NASA did not allow this. The image in question is a photographic version of this silhouette. The photo was not included, the silhouette was. This is documented in the collection of photos and in the chapter "Pictures of Earth" by Jon Lomberg, both in Sagan's Murmurs of Earth, the definite history of the Record. (The original photo is included there as well, but my scanner is unfortunately not working anymore.)
- As for the Pioneer debate, this is documented in the Pioneer plaque article, to which I have added another source besides Murmurs.--Eloquence* 17:58, September 10, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] When will they "arrive" ?
From the article:
- The Voyagers will take about 40,000 years to come close to another star
They will be a mere 2.3 light years away from us. The distance to the next star is 4.3 light years, so they will be not at all "close" to another star. Does anyone know to which star they are approximately travelling?
[edit] Fictional Sighting
I'm quite certain that there's a Star Trek novel in which we discover a similar communication from an ancient civilization and the POV character (Picard, I'm pretty sure) muses about the Voyager Record and reveals that when contact was made with Vulcans, Klingons, etc. their scientists were given copies of the record, and none could make heads or tails of it. Anyone remember this? MBlume 23:04, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
As long as we're talking Star Trek, I removed a reference to Star Trek 5, since the Klingons destroy one of the Pioneer probes, not a Voyager. Besides, this article is about the record, not the Voyagers themselves. CFLeon 21:23, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Fiction
This may seem like nitpicking, but should fictional events be referred to in the present or the past tense? The fictional section in this article uses both (in one case, in the same entry, though that's been fixed) - is there Wiki policy on this? MBlume 23:04, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
Please remove the irrelevant cartoon picture of Megatron. I'd like to see a picture of what's actually on the album. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.0.54.84 (talk) 18:39, August 22, 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Escape From Solar System
There are two sentences that contradict each other in the article:
"As of 2006, the Voyager spacecraft will be the third and fourth human artifacts to escape entirely from the solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11, which were launched in 1972 and 1973 and preceded Voyager in outstripping the gravitational attraction of the Sun"
"Voyager 1 was launched in 1977, passed the orbit of Pluto in 1990, and left the solar system (in the sense of passing the termination shock) in November 2004."
These two sentences use two different definitions of escape from the solar system. The first sentence uses the term to mean reaching escape velocity (it looks like), and the second one uses the termination shock, which neither Pioneer has passed yet. NHammen 22:24, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
the pioneer solid third stages followed both space craft in there trajectories.pioneer 11 experenced a initual injection aimpoint that would have placed it in a solar orbit but after space craft seperation it was placed on a correct orbit that ended up in a
solar system escape orbit.the pioneer 11 third stage may still be in a solar orbit. pioneer 10 and voyagers 1 and voyagers 2 third stages followed closely out of the solar system. there fore there are 9 objects escaping our solar system pioneer 10 pioneer 10 and its third stage pioneer 11 voyager 1 voyger 1 's third stage voyager 2 voyager 2's third stage new horizen new horizens third stage--Infocat13 01:27, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Messed footnotes
I changed the format of a reference (adding the 'ref' tag). Now all the references are together but they are duplicated! I can't change it back and I can't find what's wrong... polkium 05:29, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] What a crock
Behold the glory of the human race - a cute little record that I'm 100% sure will simply astonish aliens when they happen upon it. I'm sure they'll fall to their knees in worship to our magnificence. And then they'll throw this piece of garbage in the trash where it belongs. What was Sagan thinking? He was more of a madman than a scientist.
It was more a symbolism thing. Who knows what aliens might do with it if they ever find it? Let's say it crash lands, fairly intact, but the creatures on the world it crashes on consumes all the material types of the Voyager. Or the alien's wouldn't even think much of it, there could be lots of differneces in life out there. Try not to assume that they'll throw it in the garbage, if they even know what garbage is...0_o
There's always the chance that no one will ever find it, that one seems a lot more plausible.
If they can see it for what it is, they won't throw it away. I find it more likely that they would just discount it as rubble, though, assuming they find it.Mr.WaeseL 00:57, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
- It'll more than likely wind up being vaporized as it falls into the helosphere of some star a few billion years from now. 81.62.101.181 16:05, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
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- I hope so because if any civilized and intelligent species should find this, they will think we are a bunch of retards and probably set out to destroy us - which we probably deserve anyway...68.161.167.225 05:55, 24 February 2007 (UTC)AR
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- I've recently read that most, if not all, immensely powerful alien species possessing an advanced capacity for interstellar travel do not, in actuality, make their decisions regarding their culling of nascent civilizations based on whether or not they consider the species' contributions to the intragalactic P2P network to be that of "a bunch of retards". I can't quote a source on this, however, as mw.wikipedia.org is not considered a valid one. Muad 19:28, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
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- They would be far too busy rocking out to "Johnny B. Goode" to bother coming to destroy us. Nice selection, Mr Sagan!
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- Most of these posters are way too cynical. Space exploration tends to stimulate idealism and flights of fancy. Brutannica (talk) 21:18, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
- they're more stupid than cynical. don't tar the fine tradition of cynicism with this drivel —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk) 18:52, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
- Most of these posters are way too cynical. Space exploration tends to stimulate idealism and flights of fancy. Brutannica (talk) 21:18, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
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- Poor Carl, casting his golden bread upon the waters of space. This record says a lot about Carl Sagan, but very little about the human race or the American people, who launched the vessel. I didn't realize he penned that turd with Jodie Foster. Maybe it's not too late to send a ship to intercept the probe before it becomes an interstellar embarrassment. Ocanter (talk) 15:14, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
What are the chances of advanced alien life possessing a phonograph record player in 40,000 years time? They will probably just use it as a frisbee, or send a transmission back to us asking "Do you have it on MiniDisc?". If NASA really wants to impress extraterrestrial beings with the extent of human achievement they should send into space a selection of pornographic movies and the first four Danzig albums. DANZIG666 (talk) 02:48, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Images encoded into vinyl?
I thought this mission had also sent out images encoded into vinyl, namely one of a woman in a supermarket. It looked very 70's era. I used to have the image. Does anyone know of a package like this being sent into space or am I mistaken?
-matt
Is this what you are looking for? http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/sceneearth.html Ap William 07:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Total cost of project
I was wondering if there is any information about the total cost of the project.
[edit] Choice of gold, instead of some other material?
Is there a reason why gold was chosen instead of some other (possibly more durable) metal?
Is gold known to be durable when facing interstellar hazzards?
- Its not actually gold. Its gold plated copper. (Thank you, NASA's web site) As for using gold on it, I have no idea why. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vkeios (talk • contribs) 06:53, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
- it's an efficient reflector and conductor, and it doesn't corrode or tarnish http://www.utilisegold.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk) 18:56, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Clarification/corrections needed
Okay, I've been trying to figure this out, and cross-reference with various sources. A few things need clearing up. Firstly, the layout of the disc should be made explicit - as I understand it one side (facing outwards) is entirely music, and the other contains more music, the messages and sounds, and the video.
Also, is the disc monaural? I assume so, but it would be nice for this to be made explicit.
The number of video images appears slightly uncertain. Nasa, and this article, says 115. The CED site says 116 and says Nasa miscounted, and goldenrecord.org shows 116. CED goes on to say that there were also 6 video text pages, 2 with Carter's message, and 4 with Nasa names - credits, if you will. Although I've not seen any other explicit reference to this - only sources mentioning ambiguously that the disc has a "printed" message from Carter, which in the past I've interpreted to mean that it was printed on/inside the case. Also, apparently, 20 of the images were in colour, encoded as triplets of red/green/blue images, with the rest being just monochrome. So one could say that there were 162 frames, encoding 102 monochrome images and 20 colour images.
The image types should also be clarified - at the moment it hints that they're just photos. It's actually a combination of diagrams, photos and photos with explanatory notes.
The article says "printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim." Don't think that's right - more accurate to say Carter's message was text encoded as video, and Waldheim's message was spoken in the audio section.
Anyone disagree with any of this? --KJBracey (talk) 00:03, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Musical Corrections
I thought we must cleanned the data of the music, specially the issue concearning to the authorship of the recordings. A week ago I've found in the next webpage of the UCLA http://digital.library.ucla.edu/frontera/librarian?ITEMID=CAP_71086_X-41730-D1&SIZE=Medium the possible authorship of "El Cascabel" recording, being wrong the attribution to Lorenzo Barcelata and Mariachi México. I changed the data on the chart in that section.Any questions or changes please let me know --Beat Boy (talk) 22:31, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
What's the disk's diameter?194.75.159.78 (talk) 14:58, 2 June 2008 (UTC)