The Voyager program was an amazing feat of technology back in the 1970s. Two Voyager space probes were launched into the void of space and each was equipped with a special golden record. These records didn’t contain the top disco hits of the day, but instead featured sounds and images of the planet earth.
The probes themselves even featured pictures that showed how to create a rudimentary record player so some alien space culture could listen to the sounds of Earth. Voyager 1 is still reporting back with it’s tape recorder collecting data until around 2018. The probe will shut down sometime between 2025 and 2030. Not bad for something built in the 1970s. Voyager 2 is also still out there reporting and should follow the same breakdown timeline as its big brother.
Who knows if alien culture will ever come across the probes and interpret their message, but we at least know that Voyager 1 will turn into a giant space robot that comes back to earth, only to be stopped by The Enterprise. But now I’m getting off track. The neat thing about all this is that a new Kickstarter is running that looks to reissue the famed Voyager Golden Record.
The campaign was started by Boing Boing editor David Pescovitz and looks to raise $198,000 by this October. The original Golden Record has never before been made available to the public in its original form, which always seemed strange to me. Thankfully, this Kickstarter looks to fix that by issuing a three-LP set. The team hopes to get funded and have the Golden Record set released in time for the 40th anniversary of the probes launches next year.
You can check out the official video below:
About Author
