The Voyager mission, during which two robotic probes explore the solar system, has been going on for forty years. In honor of this, NASA invites everyone to contribute to the study and choose a slogan that will be recorded on two plates attached to spacecraft and intended for alien civilizations. Voting started today, 23 August. This was reported on the website of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes were launched in 1977 to explore the distant planets of the solar system. In addition to scientific equipment (television cameras, spectrometers and other devices), each probe has a so-called "Golden Plate". In fact, it is not gold, but gilded, and the sounds of the Earth are recorded on it (the cries of birds and animals, the sound of the wind, the sounds of human activity), greetings in 55 languages of the world, an address by UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim and US President Jimmy Carter, music by various crops and encoded video signals.
NASA has organized a competition in which it encourages everyone to come up with messages, one of which, selected through a general vote, will be recorded on spacecraft records. In the first stage of the competition, which lasted until August 15, it was necessary to publish a phrase of 60 characters in social networks with the #MessageToVoyager tag. Ten phrases selected by the jury are involved in the second round of public voting, such as the quote from American science fiction writer Jack Campbell “From the stars we came, and to the stars we return”. Voting began today and you can choose your favorite phrase on the NASA website.
Voting will end on August 29, and on September 6, the winning message will be sent to interstellar space to Voyager 1.