KAILUA-KONA — In 1977, space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, headed on a one-way trip to Jupiter, Saturn and then beyond.
KAILUA-KONA — In 1977, space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, headed on a one-way trip to Jupiter, Saturn and then beyond.
Each craft carried with it a “Golden Record,” which NASA said was “intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials.”
The record contains images of the planets of our solar system along with images of landscapes and people from around this world.
It also carries a recording of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” the sound of a passing train, and greetings to extraterrestrials in 55 languages.
As of Friday morning, Voyager 1 was more than 12.9 billion miles from Earth, traveling more than 38,000 mph carrying its Golden Record with it. Voyager 2, meanwhile is more than 10.7 billion miles away.
The Golden Records’ designer Jon Lomberg, meanwhile, is busy at work in Honaunau, where he’s lived for the past 30 years, and with the 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1 and 2 today, he’s announced a new project to give a new generation a chance to speak to the stars about their home.
Lomberg recently launched a Kickstarter campaign that will fund a new digital message. He’s calling his new project the “One Earth Message.”
“Well, it was an amazing privilege to have an opportunity to speak on behalf of the entire planet,” said Lomberg, who worked closely with Carl Sagan on the Golden Record. “When you do, it’s a huge responsibility and a huge honor.”
Lomberg said they had just about six weeks to do the whole project, but since it went with the Voyager crafts, the Golden Record has become integrally associated with that mission.
But Voyager 1 and 2 weren’t the first spacecraft to carry messages from earth out of the solar system.
Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972, as Pioneer 11 followed in 1973, officially exiting the solar system in 1983 and 1990, respectively, according to NASA.
Each of those craft carried a 6-by-9-inch plaque bolted to their main frame, featuring images of a human male and female along with other symbols.
The latest mission headed out of the solar system is New Horizons, which launched in 2006 and, in 2015, made its closest approach to Pluto and its moons.
NASA has said that the spacecraft is expected to fly past a target a billion miles beyond Pluto and 4 billion miles from Earth on Jan. 1, 2019, making it the most distant flyby in the history of space exploration.
But unlike the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, New Horizons wasn’t carrying any special messages into space.
Fortunately, digital technology means that can change, even as New Horizons continues to make its way through space.
Lomberg’s plan for the One Earth Message is that after a year-long download of data from New Horizons’ upcoming rendezvous, it’ll be possible to upload the message to the spacecraft’s onboard computer in 2020.
But what’s included in that message could be up to you.
“The final contents will be a consensus decision on what best represents Earth,” states an announcement about the project. “The selected content will be part of a carefully organized message suitable for upload into space.”
The Kickstarter campaign will run over 40 days and will fund the construction of a website where people can submit photos or other files on a variety of topics. The submissions will then be reviewed and ranked by participants.
Those interested can go to his Kickstarter page at http://kck.st/2xfflSv. Additional information about the project is available at www.OneEarthMessage.org.
The project doesn’t have any funding by NASA and isn’t officially sanctioned by the agency. Lomberg said though he believes the agency “will seize this opportunity to follow the lead of all four previous spacecraft that have left the solar system and include a message from humanity.”
That democratization of the project marks a significant change from 1977, when content was just up to a few people.
“Now with crowd-sourcing and the internet, it could be open to everybody,” Lomberg said.
He also said he liked the fact that the idea for this project has “a firm grounding in Hawaii.” The man drew a direct comparison between the One Earth Message and Hawaiian oli, or chants, that have been passed down and preserved generation-to-generation.
“The idea of sending a message through time is also something that’s very Hawaiian,” he said.