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For future time and beings : draft essay

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For future time and beings : draft essay

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Summary

A draft of the essay Carl Sagan contributed to the book Murmurs of Earth : the Voyager interstellar record published in 1978. In the essay, Sagan describes the goals of the Voyager Golden Records. Voyager Golden Records are phonograph records which were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in 1977. They contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find them. The draft situates the Voyager record in relation time capsule projects and recounts the decisions that went into what should be put on the record. The draft specifically mentions the contributions of Allen Lomax to this effort. In cases where Sagan wrote notes on the back of printed pages those pages were digitized.

In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 started their one-way journey to the end of the solar system and beyond, now traveling a million miles a day. Jimmy Carter was president when NASA launched two probes from Cape Canaveral. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were initially meant to explore Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons. They did that. But then they kept going at a rate of 35,000 miles per hour. Each craft bears an object that is a record, both dubbed the Golden Records. They were the product of Carl Sagan and his team who produced a record that would, if discovered by aliens, represent humanity and "communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials."

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Date

01/01/1978
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Contributors

Sagan, Carl (Author)
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Source

Library of Congress
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Public Domain

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