The Shattered Sky

In 1977 NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft. On concluding their respective missions to the outer planets, the probes were cast off into interstellar space where it will be on the scale of tens and hundreds of thousands of years before either pass even close to another star system.

The probes flew with the Golden Records; discs containing sounds of the Earth, greetings from mankind, the origins of the probes and instructions on how to play the records. In addition, they carried a statement by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The statement read:

“We cast this message into the cosmos… Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of Galactic Civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.”

When you think about it, this is a truly profound message. The likelihood that these probes would ever be recovered by another civilization is next to nothing. Perhaps by sheer statistics, it could happen one day but how far into the future would that be? What is truly amazing is that these machines will certainly outlive the society that created them.

Today both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are on the periphery of the solar system, passing through the Termination Shock where the influence of the Sun meets the galactic winds of the Milky Way. Long after their power runs out these vessels will still carry that message; a statement to the cosmos that once upon a time, mankind existed on the third planet from Sol.