From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Thu Aug 22 2002 - 10:53:11 PDT
That is possible, though the records have a cover on one side
and have the whole space probe for protection on the other.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html
http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/voyager/voyager-record.html
Keep in mind that Carl Sagan and his team had relatively little
time to put the Record together, and considering NASA's
ironically conservative view on sending messages to ETI with
their space probes, we are lucky anything was put on the
Voyagers at all.
http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/org/s/space/www/voyager/voyager.html
The whole package is supposed to survive at least one billion
years in space. Certainly the Voyagers and Pioneers will outlast
anything we humans have left on Earth.
Scroll down this Web page to the FAQ section for a description of
how the Pioneer probes will handle the interstellar medium - which I
assume will apply to the Voyager probes as well:
http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNStat.html
And should the records eventually wear away, at least anyone who
finds the probes will have something to study of us. I would also like
to think if the recipients are advanced enough to find the vessels in
deep space, they can glean much from even old worn records.
Larry
----- Original Message -----
From: Noel
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 6:00 AM
To: public@seti
Subject: SETI public: Voyager Probes
Dear List,
What a shame that all those sounds and messages from the Earth will be vapourised
by the interstellar medium's constant flux of hard radiation and gas particles. Apparently
the discs will be etched away in time well before the probes encounter another star system,
so our messages will almost certainly be lost to the cosmos.
regards
Noel C. Welstead
Volcor Brisbane Australia
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