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From VOA Learning English, |
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this is the Technology Report. |
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Space scientists recently announced that Voyager 1 |
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is the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space |
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- the space between stars. |
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The spacecraft carries the voices |
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and sounds of human beings and animals |
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that were living on Earth in 1977 and with launched. |
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The sounds are on a gold-plated phonograph record |
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secured to the side of the spacecraft. |
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Tim Ferris mixed the audio that went on the record. |
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"The record is a conventional long-playing phonograph record |
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except that it is made of copper |
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and it is covered in gold |
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and then it is put inside a titanium case to protect it." |
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Tim Ferris was one of a small group of people |
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who worked to persuade the American space agency |
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to attach the record to Voyager's side. |
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Annie Druyan, another member of the group says |
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the original idea came from Frank Drake, |
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an astronomer at the University of California. |
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"And it seemed to Frank that the best way to compress |
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as much information as possible in a very small space |
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was to do it on a phonograph record." |
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And there's plenty of information on the record, |
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it contains messages in 59 human languages. |
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It has 118 pictures of life on earth, |
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and 27 pieces of music. |
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Tim Ferris says these demonstrate the diversity of human creation. |
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"So there is music on the record from Europe and the United States... |
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But also from Africa, the South Pacific and South America... |
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Georgia, Russia, all these places - such as China, India..." |
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Shortly after American astronauts returned from space in 1968, |
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the space agency released a photograph of the Earth |
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rising from behind the Moon. |
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Margaret Weitekamp is with the Smithsonian Institution's |
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National Air and Space Museum. |
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He says that picture deeply touched people like Frank Drake |
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and his partner on the gold record project, |
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the scientist and TV star Carl Sagan. |
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The photo made them think carefully about |
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how they might present all humanity... |
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not just the nation that sent the spacecraft up. |
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"Knowing that that picture was taken by a human being |
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I think profoundly changed the thoughts of these people |
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and really made them start thinking about |
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'If we are this pale blue dot in this ocean of vastness, |
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then how do we communicate something about who we are?'" |
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As for the message they chose, |
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Tim Ferris says they could not have chosen anything better. |
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"You can't say that an Indian raga or a piece by Bach |
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or a Japanese Shakuhachi piece 'means' |
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something that you can put into words. |
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It is its own end product. |
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It means really what it is. |
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Similar to things in nature. |
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A flower isn't a way of expressing something else. |
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It is the end product. It is what it is." |
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And that's the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. |
