On September 5th, 1977, a Titan - IIIE lifted off from the Launch Complex - 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The rocket carried a satellite which would later become one the longest running space missions ever and which is still going strong.
 |
| The Golden Record, Credit: NASA/JPL |
We are talking about the famous Voyager - 1 satellite which, along with its sister satellite, Voyager - 2 is on a quest beyond the far reaches of the solar system. The Voyager program was envisioned as an exploration program to study Jupiter and Saturn at first and then expanded to Uranus and Neptune. An interesting piece of information is that, Voyager - 2 was launched on August 20th, 1977 - 16 days before Voyager - 1! Many people still have doubts as to why NASA did such a launch. Well, we have the answer for you.
Both the Voyager probes followed different trajectories. Voyager - 2 was launched on a slower trajectory - by slow, we are talking about who reaches Jupiter first. Such a slower approach was preferred so that Voyager - 2 could visit all four gas giants - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager - 1 which was launched on a different trajectory which was faster took the satellite to Jupiter first. And this is the reason why NASA chose to name them so. The first one to reach Jupiter was given the name - Voyager - 1. On December 15th, 1977, Voyager - 1 overtook Voyager - 2, the latter being launched before.
 |
| The cover of the Golden Record, Credit: NASA/JPL |
The Voyager mission was a huge milestone for science, providing very important data regarding the gas giants, and outer solar system. However, the mission is most famous for one particular payload aboard the both satellites - The Golden Record.
When the mission was envisioned by NASA, it was clear that the probes would move out into Interplanetary Stellar Medium (ISM) after probing the target planets. Hence, a committee was formed to prepare a 'time-capsule' which would be carried by the satellites as a remnant of humanity for any spacefaring species which could encounter the probe.
As per the statement by Dr. Carl Sagan, the revered scientist, and the chairman of Voyager Golden Record committee,
The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space
The golden disc carries audio and 115 images, a perfect gallery into the life of 'Life on Earth'. Among the audio, which contains mundane sounds like laughter, footsteps and sounds from nature, it is also a music record! The Golden Record carries music from various artists around the world to showcase how humanity has a rich and varied musical tradition to aliens wandering in space, if any.
The record carries greetings in 55 ancient and modern languages and among which, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu and Urdu are represented from India. Apart from this, a song sung by the legendary Khayal singer Kesarbai Karkar. The record carries her recording of "Jaat Kahan Ho" , an interpretation of raga Bhairavi. The recording was recommended for the Golden Record by Robert E. Brown, the then executive director for the Centre for World Music and a famous ethnomusicologist terming her recording as the finest example recorded example of Indian Classical music. You can listen to her soulful rendition in the video below.
At the time of launch of the probe, it was pretty hard to get the original record of the music as this was way before Youtube or even Internet! After some searching, Ann Druyan, creative director of the committee found the record from a music shop in New York. Robert Brown who was a great fan of Indian classical music also wanted to include a mridangam solo played by the maestro Palakkad Mani Iyer. However, his performance couldn't be included because the list couldn't be extended. Enjoy his solo in the video below.
0 Comments