Talking to space

Since the beginning of the space age, people have sent beyond Earth not only instruments and machines, but also something more personal: an archive of ourselves—of who we are and who we were.

Since the beginning of the space age, people have sent beyond Earth not only instruments and machines, but also something more intimate: an archive of humanity—
of who we are and who we were.

In 1972 and 1973, NASA attached metal plaques to two spacecraft leaving the Solar System, in case they were intercepted by intelligent extraterrestrial life. Engraved on them are a man and a woman, a pulsar map locating our Sun, and a diagram of the hydrogen atom.

Pioneer Plaques

In 1974, astronomers transmitted a 1,679-bit binary message toward the star cluster M13, 25,000 light-years away. Encoded within it: the numbers one through ten, the atomic numbers of five biologically significant elements, the DNA double helix, a diagram of our Solar System, and a human figure.

Arecibo Message

Three years later, two spacecraft left Earth carrying gold-plated copper records into space, containing 115 images, greetings in 55 languages, music, and sounds, including a mother’s kiss, footsteps, and a heartbeat.

Voyager Golden Record

Many other objects, messages, and transmissions followed.

Ways of fixing ourselves into matter, into sound, into signals.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

A copy of Wikipedia articles

Brain waves converted to sound

A collection of science fiction literature

Thousands of text messages

Cultural artifacts and messages sent to outer space