Yesterday, I wrote about the experts who are currently involved in a debate over whether or not we should contact extraterrestrials. In that post, I referenced NASA’s message of love aimed at Polaris in 2008, in the form of a Beatles song. It was my opinion, as a non-expert, that it’s really too late to hide. We’ve put several messages out there, both intentionally and non-intentionally.

Today, I am going to talk mainly about the Voyager 1 and 2 probes, launched 33 years ago by NASA – and what NASA launched with those probes. I suppose that this also serves as a commemorative post honoring the launches.

This Sunday, September 5th is the 33rd anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1. August 20th was the 33rd anniversary of the launch of Voyager 2. Yes, the twin probes were launched out of order since Voyager 1 was sent on a shorter and quicker trajectory and reached Jupiter and Saturn before Voyager 2.

The  probes are still out there in space, far, far away and are still working for NASA.  Still transmitting and still receiving instruction, the priority of the probes is to explore space and send images back to Earth.

They also have another mission while out there in space.

These two probes also act as “messages in a bottle”. They contain golden record albums and visual instructions on how to construct a record player in order to play them.

As Carl Sagan, the committee chair for this NASA project said:

“The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.”

I do have to wonder why the experts today are suddenly not as excited get a message to an extraterrestrial.

Although the chances that this message in a bottle being found are slim, the golden records do contain a ton of information about Earth.

What is on these records? Well, lots of things. This is from Wikipedia:

“The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 116 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, and thunder, and animal sounds, including the songs of birds and whales. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, spoken greetings in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim.

The collection of images includes many photographs and diagrams both in black and white and color. The first images are of scientific interest, showing mathematical and physical quantities, the solar system and its planets, DNA, and human anatomy and reproduction. Care was taken to include not only pictures of humanity, but also some of animals, insects, plants and landscapes. Images of humanity depict a broad range of cultures. These images show food, architecture, and humans in portraits as well as going about their day to day lives. Many pictures are annotated with one or more indications of scales of time, size, or mass. Some images contain indications of chemical composition. All measures used on the pictures are defined in the first few images using physical references that are likely to be consistent anywhere in the universe.”

I made that one bit of information bold…”the solar system and its planets”. Would that be sort of like a map showing where we are?

Well, maybe we’ve got nothing to worry about. Also noted in Wikipedia:

As the probes are extremely small compared to the vastness of interstellar space, it is extraordinarily unlikely that they will ever be accidentally encountered. If they are ever found by an alien species, it will most likely be far in the future, and thus the record is best seen as a time capsule or a symbolic statement rather than a serious attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life.

Okay, so I’ll view it as recommended per the statement above. I’ll look at it as a symbolic statement out there in space with tons of Earth’s information enclosed in it. It isn’t likely that some UFO or spaceship will come along and scoop it up. At least in my lifetime…maybe.

However, NASA sent messages to extraterrestrials before that.

Pioneer 10  and 11 preceded Voyager 1 and 2. Pioneer 10 (launched in 1973) and 11 (launched in 1972). Each carried a plaque with a message to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. The plaque “includes a drawing depicting a man, a woman, the transition of a hydrogen atom, and the location of the Sun and Earth in the galaxy.”

Okay, so I did some bolding for emphasis of that map again.

So, what happened to Pioneer 10 and 11? The last communication with Pioneer 1o was January 23, 2003, with a final contact attempt on March 4, 2006. The last communication with Pioneer 11 was November 1, 1995. They are still out there, though, presumably still on their missions far, far away.

There are now at least four maps floating around in the “cosmic ocean”, in addition to whatever else NASA has launched into space that have disclosed Earth’s  location.

My point is that we are exploring further and further out into space. We’ve also sent some messages (and maps) out there into that “cosmic ocean” already. Unless there is something that SETI, Stephen Hawking and others are not sharing with us, then why is there sudden debate about hesitancy related to contacting extraterrestrials?

Click here for further reading on the Voyager interstellar mission, currently celebrating 33 years in space. Where are they now? Here is a timeline of their whereabouts through 2015.

British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking made an assertion earlier this year that reignited the debate over whether space aliens would have hostile intentions toward earthlings. Hawking believes that initiating contact with aliens would not be a good thing:

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”

Wang Sichao. a researcher and astronomer at the Purple Hills  Observatory, stated last week that his view is not entirely aligned with Hawking’s. He believes that preparedness for a potential invasion along with a “wait and see” approach is in order:

“If they are friendly to us, we can promote the human beings’ civilization through exchange and cooperation with them. If they are not, as long as we prepared for their invasion, we can beat them back based on their weaknesses. After all, they are life entities, they would show their slips.”

For those who might have missed it, the debate really heated up earlier this month, at the SETICon Convention held in Silicon Valley, California.

Douglas Vakoch, Director of Interstellar Message Composition, SETI asked:

“Even if they tend to be hateful, awful folks, can they do us any harm at interstellar distances?”

John Billingham, former chairman of the SETI Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics said:

“Personally, I agree with Hawking and think it may be unwise to transmit.

On whether we just listen for transmissions or transmit messages, Billingham recommended establishing an international conference to get feedback from the entire world on the matter.

SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak took the most logical view out of the entire SETIcon bunch. He argued that the whole issue is moot because Earth has been radiating signals into space for decades, in the form of “leakage” from radio and television broadcasts. Extraterrestrials could detect us if they really wanted to.

He added:

“This horse has left the barn. Any society that could possibly be a threat to us can easily know at least that we’re here. There’s no point in losing sleep over this.”

Plus, why are they all worried about it anyway?

The continuation of this debate comes two years after NASA deliberately sent a transmission into space – in 2008. They sent a song by the Beatles called “Across the Universe”.

NASA has sent transmissions to our astronauts in space during each and every space mission. This transmission was aimed further than our astronauts have gone before. Specifically, across the universe at the North Star, Polaris.

The song, “Across the Universe”, was chosen to commemorate both NASA’s and The Beatle’s 50th anniversary, as well as the 40th anniversary of the recording of the song. At the time of the transmission, NASA publicized the reactions of Former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.

McCartney said of the transmission:

“Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens.”

Well, Sir Paul McCartney, that’s exactly what they did!

Ono said of the transmission:

“I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets throughout the universe.”

Yoko Ono’s view was very optimistic and in tune with most earthlings.

Neither of them seemed very worried over it. Most of earth’s population isn’t worried about it, either. The experts seem to be worried about it. So…

What about the telescopes and robotic equipment we’ve hurled at different targets in space? We are aiming that equipment further and further into space all the time. The equipment transmits information back to us all the time in our search for alien life. Well, extraterrestrial bacteria life does count. Couldn’t an intelligent extraterrestrial follow those transmission trails, like bread crumbs, from our equipment in space back to Earth anyway?

If extraterrestrials can be that intelligent to receive a transmission and come strip mine Earth as the experts assert as a possibility, then yes. They can just follow the information that the telescopes, landers, and other equipment broadcast back our way to the planet Earth.

Whether we are sending messages out or receiving them though space via our own equipment, I think it’s really too late to waste the time debating over it.

I also think that there’s no point in hiding if we want to learn anything, good or bad.  We’ve broadcasted ourselves from outside of the earth in some form or another for well over 50 years. That’s a long time to be broadcasting ourselves without receiving a a single response in the form of an alien invasion.

We’ve got signals and data bouncing off of those satellites, leaking noise all over the place. We are a very noisy civilization on this planet called Earth.

The United States Space Surveillance Network has tracked 26,000 space objects since Sputnik I was launched by the Russians in 1957. Some of those objects have re-entered earth’s atmosphere and either disintegrated or impacted Earth’s surface. Remember the international media frenzy over Skylab’s re-entry and subsequent impact on Earth in 1979?  There are still more than 8,000 man-made orbiting objects orbiting Earth and sending and receiving all sorts of data. Personally, I worry about space debris impacting earth more than I worry about aliens invading it.

So, back to those experts, I do lean towards the expert opinions of two of them. Seth Shostak and Wang Sichao get my vote.

We should be prepared for any attack whether it comes from an earthbound threat or from space invaders.

We also should quit worrying about it.

I, for one, think that Earth should turn up the volume and be the official ghetto blaster of the universe. Let’s blast our noise as far as we can get it and just vibrate the heck out space. If an extraterrestrial does come all the way to earth to visit us, I also think that it is very important to follow that age-old advice: Don’t show fear.

It’s good advice that applies to many situations. It really does go a long way.

In the meantime, enjoy the love transmitted into space by NASA. Hopefully the love will be returned back to us someday.

Apollo 15 Insignia

On July 26, 1971, Apollo 15, the ninth manned mission of the Apollo program, was launched into space.

NASA called Apollo 15 the most successful manned flight ever achieved.

Apollo 15 was the fourth lunar landing mission. The flight to the moon was led by Commander David Scott. Alfred Worden was the Command Module Pilot. The Lunar Module was piloted by Jim Irwin.

The crew received intense geology training prior to the launch, making it the first Apollo flight to rank geology the highest priority of the mission. The field training took place in Arizona and New Mexico.

Like other space flights before and after this one, UFO enthusiasts believe that the crew of Apollo 15 was witness to UFOs in space during this mission that ended on August 7, 1971.

Photos of these UFOs (which can be fake or simply show “normal” phenomena) can be viewed here.