The Voyager Golden Records

In the rhetoric universe, the concept of joining a conversation involves asking questions

while gradually becoming familiar with the ongoing discourse. An example of this could be

arriving late to a party and hearing about all the events prior to your arrival. We strive to

understand and engage intellectually with existing conversations. This is known as Burkean

parlor, which allows us to become active participants in various fields such as: Psychology,

History, and Engineering. Through Rhetoric, we learn to adapt to our messages in order to fit

the audience and purpose of our communication. After reading about “The Voyager Golden

Records”, I believe the intended audience consists of everyone that is interested in what is

possible outside of Earth. That means that the reader must be somewhat optimistic as to there

being more life outside of Earth. This voyage take place all the way back in 1977, when it was

launched as a “time capsule” in order to send a message to any possible life outside of Earth.

This “time capsule” consisted of many different things that represent Earth, such as: the voices

of children, photos of various landmarks, and even a proportionate map that shows where

Earth is. “ Segans Golden Rule contained pictures and sounds from the earth such as frogs at

night and photographs of people and ecosystems” ( The Voyager Golden Records 7) .

Segan's main objective was to provide a summary of Earth and put it on a voyager

spacecraft, allowing whatever run its way to know “what Earth truly is” . Additionally, “He also

included a map for aliens to locate planet Earth by showing where we are in relation to 14

strong pulsers” (The Voyager Golden Record 8). This was quite a surprise to hear as they had
sent the location of Earth to absolutely anything out there that so happens to find that

spacecraft. Even though this was done in 1977, knowing that the spacecraft is still up and

running is quite a relief. “The Voyager spacecraft are 14 billion miles from Earth, still traveling

38,000 MPH” (The Voyager Golden Record 8). It is currently on destination to head towards the

star in Camelopardalis which it will reach in 40,000 years. With this being one of the world's

greatest projects, at first, it was meant to give us our first look at Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter.

“The 1977 mission NASA launched with the scientific objective of photographing the planets of

the outer solar system, which furnished the very first portrait of our cosmic neighborhood.

Human eyes had never before been laid on the arresting aquamarine of Uranus, on Neptune’s

stunning deep-blue orb, on the splendid fury of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot” (Popova 2). It shocked

the world to see these fascinating discoveries, as it gave the world hope that there is more to

life than Earth. With Carl Sagan keeping this project going, who knows what else we may come

across, and who knows if it was even worth it. If aliens were to come across us, we now know

who to blame, but hopefully, we don’t come across this situation.