History of Astronomy: The Voyager Golden Record in Intellectual History

In this session cosponsored by the American Astronomical Society’s History of Astronomy Division, we discuss especially the Golden Record of music, greetings, photographs, and more organized by Jon Lomberg working for Carl Sagan in spring 1977, shortly before the Voyagers’ launches. Emer Reynolds will discuss the 2019 documentary — The Farthest — that she directed; we have separately arranged for those attending the meeting to stream the two-hour theatrical version. Sarah May will discuss the legacy of the Golden Record in intellectual history. Nick Oberg will discuss the trajectory of the Voyager spacecraft in the distant future. Supplementally, as three nations’ missions travel from Earth to Mars this fall, Lomberg will discuss the disk of greetings and more that was sent to Mars on NASA’s Phoenix lander in 2008.