Ambassadors of Humankind

“We vlogen met een knal...” AMBASSADORS OF HUMANKIND Making a mark in the vast expanse of space It almost sounds like a riddle: man-made objects travelling at speeds in excess of ten kilometres per second at a distance of many billions of kilometres. These are the man-made objects that are farthest away and, in a way, they serve as ambassadors of humankind. Each object was launched in the seventies and carries with it a symbol to signify humanity’s achievements: they are Pioneer 10 and 11, and Voyager 1 and 2. TEXT Benjamin Broekhuizen, Student Aerospace Engineering, Editor-in-chief Leonardo Times s one might expect, these spacecraft was feasible. The Air Force was to use its and perform a lunar "yby. However, un- Awere not intended solely as ambas- Thor-Able launcher from the Thor family, like Pioneer 4, most of the early Pioneer sadors: each individual spacecraft !rst a precursor to the Delta family of launch missions failed to achieve their respective carried out its speci!c primary scienti!c vehicles. mission goals. mission – each mission providing a wealth of scienti!c information – before entering The !rst launch of a Pioneer spacecraft, Pi- NEW PIONEERS into its open-ended !nal leg of the mis- oneer 0 (also known as Thor-Able 1 or sim- A more successful era of Pioneers is sion. This open-ended !nal leg sees the ply Pioneer), resulted in a complete failure formed by the spacecraft that were spacecraft travelling on a trajectory that shortly after leaving the launch pad on launched from the mid-sixties onwards, will take them outside of our solar system, August 17, 1958. The second launch, only as the Pioneer name was once again used to truly ‘boldly go where no man has gone two months later, was the !rst spacecraft for exploratory missions. These spacecraft before’. launch carried out by the newly estab- are Pioneer 6 through Pioneer 9 (alterna- lished NASA. While the launch was some- tive names Pioneer A through Pioneer D), PIONEERING PIONEER thing more of a success, a partial failure in which were successfully launched as part The Pioneer programme stretches back the third stage meant the mission missed of monitoring the ‘weather’ of the solar into the !fties, even before NASA itself the Moon. The mission did return new in- system. Much like meteorological satel- became operational. The Pioneer pro- formation about the space environment, lites gather vital information to predict gramme was envisioned by the US Air but the mission goal of an orbit around weather on Earth, the Pioneers are meant Force, which operated its own missions, the Moon was not achieved. On March to provide insight into the weather of the just as the US Army did. The mission goal 3, 1959, Pioneer 4 was launched atop the solar system and to warn humanity when- was to establish a lunar orbit to study Juno II launcher and subsequently man- ever a solar storm is heading Earth’s way. the Moon and prove that such a mission aged to achieve Earth’s escape velocity An additional Pioneer spacecraft, Pioneer 40 Leonardo Times SEPTEMBER 2013 We vlogen met.. 0913.indd 40 9/19/13 17:59 NASA DARKSKY.ORG Figure 1. The Pioneer Plaque, as sent aboard Pioneer 10 and 11. E, was launched in 1969, but was lost paring a message from humankind. He frequency of 1420MHz. The counterpart when its Delta-E launcher failed. Apart designed the plaque with Frank Drake, to the symbol I, serving as the binary digit from the name, these spacecraft have a fellow astronomer, who is known for 1, is the symbol –, as the binary digit 0. little in common with the earlier Pioneer the Drake Equation on the probability of spacecraft, which in turn varied from one other intelligent and communicative life To the right of this symbol, the silhouettes another. forms within the Milky Way. Thus, the idea of a human male and female can clearly be for the Pioneer plaque was born. seen. The man is waving, illustrating both Pioneer 10 and 11, launched in 1972 and Earth customs and the way the limbs can 1973 respectively, again di! er much from The aluminium plaque, as depicted in move. To the right of the woman, brackets Pioneer 6 through 9. Where Pioneer 6 Figure 1, is a pictorial message from hu- can be seen, indicating her height in the previously established binary unit. There through 9 stayed relatively close to home, mankind to whichever extra-terrestrial is a " aw in the plate, as the height is sup- the goal for Pioneer 10 and 11 was alto- life form # nds the plaque – although the posed to read I – – –, which translates to gether di! erent. They were both to visit vast expanse of space means that the eight, which in turn means a height of Jupiter, to then go on into the ‘interstellar probability of the plaques ever being 1.68m. The height of the man is not given. medium’, which meant an open-ended seen by another living creature is very In the background of the two human # g- mission to the edge of the solar system small indeed. Whereas the image of the ures, the basic silhouette of the Pioneer and beyond. Pioneer 11 was to also visit naked man and woman might be the spacecraft is shown on the same scale, Saturn along the way. It is this open-end- most striking, perhaps the most interest- clearly showing its prominent 2.74m dish ed character of their mission that essen- ing image is actually situated in the top antenna. tially makes them ideal ambassadors of left of the plaque: the diagram with the humankind. two circles. This symbolises the hyper# ne To the left of the human silhouettes, a transition of hydrogen, which is relevant relatively complex radial pattern can be THE PIONEER PLAQUE for two reasons: # rst, hydrogen is by far seen. The centre of this symbol signi# es Eric Burgess, a journalist and lecturer who the most abundant element in the uni- the Sun and the horizontal line extending had written extensively on the Pioneer verse; second, it serves to specify a unit past the human # gures indicates the rela- programme since its beginning, " oated of distance and a unit of time, to be used tive position of the Sun to the centre of the idea of including some sort of mes- all over the plaque. What appears to be a the galaxy. The fourteen other lines indi- sage on the Pioneer spacecraft while vis- Roman numeral I, is meant as the binary cate relative distances of fourteen pulsars iting the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). representation of the same number. As a to the Sun. Here, the binary unit of time is The well-known astronomer and science unit of length, this symbolises a distance used to express the period of each respec- populariser Carl Sagan supported the of 21cm, the wavelength associated with tive pulsar. This should provide the oppor- idea and, when NASA approved the plan, the transition between electron states. As tunity for any aliens reading the plaque, to was assigned the delicate task of pre- a unit of time, it signi# es the associated determine where the Sun is located. SEPTEMBER 2013 Leonardo Times 41 We vlogen met.. 0913.indd 41 9/19/13 17:59 Below this pattern, at the bottom of the rare alignment of the outer planets in the the Sun was to be included, but the label plaque, is a schematic representation of late seventies, allowing the spacecraft to EMI opposed it. the solar system. The binary digits are use gravitational assists along their grand used to denote the relative distance to tour. However, budgetary constraints The gramophone record also features sev- the Sun of each respective planet – and meant these grand plans never came to eral images relating to the solar system Pluto, as it was still considered a planet at pass and a slightly more modest tour was and planet Earth. Much like the Pioneer the time of launch. It also features a rep- to become the Voyager programme. Plaque, information as to a de" nition of resentation of the Pioneer spacecraft itself units and scales is provided. Many images and its trajectory from Earth, past Jupiter THE VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD are also annotated to give further infor- and towards the open-ended leg: outside Both Voyager spacecraft carry a Voyager mation as to the scale and other proper- the solar system. As mentioned previ- Golden Record: a gramophone record ties of the depicted object. The images ously, Pioneer 10 and 11 are on di! erent which, much like the Pioneer plaque, is include photographs and diagrams on trajectories, as the Pioneer 11 mission also meant as a symbolic statement from hu- the planets, the human anatomy, Earth’s included Saturn. However, the plaques for mankind. The Golden record is shown in geography, human life and space explora- Pioneer 10 and 11 are the same, meaning Figure 2. Again Carl Sagan played a role of tion. that Pioneer 11’s plaque is inaccurate at signi" cance in assembling this ‘message best and an interstellar lie at worst. in a bottle’, as he chaired the committee But perhaps the most remarkable inclu- that was to decide on the content of the sion on the Golden Record are brainwaves. VOYAGER record. An hour long recording of the brainwaves The Voyager programme was an o! shoot of Ann Druyan has been transferred onto of the Mariner programme, as Voyager 1 The record contains greetings in a total of the record.

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