On Thursday (10/19) and Friday (10/20) this week, Cornell University will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Voyager Golden Record, the gold phonograph records launched into space in 1977 as a message to extraterrestrials. (I co-produced the first vinyl release of the Golden Record with my friends Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad.) All events are free and the public is invited. I hope you can join us! From Cornell University:
"40 Years of Cosmic Discovery: Celebrating the Voyager Missions and Humanity's Message to Space" begins with a panel at 8 p.m. Oct. 19 in Bailey Hall, introduced by Cornell Provost Michael Kotlikoff, and featuring people who worked on the mission:
Ann Druyan, Emmy- and Peabody-award winning writer/producer/director and creative director of NASA's Voyager Interstellar Message; Frank Drake, chairman emeritus, SETI Institute and creator of the Drake Equation;
Steve Squyres, Cornell's James A. Weeks Professor and principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rovers mission; Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy and director of Cornell's Carl Sagan Institute; and Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science.One of the handful of Golden Record covers that remain on Earth will be featured in a special exhibit at Cornell University Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, courtesy of Ann Druyan – it has never before been on public display. The multi-media exhibit will include images and sounds from the Golden Record, as well as the original book by Isaac Newton that was photographed for the Golden Record and a first-edition, signed copy of Carl Sagan's "Murmurs of Earth." A copy of the Voyager Golden Record boxed set, newly issued by Ozma Records and donated by producers Timothy Daly and David Pescovitz, will also be on display. The free exhibit will be open on Thursday, Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20 from 9 a.m. to 5 pm, and Saturday, Oct. 21 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., on level 2B, Kroch Library.
"Unafraid of the Dark," the series finale of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" that features the Voyager mission, will screen Oct. 20 at 4:45 p.m. at Cornell Cinema and will be introduced by Andrew Hicks, assistant professor of music. After the film Druyan, producer, director and co-writer of the episode and David Pescovitz, co-founder of Ozma Records and designer Lawrence Azererad, co-producers of the Golden Record boxed set, will offer reflections and answer questions.
"40 Years of Cosmic Discovery" is sponsored by the Department of Astronomy, the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Carl Sagan Institute, which conducts an interdisciplinary search for life in the universe.
"Cornell celebrates Voyager missions with panel, exhibit"
The Voyager Golden Record is now available as a vinyl box set and CD/book package from Ozma Records. Have a listen to excerpts of the audio here:
