Linda Salzman Sagan who co-created two iconic messages to extraterrestrials—the Voyager Golden Record and the Pioneer Plaque—has died. She was 83-years-old.
The Pioneer Plaque was a collaboration between Linda, her husband astronomer and educator Carl Sagan, and astronomer Frank Drake, the "father of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence." A copy of each plaque was mounted on the Pioneers 10 and 11 spacecraft, launched in 1972 and 1973, respectively. Then in 1977, Salzman Sagan orchestrated the spoken greetings on the Voyager Golden Record, another "message in a bottle" for any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter it, perhaps billions of years from now. Mounted on the Voyager I and Voyager II probes, the Golden Record is now the farthest human-made object from Earth.
The Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Record embody a sense of possibility and hope for a better future. Thank you Linda for inspiring us to reflect on our place in the universe.
Our thoughts go out to Linda's son Nick Sagan, the extended Sagan and Salzman families, and her adoring friends.
Linda Salzman Sagan obituary (Ithaca Journal)
