NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched 40 years ago, have gone farther into outer space than any other human-made object. And thanks to modern technology, the old pair will give humans a chance to send a bit of themselves out to those far reaches of space, in the form of a short #MessageToVoyager.
NASA is celebrating the 40-year old Voyager mission with a little overture to the public. Social media users are invited to compete for the chance to send a 60-character message into interstellar space.
The agency will hold a public vote along with feedback from the Voyager mission team and select one message to shoot off into space on September 5 — the 40th anniversary of Voyager 1’s launch.
Voyager 1 is the only spacecraft to have ever made it completely out of the solar system and into interstellar space. Its sibling, Voyager 2 (launched 16 days before Voyager 1) is on its way there as well, trudging through the last layers of the solar system created by the heliosphere’s final bouts of solar wind pressure.
The winning message will get beamed out to Voyager 1, becoming potentially the first social media message to make its way to be “heard” in interstellar space.
The rules for the contest:
- Messages can be no more than 60 characters
- Messages must contain the hashtag #MessageToVoyager
- Messages must be submitted to NASA as a post on social media, via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, or Tumblr
- Messages must be publicly viewable (no private tweets!)
- Submissions must be posted by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on August 15, 2017
The Voyager mission is no stranger to facilitating the spread of human culture to the rest of the outer space. After all, each Voyager spacecraft is carrying a record of terrestrial sounds which describe just a fraction of the aural layers that define Earth.
So if you’re prepared to be a part of that history, get on your favorite social media platform and send something over to NASA before next Tuesday!
