On the 30th anniversary of the two Voyager space-probe launches NASA is asking for suggestions on what a modern ‘greetings from Earth’ should include (nod to NASA Watch for bringing this to our attention). The Voyagers contained ‘golden records’ of pictures and sounds from Earth and “greetings in 54 different human languages and greetings from humpback whales”. NASA’s Voyager website has a nice overview of the missions. Voyager also contains work by artist Jon Lomberg that could last for over a thousand million years (according to his website at least) and “may be the longest lived piece of human art ever made”.

Barbara Kerley, in the Christian Science Monitor, thinks the record is already looking a bit out of date. “It does not include, for example, the Human Genome Project, completed in 2003 – a cooperative, international effort to discover, at least on the genetic level, who we are. There is also no mention of the Internet, which allows more than a billion people around the world to communicate in ways that we couldn’t have imagined 30 years ago.”

NASA Watch has been a bit annoyed that more isn’t being made of this anniversary: “Why NASA did not get the word out to the public and the media in advance is curious. Its not like the date of the 30th anniversary wasn’t known – for the past 30 years."

Image: Voyager during testing / NASA