p2pnet.net News:- When the Cassini-Huygens space probe lands on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, next January, it’ll be, “the farthest distance from Earth at which human-made sounds will have landed on another celestial body,” said Canada’s Globe & Mail in June, as reported here.

French composers Julien Civange and Louis Haeri have a selection of their works on board the spacecraft, which launched in 1997 and which is scheduled to parachute through Titan’s atmosphere, land and signal scientific data back to earth.

What a wonderful way to make sure your music is heard ! ; )

However, the compositions may not, in fact, be the first on “another celestial body”.

Voyager 2 headed into space on August 20, 1977, with Voyager 1 following 16 days later. And the mission carried a 12-inch, gold-plated copper disk holding sounds and images meant to give alien cultures data on Earth.

“Dr. [Carl] Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals,” says the NSAS site, going on:

“To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle.”

Warner Bros’ Mickey Kapp was responsible for the music and for all we know, it’s being heard by music lovers on planets far from Titan.

Sagan was, “most interesting because of his standing in the scientific community he could ask what on the surface were outlandish questions and not besummarily dismissed,” Kapp told p2pnet, going ni:

“He did make that community think, and I had fun doing the project since that music will last longer than any of the records I produced.

“The metal disc sent was a Mother, a replication of the Master lacquer only in copper. We also wondered who would have a playback system with a needle to play it but figured if they could retrieve the spacecraft they would probably have enough of an advanced technology to figure out how to play a metal LP.”

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See:-
largest moon -Titan intrigues scientists, p2pnet, October 29, 2004
musical selections - Golden Record, NASA

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