Episode 13 ︱Encoding a New Golden Record with International Space University’s Eternal Echo Team

How to design a durable and decipherable message for an intelligent species elsewhere in the cosmos? We talk to team members from the International Space University's Space Studies Program about their project Eternal Echo, an assignment to create an updated version of the Golden Record, a gold-plated copper disk of sounds and images affixed to both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. Eanna Doyle, Guillaume Dieppedalle, and Paul Stewart explain their methodologies and ponder the implications of Messaging Extra Terrestrial Life (METI), the future of humanity, and the need for open-access science to improve life on Earth now. 

CONTENT

00:00:22 Introduction

00:02:23 Hello from the children of planet Earth

00:02:30 Pythagoras Theorem

00:03:43 International Space University

00:04:40 Eternal Echo Project

00:05:44 Voyager Mission

00:09:00 Encode Information / Inscribed Matter

00:10:32 Message Content and the Paradox of Humanity

00:12:12 ISU Space Studies Program

00:15:30 Discussions with Nadia Drake

00:17:47 Frank Drake’s Equation and Pioneer Mission Pulsar Map

00:19:33 Updated Golden Record

00:24:55 Feeling the Weight after Watching The Farthest

00:28:54 Technical and Engineering Difficulties

00:36:22 What is the Hydrogen Line?

00:38:57 Redundancy

00:40:23 Von Neumann Probes (of course, what else?)

00:45:45 Two Audiences: ETIs and Humanity itself

00:49:05 Open Science Project

00:52:10 Next Steps

00:55:35 Pablo Carlos Budassi's Logarithmic Map of the Observable Universe

00:56:20 Big thanks to our listeners and their recommended songs!