🔄FROM THE ARCHIVE: Most of these interstellar spacecraft carry messages intended to introduce ourselves to any aliens that find them along the way.
Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsFor millennia, humans have gazed up at the stars and wondered what it would be like to journey to them. And while sending astronauts beyond the solar system remains a distant dream, humanity has already launched five robotic probes that are on paths to interstellar space.
Pioneer 10 achieved the first flyby of Mars, the first trip through the asteroid belt, and the first flyby of Jupiter. And the secret to its success was nuclear power. No NASA spacecraft had ever launched with a nuclear-powered electrical source before. So, after Pioneer 10 passed Jupiter in 1973, it still had ample power to keep going. In fact, the mission continued to communicate with Earth for a total of 30 years, rather than the 21 months NASA initially planned for.
The identical Pioneer plaques show a nude man and woman along with an orbital diagram of our solar system. NASA no longer gets signals from the Pioneer spacecraft, but if extraterrestrial life ever finds them, they should be able to deduce what our species looks like and where we’re from.The Voyager golden record is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc. It’s covered with aluminum and electroplated with an ultra-pure sample of uranium-238.
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