the otherwhirled

Whether you were aware of it or not, today is an important anniversary.

No, not yours, although it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make sure you have that written down somewhere.

No, not your parents, either. Besides, they only stayed together because of you kids.

Actually, it’s the anniversary of the Voyager space mission. Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977 and Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977. Space.com has its typical, unsurprisingly depthless coverage of the anniversary which fits in well to our sound-bite world. I say that so cynically because as a 10-year-old boy, the Voyager missions were primarily responsible for my sideline fascination with the Science Fiction genera, and my own irrepressible tendency to push the borders of my personal reality, and while space.com’s article is informational, it significantly lacks the brilliance I would expect to be attached to the two most farthest-flung symbols of human technological achievement.

Of course, what’s really interesting, in today’s light, with the Voyager legacy is this:

Each of the Voyagers carries a golden record that is a time capsule with greetings, images and sounds from Earth. The records also have directions on how to find Earth if the spacecraft is recovered by something or someone.

Yes, eventually, if the Voyager spacecraft are not unwittingly intercepted by Captain Kirk, they will continue traveling past the heliosphere and out into the truly great unknown, carrying their message of who we were 30 years ago, as if who we were 30 years ago, at the end of the Age of Aquarius and the beginning of the Age of Disco was really all that great. I mean, shit, we still used typewriters back then, and today’s neoconservative hypocrites were just starting to get things completely fucked up.

Personally, I’d be completely fine if we could spend the money and launch an update to those two forlorn space travelers that included the following disclaimer:

“The citizens of Earth wish to profoundly apologize for the previous spacecraft that were unknowingly launched toward your sun. We strongly recommend that you destroy the enclosed golden records and have the memories of anyone who listened to them purged or expunged. We also do not recommend visiting our planet until we have managed to eradicate every last trace of the Bush family lineage. Sadly, since they seem to continue to procreate, this may take us some time. We’ll send another spacecraft your way with an update when, and only when, that mission is successfully accomplished. Thank you.”