NASA Closes Submissions for Messages to Be Sent Into Interstellar Space
NASA has officially ended taking submissions for sending a message to the Voyager spacecraft. The space agency has been collecting submissions on social media for a 60-character message which will be beamed to the spacecraft next month.
As of this moment, Voyager 1 is nearly 13 billion miles away from Earth and is currently the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Along with Voyager 2, they are the only man-made objects to fly by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
This means that whoever wins the #MessageToVoyager contest will have their message travel 13 billion miles into outer space. The U.S. space agency, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Voyager team will whittle down the thousands of submissions and let the public vote on which message they will send to the spacecraft.
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While there are some legitimately exceptional wordsmiths who sent their messages, the public nature of the contest turned up some very interesting submissions. Some simply referenced pop culture such as Buzz Lightyear's famous motto.
To Infinity...And Beyond! #MessageToVoyager
— Mr. Cazacu (@MrCazacu) August 11, 2017
However, one early submission from Buran called for the space agency to go with, "Messagey McMessageface."
Messagy McMessageface#MessageToVoyager — Buran (@Papa_John42) August 4, 2017
This is in reference to a vote last year choosing the name Boaty McBoatface for the United Kingdom's new polar research ship. While the people behind the project decided not to go with the name, it still serves a hilarious precedent to these kinds of submissions.
The #MessageToVoyager campaign is being held to commemorate the Voyager program's 40 years of exploring space. The inspiration for the contest is the Voyager's Golden Record, which contained various sounds and images from Earth and is intended for extraterrestrials should they encounter the probe.
The winning message is set to be beamed to the Voyager 1 spacecraft on Sept. 5.
