NASA Beamed Your #MessageToVoyager
| Credit | NASA/JPL-Caltech |
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As part of the celebration of Voyager’s 40 years of continuing exploration, NASA invited the public to submit short, uplifting messages to the Voyager 1 spacecraft and all that lies beyond it. These messages were a maximum of 60 characters and were tagged #MessageToVoyager. NASA tracked more than 30,000 submissions. The Voyager team together with JPL and NASA headquarters selected their 10 favorites, which were then put to a public vote. The winning message was sent into interstellar space by a command that originated from the Deep Space Network (DSN) mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with help from the original Captain Kirk, actor William Shatner; Tracy Drain, Juno mission deputy chief engineer; Jeff Berner, DSN chief engineer; and Annabel Kennedy, DSN command engineer.
The winning message was chosen by public vote from among these finalists:
- From the stars we came, and to the stars we return.
- All of us are behind you, and ahead of you is everything.
- We offer friendship across the stars. You are not alone.
- Solar winds at your back, the stars shall light your way.
- Eres el pasado viajando al futuro. (You are the past traveling to the future)
- We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.
- When we work together, we can do great things.
- Keep exploring, we'll catch up to you one day.
- Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.
How were #MessageToVoyager posts submitted?
- Messages could have a maximum of 60 characters (A-Z, 0-9, spaces and punctuation)
- Submissions were tagged #MessageToVoyager
- Messages were posted to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ or Tumblr
- Privacy settings on submission posts must have been public to be considered
- Submissions were received by 11:59 p.m. PDT on Aug. 15, 2017
- JPL, NASA and the Voyager team selected their top picks
- The public will choose the winning message by poll on this page from these top picks
- NASA will beam the winning message through space toward Voyager 1
What’s noteworthy about the Voyager mission?
- Voyager is the longest continuously operating space mission ever
- Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object ever
- Voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space
- Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to fly by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
- Both are the first spacecraft able to detect their own problems and take corrective action
- More about how the Voyagers blazed trails
#MessageToVoyager Social Media Campaign Timeline
August 1 | Kickoff; tag submissions #MessageToVoyager |
August 15 | Submissions due |
August 23 | Public voting opens |
August 29 | Public voting closes |
September 5 | #MessageToVoyager transmission |
September 6 | #MessageToVoyager arrives in interstellar space in the vicinity of Voyager 1 |