voyager golden record auction

Carl Sagan's master for Voyager Golden Record up for auction at Sotheby's

"The undertaking of the Golden Record reflects the incredible optimism, fascination and humility when faced with the great unknown of the universe."

The two reels are not much to look at and the quality of their audio recordings, while described to be "excellent," exists in other formats. Their pedigree, though, is unique, which may be why they are estimated to be worth more than 10 times their weight in gold — an appropriate figure given that they were used in the creation of perhaps the most iconic golden records in existence. On Thursday (July 27), Sotheby's will offer famed astronomer Carl Sagan and award-winning documentary producer Ann Druyan's personal copy of the master recording for NASA's Voyager Golden Record , identical discs intended as audio-visual time capsule that are now farther away from Earth than any other human-made objects in history. "The Voyager missions are among the greatest acts of exploration in history, and the undertaking of the Golden Record reflects the incredible optimism, fascination and humility when faced with the great unknown of the universe. Led by Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan, the production of the record was a monumental task and it is a great honor to offer their personal copy of this most profound and unique artifact," Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby's global head of science and popular culture, said in a statement. Sotheby's estimates that the Golden Record reels will command $400,000 to $600,000 (the minimum bid is $300,000). They are listed as Lot 80 , the final item in the auction house's upcoming Space Exploration sale in New York.

Related: Scientists' predictions for the long-term future of the Voyager Golden Records will blow your mind

Launched in 1977 on NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 probes , the Golden Record was designed to communicate to possible space-faring civilizations something about the diversity of life and the culture on Earth. The record held greetings in 59 languages, 115 images, the sounds of our planet (including the call of humpback whales) and 27 pieces from the world's musical traditions. Druyan, working with her future husband Sagan, selected the audio. The sound essay, which is the contents of the two reels up for auction, included a rain forest noisy with life, a mother's first words to her baby and the rasping of a distant pulsar, as well as the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chuck Berry, and Louis Armstrong. "Bursting with the myriad sounds of life, Carl and I and our colleagues designed the Golden Record to be a testament to the beauty of being alive on Earth," said Druyan (Sagan died in 1996). "We hoped it would capture the richness and diversity of our world." In addition to the two discs that are now in deep space , only six other records were made. Today, examples of those original gold-plated copper records can be seen on display at the Smithsonian and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, The Golden Record has also been reproduced. In 1992, Warner New Media released a two CD/CD-ROM box set, which included the full contents of the original Voyager disc, as well as as copy of Sagan's book, "Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record." To mark the 40th anniversary of the probes' launch in 2017, Ozma Records produced a box set with three, heavyweight translucent gold vinyl LPs and a digital code to access the visual content on the flown discs.

Sotheby's is auctioning what is believed to be the only recordings produced in the making in the flown Golden Record to ever be offered for sale. "Almost half a century since their creation, these tapes, which have never been out of our possession since they were made, present a unique opportunity for a collector to obtain the only original version of the first object to cross the heliopause , that place where the solar wind gives way to the gales of interstellar cosmic rays — it may be the only thing that will live on after everything we know is gone," Druyan said.

 —  Pale Blue Dot at 30: Voyager 1's iconic photo of Earth from space reveals our place in the universe

 —   Voyager 1: Facts about Earth's farthest spacecraft

 —  New Carl Sagan documentary in the works from National Geographic and Seth MacFarlane

The reels come with their original Columbia Recording Studios boxes, with each labelled by hand in blue ink. The two have total running times of 51 minutes, 38 seconds and 60 minutes, 49 seconds. In addition to the Golden Record, Sotheby's July 27 Space Exploration sale also features a number of original labels removed from the exterior of the Apollo command modules after they splashed down from the moon (est. $6,000 to $60,000) and a Russian Sokol launch and entry suit (est. $40,000 to $50,000).

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Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com , an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. He previously developed online content for the National Space Society and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, helped establish the space tourism company Space Adventures and currently serves on the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society, the advisory committee for The Mars Generation and leadership board of For All Moonkind. In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History.

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Master copy of the Voyager Golden Record, designed as an audio postcard for intelligent aliens, is up for auction

Carl Sagan's personal copy of the Voyager Golden Record contains 27 pieces of music and 22 minutes of sound meant to capture the beauty of life on Earth.

Nearly 46 years ago, NASA launched two small probes carrying a pair of gold-plated copper records that would soon become the farthest human-made objects from Earth ever created. The probes — named Voyager 1 and 2 — and their golden payloads are currently floating more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from Earth, and gaining distance every day. But this week, you can add a master copy of those legendary records to your personal vinyl collection without even leaving your home — and all you need is half a million dollars.

On July 27, Sotheby's will auction two double-sided reels of audio tape containing the master recordings of the Voyager Golden Record, plucked from the personal collection of celebrity astronomer Carl Sagan and his wife, Ann Druyan, both of whom helped with the record's design and development in 1977.

Like the gold-plated discs they begot, the master tapes contain 27 pieces of music intended to encapsulate the world's musical heritage, including Beethoven, Chuck Berry, a Navajo chant and an Indian vocal raga. The tapes also include 22 minutes of nature sounds and human voices speaking in 59 languages, all of which were designed as a sort of audio postcard for any potentially intelligent aliens that might one day chance upon the Voyager probes. (The probes also contain an audio player with pictorial instructions, and a star map showing the location of Earth .)

Related: Are aliens real?

"Bursting with the myriad sounds of life, Carl and I and our colleagues designed the Golden Record to be a testament to the beauty of being alive on Earth," Druyan, who was the creative director of NASA's Voyager Interstellar Message Project that produced the records, said in a Sotheby’s statement. "We hoped it would capture the richness and diversity of our world."

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Only eight copies of the records were ever made, including the two gold-plated versions now riding through interstellar space on the Voyager probes. Bidding for the master tapes begins at $300,000, and Sotheby's expects them to fetch up to $600,000. Bidding closes at 11:20 a.m. ET on July 27.

For those of us not looking to spend half a million, NASA has provided the full track list , and there are numerous playlists of the record's contents available on YouTube and music streaming platforms. Take a listen — and hope, for a moment, that life in another star system may one day bump the same jams.

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Brandon is the space/physics editor at Live Science. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona, with minors in journalism and media arts. He enjoys writing most about space, geoscience and the mysteries of the universe.

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A Copy of NASA’s Voyager Golden Record Could Fetch Up to $600,000 at Auction

The couple who created the historic audio essay is offering their personal copy of the master recording., rachel cormack.

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In the 1970s, NASA asked astronomy professors Carl Sagan and Frank Drake to create a record synopsizing humankind to send into space with the Voyager 1 and 2. It could now be sent to your home, too.

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Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 to study the outer solar system and interstellar space beyond the heliopause. NASA decided to equip the robotic probes with a message that could communicate to any other space-faring civilizations something of the diversity of life on Earth. Sagan, his future wife, Ann Druyan, and four colleagues created the sound essay over the course of six months. It became the very first item of its kind to be sent beyond our Solar System.

The Golden Record features the geological sounds of our planet: a rainforest teeming with life, a mother’s first words to her baby, the brain waves and heart sounds of a young woman in love, and the rasping of a rapidly rotating neutron star. It also includes tunes by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky, Louis Armstrong, and other notable musicians. Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” even made the cut. Druyan was the director of the project and played a leading role in curating the music , which is meant to reflect the human experience.

“Bursting with the myriad sounds of life, Carl and I and our colleagues designed the Golden Record to be a testament to the beauty of being alive on Earth,” Druyan said in a statement. “We hoped it would capture the richness and diversity of our world.”

Today, the Voyager probes containing the Golden Record are the furthest man-made objects from our planet and will continue to float among the stars of the Milky Way for billions of years.

“Almost half a century since their creation, these tapes, which have never been out of our possession since they were made, present a unique opportunity for a collector to obtain the only original version of the first object to cross the heliopause, that place where the solar wind gives way to the gales of interstellar cosmic rays—it may be the only thing that will live on after everything we know is gone,” Druyan adds.

Rachel Cormack is a digital editor at Robb Report. She cut her teeth writing for HuffPost, Concrete Playground, and several other online publications in Australia, before moving to New York at the…

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The Master Recording of NASA’s Voyager Golden Record Heads to Auction

Sotheby's is offering up the original tapes of the audio included on the two interstellar probes that are the furthest man-made objects from earth..

The call of a humpback whale, a Navajo night chant and the brain waves of a woman falling in love… these are just some of the sounds recorded on NASA ’s Golden Record, the phonograph time capsule affixed to spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2. As the space-faring record continues on its now 46-year journey through the emptiness, the Golden Record’s master recording is expected to fetch $600,000 at auction later this month.

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The copy comes from the collection of the notable couple who spearheaded the Voyager Golden Record project. Carl Sagan , the famed Cornell University astronomy professor and Cosmos host, and documentary producer and director Ann Druyan , the creative director of NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Message Project, assembled the sound essay over a six-month period in the 1970s.

“Bursting with the myriad sounds of life, Carl and I and our colleagues designed the Golden Record to be a testament to the beauty of being alive on Earth,” said Druyan in a statement, adding that the record aimed to “capture the richness and diversity of our world.” Designed to communicate the culture of Earth’s people to possible space-faring civilizations, the record could circumnavigate the Milky Way for billions of years, according to Sotheby’s, which will sell the master recording on July 27 in the first auction of objects related to NASA’s Voyager Mission.

Identical copies of the record were attached to NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 when they launched in 1977 and slingshot out of the solar system in different directions. Since then, the cultural capsules have become the furthest man-made objects from Earth, and to this day, the robotic interstellar probes continue to regularly communicate with our planet.

What’s on the Voyager Golden Record?

The master recording of the Voyager Golden Record contains greetings in 59 different languages, a plethora of sounds from nature and 27 pieces of music. Scores by Bach and Beethoven were also included, as were a Peruvian wedding song, an Indian vocal raga and tracks from Chuck Berry and Louis Armstrong. The traveling records also contains 115 images picturing snapshots of human life, with photos of Olympic sprinters, a woman in a grocery store and the Golden Gate Bridge among them.

Eight copies of the Voyager Golden Record were created, including the two currently on the spacecraft. Made of copper and plated in gold, the cover of the famous capsule contained an electroplated sample of isotope Uranium-238, which has a half-life of 4.468 billion years, to serve as a way of showing any future finders how much time passed. In addition to a hand-carved inscription reading, “To the makers of music—all words, all times,” the record was etched with scientific hieroglyphics of our star’s address, the unit of time for the speed of the record and instructions on how to play it.

“Almost half a century since their creation, these tapes, which have never been out of our possession since they were made, present a unique opportunity for a collector to obtain the only original version of the first object to cross the heliopause, that place where the solar wind gives way to the gales of interstellar cosmic rays—it may be the only thing that will live on after everything we know is gone,” said Druyan.

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The Golden Record: Carl Sagan’s Interstellar Portrait of Humanity

The Voyager Golden Record is a unique audio-visual time capsule developed by NASA and affixed to the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts. Designed to communicate to possible space-faring civilizations something of the diversity of life and culture on our world, the Golden Record consisted of greetings in 59 human languages and those of the humpback whales, 115 images of life here, the sounds of Earth, and 27 pieces from the world’s musical traditions. It has been called the beginning of the concept of “world music.”

It was Voyager 1 that looked homeward from high above Neptune to take, at Carl Sagan’s behest, the iconic Pale Blue Dot photograph. Upon flawlessly completing the first phase of their mission, the NASA Voyagers 1 and 2 made for the open sea of interstellar space, teaching us the actual shape of our solar system as it moves through the galaxy. The Golden Record is an unparalleled document in the history of space exploration and our civilization.

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan’s personal copy of the master recording for NASA’s iconic Voyager Golden Record will be offered in Sotheby’s Space Exploration auction in New York on 27 July as a part of Geek Week: Remixed .

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National news | instant analysis: 49ers beat jets 32-19 as mason excels in mccaffrey’s place; niners’ defense mutes rodgers, national news, national news | carl sagan’s personal recording of voyager record for sale, the tapes are still in their original columbia recording studios boxes.

One of the most iconic pieces of space exploration history is up for auction.

When NASA’s twin Voyager probes lifted off to explore the solar system just weeks apart in 1977, they carried identical golden records designed as the first recorded interstellar message from humankind to potential intelligent life in the cosmos.

The records had both audio and visuals that aimed to capture Earth’s diversity of life and culture, including greetings in 59 human languages and 115 images of life.

Now, a copy of the master recording for NASA’s Voyager Golden Record — the one kept by the late astronomer Carl Sagan and his wife, producer Ann Druyan — will be for sale at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday.

The recordings, contained on two double-sided reels of audiotape, are expected to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000. The audio quality of both tapes is “excellent,” according to the auction house.

The tapes are still in their original Columbia Recording Studios boxes, marked by handwritten labels. One reel includes music, humpback whale songs, United Nations delegates speaking, greetings and other sounds from across the world. The second tape features different styles of world music, including Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” Senegalese percussion, a Peruvian wedding song, a Navajo night chant and an Indian vocal raga, according to Sotheby’s.

Sagan and Frank Drake, both professors of astronomy at Cornell University at the time, were approached by officials at NASA to create the unique record as a follow-up to their work on the plaque aboard Pioneer 10 . Fellow Pioneer collaborator Linda Salzman also joined the committee, along with Druyan as creative director. The team had six months to capture the sounds and visuals of Earth.

Druyan compiled a sound essay of the history of Earth, weaving into it recordings of a rain forest humming with life, the brain waves and heart sounds of a young woman in love, and a mother’s first words to her baby. Additionally, the record included sounds that provided context for the celestial neighborhood around our planet, such as a distant pulsar and a rapidly rotating neutron star.

Eight copies of the record, made of copper and plated in gold, were produced, including the two that flew to space. Each record cover was etched with symbols depicting how to locate the sun and instructions on how to play the record.

The records, now traveling beyond our solar system through interstellar space, were designed to last between 1 billion and 5 billion years. A hand-carved inscription on the records reads, “To the makers of music — all worlds, all times,” serving as the only example of human handwriting on each Voyager mission.

An unexpected journey

When the Voyager probes launched in 1977, no one expected that the twin spacecraft would have their missions extended from four years to 45 years and counting.

Now, the mission team is getting creative with its strategies for the power supply and instruments on both Voyager 1 and 2 to enable both probes to continue collecting valuable data as they explore uncharted interstellar territory.

Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth at about 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away, while Voyager 2 has traveled more than 12 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) from Earth, said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Both are in interstellar space and the only spacecraft to operate beyond the heliosphere, the sun’s bubble of magnetic fields and particles that extends well beyond the orbit of Pluto.

As the sole extensions of humanity outside the heliosphere’s protective bubble, the two probes are alone on their cosmic treks as they travel in different directions.

Think of the planets of the solar system as existing in one plane. Voyager 1’s trajectory took it up and out of the plane of the planets after it passed Saturn, while Voyager 2 passed over the top of Neptune and moved down and out of the plane of planets, Dodd said.

The information collected by these long-lived probes is helping scientists learn about the cometlike shape of the heliosphere and how it protects Earth from energized particles and radiation in interstellar space.

“I kind of describe them as twin sisters,” Dodd previously told CNN . “One has lost its hearing and it needs some hearing aids, and another one has lost some sense of touch. So, they’ve failed differently over time. But in a general sense, they’re very healthy for how old they are.”

As long as both Voyager 1 and 2 remain healthy, it’s likely the aging probes will continue their record-breaking missions for years to come.

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Iconic NASA Voyager Golden Record Copy for Sale at Sotheby’s Auction

A copy of the master recording for NASA’s Voyager Golden Record — the one kept by the late astronomer Carl Sagan and his wife, producer Ann Druyan — will be for sale at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday.

One of the most iconic pieces of space exploration history

Back in 1977, the twin Voyager probes were launched with the mission to explore our solar system. On board, they carried identical golden records, intended as a message from humanity to potential intelligent life beyond our world.

Contained within these records were audio and visual representations of Earth’s rich diversity of life and culture. The collection included greetings in 59 different human languages and 115 images depicting various aspects of life on our planet. Now, a copy of the master recording for the Voyager Golden Record, preserved by astronomer Carl Sagan and producer Ann Druyan, is set to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York.

The recordings, stored on two double-sided reels of audiotape, are expected to fetch a price ranging between $400,000 and $600,000. Remarkably, these tapes are still housed in their original boxes and feature a fascinating array of sounds and music from different cultures around the globe.

A message on the golden record

NASA proposed the idea to create this record to Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, both astronomy professors at Cornell University. With only six months to work on the project, they had to capture the essence of Earth’s sounds and visuals. Ann Druyan compiled a captivating sound essay, incorporating recordings of a rainforest, brain waves, heartbeats, and sounds from the celestial neighbourhood around Earth.

Eight copies of the Voyager Golden Record were produced, with two of them launched into space. Made of copper and plated in gold, these records were engineered to withstand billions of years, serving as a timeless representation of humanity’s art and culture.

Surpassing their initial four-year mission, the Voyager probes have continued to operate for an astonishing 45 years and are still going strong. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 currently venture into interstellar space beyond the protective bubble known as the heliosphere. Along their journey, they gather invaluable data and offer insights into the shape and boundaries of the heliosphere.

Currently, Voyager 1 holds the record for being the farthest spacecraft from Earth, while Voyager 2 has travelled an astonishing distance of over 12 billion miles away from our home planet. These extraordinary probes continue their unparalleled expedition, exploring uncharted interstellar realms and expanding our knowledge of the vast universe.

An amateur rocket enthusiast with a keen interest in all space-related activity. Looking forward to the day when the UK starts launching rockets into space and I'm able to watch launches (from a safe distance of course).

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One of the most iconic pieces of space exploration history goes up for auction

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Voyager Golden Record 1977 Master Copy Is Up for Auction Starting at $300,000

In 1977, Carl Sagan and his wife accomplished one of the most incredible accomplishments, the Voyager Golden record. Now, that record is going up for auction starting at a bid of $300,000, with expectations of it fetching double that price.

Voyager Golden Record Master Copy

According to Live Science, this feat was accomplished around 46 years ago, when the Voyager 1 and 2, two small probes which carried a pair of gold-plated copper records, were launched into space. These records became the farthest human-made objects that were ever created on Earth.

Both probes and their golden payloads were over 12 billion miles away from earth, floating into space, and gaining more distance daily. Now, the master copy of these records is being placed up for auction starting at almost a third of a million dollars.

The auction would be held by the Sothby's on July 27, where the public will be witnessing two double-sided reels of audio tape. These tapes contain an important piece of history, the Voyager Golden Record master copies.

Authenticating the master copy, it was highlighted that they came directly from the personal collection of Carl Sagan and his wife, Ann Druyan. Both of them played integral roles in the development of the Voyager Golden Record.

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Development of the Copies

Carl Sagan is an esteemed celebrity astronomer. He and his wife helped with the design and development of the record in 1977. NASA describes the Voyager Golden Record as having what was described as the "Murmurs of Earth."

The master copies included 27 music pieces including Beethoven, a Navajo chant, and Chuck Berry among other pieces of art. It also includes 59 languages and 22 minutes of nature sounds.

The Voyager Golden Record was created with the intent of potentially reaching out to intelligent aliens, acting as an "audio postcard," which might have picked up the records. Ann Druyan, NASA's creative director of the Voyager Interstellar Message Project, gave a statement regarding their intentions.

Druyan said that they had hoped to capture the world's diversity and richness, with the record working as a testament to the beauty of life on Earth. In total, the record has eight copies, including the two master golden-plated ones.

Auction for the Master Copy

The auction for the master copy, held by Sotheby's on July 27 with its bidding closing at 11:20 A.M., will place the Voyager Golden Record at a starting bid of $300,000. The expectation is that the master tapes will get up to $600,000.

According to Forbes , the record is called "The Sound Of Earth" and is on a 30cm gold-plated copper analog. The master copy also includes 115 analog-coded images and over 90 minutes' worth of the world's musical traditions.

NASA has also released an official copy of the listed tracks for anyone to listen to. The record even includes humpback whale calls and other unique sounds.

RELATED ARTICLE: NASA Psyche Mission Goes Into Home Stretch Less Than 100 Days Before Launch

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VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD

Voyager Golden Record Album

The Voyager Golden Record.

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