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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.08.15 15:33l 74 Lines 3471 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 64368_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 20
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150820/1430Z 64368@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1911
First around-the-world telegram sent, 66 years before Voyager II
launch
On this day in 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times office
sends the first telegram around the world via commercial service.
Exactly 66 years later, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) sends a different kind of message-a
phonograph record containing information about Earth for
extraterrestrial beings-shooting into space aboard the unmanned
spacecraft Voyager II.
The Times decided to send its 1911 telegram in order to determine
how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world by
telegraph cable. The message, reading simply "This message sent
around the world," left the dispatch room on the 17th floor of
the Times building in New York at 7 p.m. on August 20. After it
traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different
operators, through San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong,
Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon and the Azores-among
other locations-the reply was received by the same operator 16.5
minutes later. It was the fastest time achieved by a commercial
cablegram since the opening of the Pacific cable in 1900 by the
Commercial Cable Company.
On August 20, 1977, a NASA rocket launched Voyager II, an
unmanned 1,820-pound spacecraft, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It
was the first of two such crafts to be launched that year on a
"Grand Tour" of the outer planets, organized to coincide with a
rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Aboard
Voyager II was a 12-inch copper phonograph record called "Sounds
of Earth." Intended as a kind of introductory time capsule, the
record included greetings in 60 languages and scientific
information about Earth and the human race, along with classical,
jazz and rock `n' roll music, nature sounds like thunder and
surf, and recorded messages from President Jimmy Carter and other
world leaders.
The brainchild of astronomer Carl Sagan, the record was sent with
Voyager II and its twin craft, Voyager I-launched just two weeks
later-in the faint hope that it might one day be discovered by
extraterrestrial creatures. The record was sealed in an aluminum
jacket that would keep it intact for 1 billion years, along with
instructions on how to play the record, with a cartridge and
needle provided.
More importantly, the two Voyager crafts were designed to explore
the outer solar system and send information and photographs of
the distant planets to Earth. Over the next 12 years, the mission
proved a smashing success. After both crafts flew by Jupiter and
Saturn, Voyager I went flying off towards the solar system's edge
while Voyager II visited Uranus, Neptune and finally Pluto in
1990 before sailing off to join its twin in the outer solar
system.
Thanks to the Voyager program, NASA scientists gained a wealth of
information about the outer planets, including close-up
photographs of Saturn's seven rings; evidence of active geysers
and volcanoes exploding on some of the four planets' 22 moons;
winds of more than 1,500 mph on Neptune; and measurements of the
magnetic fields on Uranus and Neptune. The two crafts are
expected to continue sending data until 2020, or until their
plutonium-based power sources run out. After that, they will
continue to sail on through the galaxy for millions of years to
come, barring some unexpected collision.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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