But how does one even begin to introduce the human race to an alien civilization? How is it possible to pinpoint the location of Earth in the galaxy, and condense the history of humankind on a 6-by-9-inch gold anodized plaque?
Although created as a friendly message for unknown extraterrestrials, the origins and design of the Pioneer Plaque could teach earthlings something about themselves.
Pioneer 10 would travel through the asteroid belt and head towards Jupiter, at speeds of up to 80,000 mph. It was thrown like a slingshot out of the solar system to explore the great beyond. On its way, it would collect data on our solar system that had never been gathered before. It would also carry the gold-plated Pioneer Plaque—a “galactic greeting card” for any extraterrestrial life that might find it.
“It will be the oldest artifact of mankind,” explained Astronomer Carl Sagan, who helped bring the project to fruition, “A billion years from now, mountain building and erosion will have destroyed everything on the Earth, but this plaque will remain intact.”
PIONEER 10
words by Simon Martin
Design by Martin Flores
MESSAGES FROM
Anodized aluminum was a relatively high-tech material at the time, so it was chosen for its durability. To withstand any potential obstructions during the journey through the asteroid belt, the aluminum was plated in thick gold, which was then engraved with Sagan and
Drake's artwork.
The finished plaque was mounted on the front of the pioneer spacecraft, and just days later, possibly the last time it was to be seen by human eyes, it was launched into the cosmos—to float forever through infinite space, waiting to be found by friendly extraterrestrial beings.
Inspired by Greek and Roman sculpture, artist Linda Sagan—Carl’s wife—and Frank Drake, an astronomer who worked with Sagan at NASA, began to sketch out a visual message that could be understood by extraterrestrials that might encounter it. And, like any great introduction, the ‘greeting card’ begins with something that human beings and extraterrestrials have in common: hydrogen, the most prevalent element in the universe. Because hydrogen decays at a certain rate that defines a unit of time—21 seconds—Sagan and Drake used it as a ‘universal’ yardstick for other measurements on the plaque—particularly the Pulsar Map that identified the location of Earth in the known galaxy.
Using the unit of 21, which can be multiplied by the binary digits represented by the small tick marks both in the pulsar map and in the diagram of the solar system, Sagan and Drake built a system of symbolism, inspired by ‘Adam and Eve’, geared towards scientifically- educated extraterrestrial inhabitants.
The solar system diagram on the bottom shows the binary measurements of the planets. To identify Earth within the solar system, the map shows that Pioneer took off from the third planet, and went by Jupiter—the pre-determined route of the Pioneer mission, taken in order to use the giant planet’s gravity to fling the craft out of the solar system.
On the left side of the plaque, the Pulsar Map shows the sun’s proximity to the 14 closest pulsars.
Markers to the right of the woman indicate her height in centimeters, and the man and the woman are shown in proportion to the Pioneer Spacecraft, which is located in the background.
At the top left of the plate is a schematic representation of the hyperfine transition of hydrogen, which is the most abundant element in the universe.
Click on the icons on the plaque to learn
about their symbolism.
King didn’t expect to fall down the rabbit hole that would eventually connect him with the original engraver of that ‘farthest manmade object in space.’
“I started doing research on the plaque,” says King. “I even saw, on eBay, every once in awhile people will make replicas, but they weren’t right. They didn’t have the rounded corners. They didn’t have the mounting holes. I could tell that they were printed, like a trophy. I was seeking to try to reproduce one via laser engraving–untiI I saw a documentary on the plaque, and within it I saw an old man’s hands engraving the plaque, and I realized… that man… he’s still alive.”
The man was Ponciano Barbosa. A technical engraver at NASA in 1972, he currently owns an engraving shop in Southern California, and happened to have the original engraving plate used for the Pioneer 10 mission.
“My passion for the plaque kind of overwhelmed him, because he couldn’t believe that people would be so excited about it. But for him, it was a really proud moment, as well it should be. He made the thing that is floating out there right now, billions of kilometers away from us.”
Creators
“By strange coincidence, when I was young I was obsessed with being a designer,” explains Design Director Duane King, from his design studio in Portland, Oregon.
“I drew spacecraft most of my childhood. My father was an engineer so I had a lot of exposure to blueprints, technical drawings, and materials, research labs, and things like that. So I love the technical nature of spacecraft in general. And then I was a really big fan of the TV show Cosmos. That’s when I was first introduced to the Pioneer plaque.”
In 2000, just a few years after the last transmissions between Earth and Pioneer 10, King, who would later work with companies ranging from Apple to Nike, bought his first-ever Internet domain name—partly inspired by his fascination with space exploration.
“I thought, ‘I wonder if I could get Pioneer 10 as a domain name’, because Pioneer 10 is the furthest manmade object in space, so it’s a metaphor for the extremes of human exploration, and it’s headed towards my birth sign, the Taurus constellation,” he explains. “I held on to that domain, always thinking about the plaque. Then, in October of 2016, I decided that I wanted to make a replica of the plaque for myself.”
“It was amazing, even magical. I had to share the opportunity to feel this way.”
On May 16th, 2017, 45 years after Pioneer 10 was launched towards Jupiter, King teamed up with Barbosa to introduce a Kickstarter campaign, offering the
first-ever opportunity to own a replica of the Pioneer Plaque—made by the creator of the original, using the exact same methods.
“I’ve made a lot of technology, and I think that technology can have a divisive power. One of the problems we have right now is that as algorithms present us with more and more individualized expressions of the world, we forget that we are all in this together,” adds King.
“So for me, objects like the Pioneer Plaque are emblematic of the things that bind us all and make us human. We survive because we’re hopeful and curious, not because we’re scared, and huddle inside a cave, afraid to progress. There’s a boundless curiosity that’s just so important to being human."
The plaque is a beautiful piece of information design—the story of humankind and where we exist in the galaxy, simplified to just a few symbols—but it also tells the story of human exploration and the relentless pursuit of discovery.
And perhaps now, more than ever, we need reminders of objects like this, to bind us together and remind us that we are all human.
“I think it’s important to be mindful of that. Who knows—maybe someday we'll learn that some other planet that we thought was a barren wasteland was, at one time, just as fruitful and productive as the Earth,” says King. “Being a designer I’m endlessly curious,
so there are parallels in my own experience to what I seek or what is aspirational to me, in objects like the
Pioneer Plaque.”
King himself is no stranger to innovation: in 2011, with the Nike Better World website, King was credited with introducing the concept of parallax scrolling to the web, and was named one of the 50 most influential designers by Fast Company magazine. He was so awestruck at holding his own personal plaque—one of the few plaques made from the same original master engraving plate—that he felt compelled to share it
with others.