In 1977, NASA sent two Voyager probes out into space, and during the next few decades each beamed back vital information about the outer reaches of our solar system. But while they were primarily meant to transmit data back to Earth, the Voyagers had a secondary purpose: sending information about us into the vast unknown. Famously, each probe had a gold-plated record attached to the exterior, containing a primer of our world in the form of pictures and sound, in the unlikely event that extraterrestrial life would intercept one of the Voyagers during its journey. A team of scientists, academics, and thinkers, led by Carl Sagan, determined what the Voyager Golden Records would contain, and Jonathan Scott’s exuberant, conversational book The Vinyl Frontier recounts the entirety of this fascinating project, which was completed from start to finish in little more than six weeks.
