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- From: klaes@verga.enet.dec.com (Larry Klaes)
- Subject: Will LAGEOS 2 Earth satellite have a plaque, too?
- Message-ID: <1992Aug19.140536.3700@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>
- Keywords: LAGEOS, Earth, earthquakes, plaque
- Sender: usenet@nntpd.lkg.dec.com (USENET News System)
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
- Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 15:01:04 GMT
- Lines: 33
-
- Will the LAGEOS 2 satellite - scheduled for launch on the
- Space Shuttle STS-52 mission - have a plaque of some kind on it
- as the craft's predecessor did in 1976?
-
- To explain, LAGEOS 1, launched in 1976, was designed to help
- scientists measure the movements of continental plates. Since
- LAGEOS 1's orbit would keep it in space for eight million years
- before plunging back to Earth, Carl Sagan had a plaque designed to
- help future explorers understand the purpose of the satellite.
-
- Briefly, the LAGEOS 1 plaque depicted three views of Earth's
- continents: As they were 250 million years ago when all the land
- masses were combined into one called Pangaea; as they appeared in
- 1976 (launch year); and as they will probably look in 8 million A.D..
- The plaque also contained a diagram of the satellite and a simple
- picture of Earth orbiting Sol to explain the concept of one year.
-
- You can read more about the LAGEOS plaque in Carl Sagan's 1978
- book MURMURS OF EARTH, which also discusses the VOYAGER 1 and 2
- gold records and the PIONEER 10 and 11 plaques to extraterrestrial
- intelligences (or humanity's future space explorers).
-
- Your information is appreciated.
-
- Larry Klaes klaes@verga.enet.dec.com
- or - ...!decwrl!verga.enet.dec.com!klaes
- or - klaes%verga.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com
- or - klaes%verga.enet.dec.com@uunet.uu.net
-
- "All the Universe, or nothing!" - H. G. Wells
-
- EJASA Editor, Astronomical Society of the Atlantic
-
-