World music, NASA style

There's some fascinating information about the Voyager mission and a Golden Record sent along "intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials."

From NASA's web site:

"The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record--a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim."

The music on the disc can be found at NASA's Voyager mission Web site