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From: nraoaoc@nmt.edu (Daniel Briggs)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Nameplates on space probes
Message-ID: <1990Nov9.014107.10312@nmt.edu>
Date: 9 Nov 90 01:41:07 GMT
References: <112263@philabs.Philips.Com> <68212@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Reply-To: dbriggs@nrao.edu (Daniel Briggs)
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro NM
Lines: 22

In article <68212@bu.edu.bu.edu> sultan@bu-ast.bu.edu (Peter Sultan) writes:
>There have been several `nameplates' on US space probes.
>I suspect that `Posterity' is the usual reason.  How many
                                                  ^^^^^^^^
>people are going to read the "We came in peace..." plaque
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>on the Apollo 11 LEM?   The recently launched CRRES satellite
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>has a plate affixed to it in memory of Stan Shawhan, the
>Director of NASA's Space Science division who died last June.

C'mon, Peter, the moon is right next door!  We may well never see the
Voyagers again, (Star Trek I notwithstanding), but the moon isn't
*going* anyplace, relative to us.  If the world gets its collective
act together, that site may well be a *shrine*, a century from now.
It's not even completely outlandish that someone reading this message
might one day read that plaque.

-- 
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