NASA wants to send your messages to aliens.美国国家航空航天局想将你的消息发给外星人。Back in the 1970s the Voyager 1 probe was sent out into space containing a record of images and words selected by Carl Sagan and others. That craft has now almost certainly left our solar system, and the message in a bottle (or rather a golden record in a space craft) is heading merrily on its way through interstellar space.上世纪70年代，装载了一张唱片的旅行者一号探测器被升空到太空，唱片中镌刻由天文学家卡尔·萨根等人挑选出的图片和facebook。

目前，该探测器早已完全要飞离太阳系，瓶中信（只不过是太空飞行器内的一张金质唱片）于是以节奏轻快的飞向星际空间。And now NASA wants to try it again - even though the craft on which it will place its messages is already 300 million miles from Earth.现在，美国国家航空航天局想再试一次——尽管信息的载体飞行器早已靠近地球3亿英里。That craft is New Horizons, a deep space probe heading to Pluto to study its moons and the dwarf planet itself.这不具飞行器叫新的地平线号。

这不具深空探测器于是以飞抵冥王星去研究这颗矮小行星以及它的卫星。Though it launched in 2006, New Horizons will not reach Pluto until the summer of 2015, at which point it will start to collect data on everything it sees.尽管新的地平线号于2006年升空，但它在2015年夏天前都会抵达冥王星。预计它将开始搜集它看到的一切信息。

But after that - once the craft continues on its path away from the Sun - theres not much more it can do.但那之后，当新地平线号之后它的飞离太阳之旅时，早已再行没过于多的事情可做到了。Or is there? Space artist and journalist Jon Lomberg, who was also involved in putting together the Voyager 1 record, has argued that since the craft will still be contactable from Earth, Nasa should fill its memory banks with messages and data from our planet. Just as with Voyager 1, the idea is that in the (unlikely) situation in which an alien species finds the probe, it might be nice to say hello.也许事实并非如此。由于预计新的地平线号仍需要和地球保持联系，太空艺术家和记者乔恩·隆伯格主张美国国家航空航天局应当用来自地球的信息和数据装进飞行器的存储空间。乔恩本人曾参予制作旅行者一号的唱片。

和旅行者一号一样，这个主意不一定能让外星物种找到探测器，但和它们打个招呼倒是不俗。Last year he launched a petition to make it happen, and launched an independent group (New Horizons Message Initiative) to collect the message.去年他发动了一个抗议来构建这个主意，还的组织了一个叫作“新的地平线信息倡议”的团体来搜集消息。And now Nasa has agreed! Last month Nasa said that it would do exactly as the group asked, and is now working on ways for anyone to submit their messages in the form of audio, video or just words.现在美国国家航空航天局表示同意了这一计划。

他们回应完全同意该团体的抗议，并致力于让任何人都需要递交自己的信息——无论是声音，视频，或意味着是文字。For almost 40 years, people have been inspired by the Voyager record, a portrait of the Earth in 1977, Lomberg told Space.com.隆伯格告诉他space.com，“差不多40年以来，人们都被旅行者号的唱片所激励，那是地球在1977年的肖像。”The world is very different now, and this new message will reflect the hopes and dreams of the second decade in the 21st century. It will inspire young peoples interest in science and ignite the imagination of all ages. We hope it will be an example of global creativity and cooperation.“如今世界早已大不一样。这个新的消息将体现21世纪第二个十年里的期望和梦想。

它将唤起年轻人对科学的兴趣，还能引发所有人的想象。我们期望它能沦为全球创意与合作的一个范例。

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