Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    Menu
    Natural Sciences
    Health
    History & Humanities
    Space & Astronomy
    Technology
    Culture
    Resources
    Natural Sciences

    Physics

    • Matter and Energy
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics

    Chemistry

    • Periodic Table
    • Applied Chemistry
    • Materials
    • Physical Chemistry

    Biology

    • Anatomy
    • Biochemistry
    • Ecology
    • Genetics
    • Microbiology
    • Plants and Fungi

    Geology and Paleontology

    • Planet Earth
    • Earth Dynamics
    • Rocks and Minerals
    • Volcanoes
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fossils

    Animals

    • Mammals
    • Birds
    • Fish
    • Reptiles
    • Amphibians
    • Invertebrates
    • Pets
    • Conservation
    • Animals Facts

    Climate and Weather

    • Climate Change
    • Weather and Atmosphere

    Geography

    Mathematics

    Health
    • Drugs
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Human Body
    • Mind and Brain
    • Food and Nutrition
    • Wellness
    History & Humanities
    • Anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Economics
    • History
    • People
    • Sociology
    Space & Astronomy
    • The Solar System
    • The Sun
    • The Moon
    • Planets
    • Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Cosmology
    • Exoplanets and Alien Life
    • Spaceflight and Exploration
    Technology
    • Computer Science & IT
    • Engineering
    • Inventions
    • Sustainability
    • Renewable Energy
    • Green Living
    Culture
    • Culture and Society
    • Bizarre Stories
    • Lifestyle
    • Art and Music
    • Gaming
    • Books
    • Movies and Shows
    Resources
    • How To
    • Science Careers
    • Metascience
    • Fringe Science
    • Science Experiments
    • School and Study
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Science → News

Music company just played a vinyl record 28,000 meters above the Earth

You could say they hit a high note.

Alexandru Micu by Alexandru Micu
August 2, 2016
in News, Space, Space flight

Third Man Records, founded by famous musician Jack White has just become the first company to ever play a vinyl record, on a turntable, in space. The 80-minute long recording, consisting of a mix of composer John Boswell’s A Glorious Dawn and audio clips of Carl Sagan, was sent to space using a high-altitude balloon.

Image via officialTMR
Image via officialTMR

“Our main goal from inception to completion of this project was to inject imagination and inspiration into the daily discourse of music and vinyl lovers,” White told The Guardian.

“We hope that in meeting our goal we inspire others to dream big and start their own missions, whatever they may be.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve sent a record to space — that distinction belongs to the 1977 Voyager mission. But those records are meant for another, more alien, audience. Really, it’s meant for aliens. This is the first time we’ve sent vinyls to space for no other reason than to play them.

Now, turntables aren’t made to survive in the harshness of space — surprising, I know. So White and his colleagues had to find a special container that could protect it and the record on their adventure. They turned to Kevin Carrico, and engineer whose father worked on NASA’s Viking missions.

Carrico spent the past three years designing the Icarus Craft, a container designed to carry a gold-covered vinyl record to the outer limit of the Earth’s atmosphere using a high-altitude balloon. Gold was used to keep the record cool, as Carrico explains:

“As you rise higher and higher into the thinning atmosphere, temperature and increasing vacuum (lack of air) can cause issues,” Carrico said.

“Vinyl has a rather low melting point (71°C/160°F) and without air to keep things cool, you could wind up with a lump of melted plastic on your hands if a record is exposed to the sun for too long.”

The record played for 80 minutes, after which the Icarus eventually crashed in a vineyard. The team reports that the record was still spinning when they finally recovered it.

“Once the return to Earth began (with the craft attached to a parachute and falling about 4x faster than it rose), the turntable automatically went into ‘turbulence mode’, where the record continued to spin, but the tone arm was triggered to lift from the record surface and stay in its locked position, to protect both the needle and the record itself,” the team says on their YouTube Channel.

“When Icarus reached the ground – a vineyard, to be exact – the record still spun, unfazed by its incredible journey.”

You see the vinyl’s journey and its historic playback in this video Third Man Records put together:

Was this helpful?


Thanks for your feedback!

Related posts:
  1. New Zealand’s earthquake pushes the sea floor 2 meters above ground
  2. Scientists played music to aging cheese to change its taste. Hip-hop worked the best
  3. Operation Beluga — or how a Soviet ice breaker played music to whales to save them from starving
  4. There are over 20,000,000,000,000,000 ants – and they weigh more than wild birds and mammals combined
  5. This vinyl playing under an electron microscope is mesmerizing
Tags: Project IcarusrecordSpaceThird man recordsvinyl

ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • More
  • About Us

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t you want to get smarter every day?

YES, sign me up!

Over 35,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. Don’t worry, we never spam. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

✕
ZME Science News

FREE
VIEW