That time NASA send nude pictures into space, but censored them!
You can read about the Pioneer space probes that were launched in 1972/3 on Wikipedia if the actual space mission interests you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10
However, we are more interested in the plaque that was attached to the space probes and the line drawing images of an adult man and woman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque
I have lots of questions.
I appreciate that space was limited, really ban pun there, sorry. BUT!
The two figures are white. Why not black or Asian? There is an argument for Chinese as there are more of them than anyone else.
Children, why not have the woman holding a baby?
The man has a penis and the woman has … I have subtly altered the picture on this blog post so she is more anatomically correct.
Full frontal nudes, why not the back view too, or instead?
Why even bother with images of mankind?
You have to be a 30 something white Americans for the picture to mean anything at all. I am reasonably confident that if any aliens find the probes they will not have a clue about the images. Plus, the chances of it being found are infinitesimally tiny, and then less than that.
So what of the censorship, no vulva on the woman?
Carl Sagan, the designer of the plaque had this to say:
“The decision to omit a very short line in this diagram was made partly because conventional representation in Greek statuary omits it. But there was another reason: Our desire to see the message successfully launched on Pioneer 10. In retrospect, we may have judged NASA’s scientific-political hierarchy as more puritanical than it is. In the many discussions that I held with such officials up to the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the President’s Science Adviser, not one Victorian demurrer was ever voiced; and a great deal of helpful encouragement was given… The idea of government censorship of the Pioneer 10 plaque is now so well documented and firmly entrenched that no statement from the designers of the plaque to the contrary can play any role in influencing the prevailing opinion. But we can at least try.”
So Sagan censored it, not NASA! It beggars belief.