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We all know many things about the Golden Record itself, but I'm having trouble finding any information about the stylus that was paired with the record on both Voyagers. The most information I've come across is "a stylus and cartridge are bracketed to the underside of each spider's support" and I've never seen an actual picture of it, just the depiction on the Golden Record itself. So, does anyone have information they can share about it? How different was this stylus in comparison to your record player? Were there any connectors or wiring for an output, or were aliens somehow expected to "sense" the vibrations from the needle and it was up to them to build the interface to properly play the record as depicted on the Golden Record cover? Also, does anyone have an actual picture of this thing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

UPDATE:

Well, at least I'm not alone in wanting to know more about the stylus:

One piece of hardware critical to allowing any alien intelligence to “play” the Voyager record is the stylus. Like any standard vinyl LP, one needs a stylus or needle in order play the record. Voyager engineers included a drawing of the stylus along with a crude illustration of how it is to be used. They even included an actual stylus with each record, safely tucked away in a packet lodged inside the back of the record case. Oddly enough, no known detailed photos of the actual stylus exist. I was hoping that the Ozma Records special remastering or Jonathan Scott’s book might have come across photos. I even contacted the JPL historian and staff members at their history office but they were unable to find any. For now, images of the Voyager record stylus remains a mystery.

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    $\begingroup$ Even the definitive book on the record Murmurs of Earth doesn't have much on the technical details. It focuses more on the contents. archive.org/details/murmursofearthvo00saga $\endgroup$ Commented May 4, 2020 at 13:46
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    $\begingroup$ It's so frustrating because it's such a small thing compared to Voyager and the Golden Record, but to me it's a rather important detail and I'm kind of surprised there isn't a hint more information anywhere. In any case, thanks for the link. I'm looking forward to reading it. $\endgroup$
    – Doug F
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 14:43
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    $\begingroup$ I guess a stylus was used requiring no amplifier and loudspeaker, a direct mechanical to acustical transducer. Like the ones used with very early record players. But such a stylus would work only work in an atmosphere of a certain pressure and density as well as certain gravity. $\endgroup$
    – Uwe
    Commented May 6, 2020 at 19:36
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    $\begingroup$ A record stylus is made from diamond, right? Maybe we didn't provide a stylus due to the cost in the 70's for an aerospace-grade diamond, and we were hoping the aliens would provide a stylus. ;-) $\endgroup$
    – JohnHoltz
    Commented May 6, 2020 at 22:29

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For what it's worth, Shure recently said it was a Power Point ceramic cartridge from Electro-Voice:

NASA acquired commercially available Power-Point ceramic cartridges manufactured by Electro-Voice. This cartridge line was introduced in 1957. On each Voyager craft, NASA placed a line drawing of the cartridge playing the golden record; these line drawings match the unique Power-Point housing

Retrieved from: https://service.shure.com/s/article/shure-phono-cartridge-on-the-voyager-spacecraft?language=en_US

A search for vintage Electro-Voice Power-Point ceramic cartridges might yield some additional clues as to which exact model of cartridge was included. To my eye, the record cover line drawing looks something like the Astatic 89T & 81T cartridges, but I'm not an expert.

It appears that at the point in history when Voyager was being built, ceramic cartridges were largely supplanted by magnetic pickup cartridges (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_cartridge). However, ceramic cartridges use the piezoelectric effect to generate a higher voltage swing. Possibly this was a design choice the Voyager builders made-- to provide an example stylus cartridge that produced a readily measurable voltage when moved across the record.

There's no evidence I've seen to indicate the record could be readily played back with the provided cartridge without additional amplification equipment. The cartridge would have translated the vibrations encoded in the record grooves into an analog electrical signal, without requiring batteries or additional power. From there, however, the listener/viewer would have needed to transform the analog signal into a format they could "listen" to.

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    $\begingroup$ huh. it'd be nice if Shure said what they base their assertion on. Interesting, though, +1 $\endgroup$
    – Erin Anne
    Commented Sep 26 at 21:51

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