When scientists sent the Pioneer 10 pictorial message into space in 1972, their primary objective was to tell potential extraterrestrials about the nature humankind as well as modern day concepts of what life was on Earth at the time.

However, a lot of things have changed in man's way of life some 43 years since the launch of the message pod.

A team of British philosophers and astronomers from the United Kingdom's SETI Research Network (UKSRN) are now planning to update the pictorial message by sending new plaques into space.

At a recent conference in Leeds, members of the UKSRN decided to send out an updated version of the Pioneer 10's pictorial message, this time to reflect the diversity of life and gender equality on Earth.

Space policy expert Jill Stuart at the London School of Economics (LSE) said that the original message plaques placed onboard the Pioneer 10, which were meant to convey the spacecraft's origin and to provide information on the inhabitants of Earth, presented several issues to modern observers.

She pointed out that the pictorial message portrays an image of a man with his hand raised in a manly fashion while an image of a woman is depicted as standing behind him, seemingly meek and submissive.

Stuart added that the messages featured on pictorial messages should be carefully thought out before deploying into space. She said that the attitudes of people have significantly changed over the past 40 years.

As for the human figures featured in the Pioneer 10 plaques being depicted as white, Stuart said that she does not favor sending out messages or images that depict material dominated by Western ideals.

To carry out the next pictorial message project, the UKSRN researchers will take part in the Breakthrough Message competition, which offers participants a prize worth $1 million for developing a digital missive that best represents the civilization of man.

The contest prize also includes a new effort to bolster the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Anders Sandberg, a SETI representative from Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, said that the researchers' decision to join the Breakthrough Message contest was hard-won. He said that half of the members of the group voted against launching a message at all.

Sandberg said that the dissenting scientists expressed concern about drawing the attention of the wrong type of extraterrestrials.

He said that the concern was not so much about the idea of invading aliens, but that the silence in the skies could possibly be caused by the decision of alien civilizations to avoid making contact with humans. Some of the researchers thought it could be unwise to draw their attention.

Photo: Zolt Levay | Flickr