Pioneer Plaque Pendant

This Pendant was inspired by acculation's Instagram feed and blog on data science and technology, with the goal of demonstrating Maker jewelry line based off some of the images. The Pioneer Plaque (cropped to meet IG community standards) is a meme and one of the coolest infographics of all time. As such, it became one of the most popular monochrome posts on Acculation's feed, and thus an ideal candidate for a demonstration of the Maker movement.

This pendant is the ultimate in geek chick jewelry. It is designed to be printable in a wide variety of materials, from inexpensive plastics through to the rarest precious metals. Whether you're a student on a budget looking to make a statement about Earth's place in the Cosmos, or you're a successful geek looking for inspiration in precious metals, this pendant has printing material options that will fit your budget and needs.

As described in the Acculation blog and IG posts that inspired the photo post, the original Pioneer Plaque was Carl Sagan-designed and launched about the Pioneer spacecraft in the 1970s. It provides information about Earth, including its location, in a language intended to be universally understood by advanced civilizations. Some consider it one of the coolest infographics ever designed.

This jewelry pendant version is heavily modified to meet community/content standards as well as make the plaque design 3D printable and usable as a pendant. The original pionner plaque was an old-fashioned precision engraving on a much larger surface. Today's 3D printers generally don't have the same resolution. Moreover, a typically pendant needs to be much smaller.

As a result, the lines had to be made much thicker to make the pendant 3D printable. (Although a hint of the quasar timings remains, if you're ever lost in space wearing this pendant, you probably won't be able to use the image to find your way back home.) Some other changes were automatically made by the software due to wall thicknesses issues. In addition, parts of the original engraving was cut all the way through as an artistic decision to maximize contrast. (This wasn't possible everywhere).

Finally, the atoms in the H2 hyperfine transition were centered, and one of the atoms was cut entirely through to serve as the attachment to the pendant chain.