Daft Punk - Contact sample source

May 21, 2013 8:33 PM

Contact by Daft Punk supposedly "contains audio from the Apollo 17 mission used by courtesy of NASA and Capt. Eugene Cernan". The sample says: "Hey Bob, I'm looking at what Jack was talking about and it's definitely not a particle that's nearby. It is a bright object and it's obviously rotating because it's flashing, it's way out in the distance, certainly rotating in a very rhythmic fashion because the flashes come around almost on time. As we look back at the Earth it's up at about 11 o'clock, about maybe ten or twelve diame...Earth diameters. I don't know whether that does you any good, but there's something out there." When I Google this I find only Daft Punk references. Is it a genuine soundbite from the Apollo 17 mission or did those wacky French robots make it up?
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: FWIW, according to this page and the embedded video, it's a real sample. Getting the sample from NASA is discussed briefly starting around 4:45 in the video.
posted by churl at 8:41 PM on May 21, 2013

Best answer: When I heard that track, the first thing I did was google it (you knew it had to be sampling something and it sounded so real).

The top hit I got (this was back when the album was only streaming) was this google books hit to page 125 of "How Apollo Flew to the Moon." That's lower on the list now that the album is out and lyric sites are starting to catalog it.

It is apparently quite real (and the book goes into some detail about it what it was that they were most likely seeing).
posted by NormieP at 8:46 PM on May 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You'll find it in

Apollo 17 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, December 1972, 2,461 pages

around "APOLLO 17 MISSION COMMENTARY 12/9/72 CST 18:15 GET 69:21 275/2".
posted by zamboni at 8:49 PM on May 21, 2013

SC Okay. Hey Bob, I'm looking at what Jack
was talking about and it's definitely not a partical that's
nearby because there is another one I can look at and get a
three dimensional comparison with. It is a bright object
and it's obviously rotating because it's flashing. It's way
out in the distance as I say because there are particles
that are close by and it's obviously not one of those. It's
apparently rotating in a very rhythmic fashion because the
flashes come around almost on time and as we look back at
the Earth it's up at about 11:00 about - oh, maybe 10 or
12 Earth diameters I don't know if that does you any good,
but there is something out there.
CAPCOM Rog, we don't doubt it Gene and we might
work out a set of fimble angles or something here maybe we
can get a look at it through the optics.
SC Okay. And I just want to emphasize that's
it definitely not one of these particles that tends to look
like a star out there something physical in the distance.
SC (Laughter). (Garble). Yes, guess I am.

posted by zamboni at 8:49 PM on May 21, 2013

Response by poster: Awesome. I'm surprised this isn't more popular with the UFO conspiracy-theorists.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:59 PM on May 21, 2013

Best answer: Gene Cernan is a darling of the UFO community because he has made some statements in print that he believes we're being visited. UFO believers very confidently assert that pilots and astronauts are unimpeachable experts in all things sighted in the skies, but in fact they're prone to biases inherent in their training, such as to treat all things in view as potential collision threats.

He claimed to have been privy to a number of secrets which are part of the UFO cover-up, and made some statements about a previous mission to Mars.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:04 PM on May 21, 2013 [3 favorites]

If you like this sort of thing I recommend Exploration, by The Karminsky Experience, which features a prominent sample of Frank Borman, commander of the Apollo 8 mission.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:53 PM on May 22, 2013