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.
