Final answer:
The Voyager Golden Records were included as a symbolic gesture of goodwill and communication with extraterrestrial life, containing earthly images, sounds, and greetings in a time capsule meant for potential distant future discovery.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Voyager Golden Records were an important part of the Voyager missions primarily as a means of communication with extraterrestrial life (option b). These records were encoded onto a gold-coated copper disk and contain a myriad of sights and sounds from Earth, including 118 photographs, 90 minutes of music from various cultures, and greetings in almost 60 languages. Their inclusion on the Voyager missions was not for the benefit of the spacecraft navigation or for backup storage of scientific data, but rather they serve as a time capsule and a symbolic gesture of goodwill (symbolic gesture of goodwill) towards any potential alien civilizations that might intercept the spacecraft in the distant future.
The enormous distances between the stars make it very unlikely these messages will ever be found. Hence, the records might be likened to a note cast into the cosmic ocean with the slim hope that one day, it might inform someone, somewhere, about the sender's existence. This action forms part of human's desire to reach out and connect with the universe beyond our own world. It represents optimism and curiosity, key aspects of the human spirit, and embodies humanity's hope to endure beyond our own planet and time.