KEO

KEO is the name of a proposed space time capsule which was to have been launched in 2003 carrying messages from the citizens of present Earth to humanity 50,000 years from now, when it would re-enter Earth's atmosphere. It was later delayed to 2006, then to 2007/2008, 2010/2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, followed by 2015/2016.[1] Currently the KEO website cites 2019 as its launch, however, no actual date is set and information about its launch is vague.[2]

Its name represents the three most frequently used sounds common to the most widely spoken languages today, /k/, /e/, and /o/.[3]

Contents

Personal messages

Every person is invited to contribute to the time capsule. The contribution deadline was originally 31 December 2009, but as of 2014, it has been extended to end of 2014.[1] Messages can be posted via the project's website or sent by postal mail. The organizers encourage everybody to gather messages from children, senior citizens, and the illiterate so that every culture and demographic on Earth is represented. The organization says, "All the messages received, without undergoing any censorship, will be embarked aboard KEO." The satellite has enough capacity to carry a four-page message from each of the more than six billion (as of the original 2009 deadline) inhabitants on the planet.[4] Once the satellite is launched, the messages will be made freely available on the web.

Other contents

KEO will also carry samples of air, sea water, earth, and a diamond that encases a drop of human blood chosen at random with the DNA of the human genome engraved on one of its facets.[5] The satellite will also carry an astronomical clock that shows the current rotation rates of several pulsars, photographs of people of all cultures, and "the contemporary Library of Alexandria", an encyclopedic compendium of current human knowledge.

Technical aspects

The messages and library will be encoded in glass-made radiation-resistant DVDs. Symbolic instructions in several formats will show the future finders how to build a DVD reader.

The satellite itself is a hollow sphere 80 cm in diameter. The sphere is engraved with a map of Earth and surrounded by an aluminium layer, a thermal layer and several layers of titanium and other heavy materials intertwined with vacuum. The sphere is resistant to cosmic radiation, atmosphere re-entry, space junk impacts, etc. For its first few years in orbit, KEO will sport a pair of wings 10 meters across that will aid in its spotting from Earth. As the satellite enters the atmosphere, the thermal layer will produce an artificial aurora to give a signal of the satellite's re-entry. The passive satellite will not carry any communications or propulsion systems. It will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket into an orbit 1,800 km high, an altitude that will bring it back to Earth in 500 centuries, the same amount of time that has elapsed since early humans started to draw on cavern walls.

Project history

The project KEO was conceived in 1994 by French artist-scientist Jean-Marc Philippe, a pioneer of space art.

Jean-Marc Philippe (died 12 November 2008) was the creator of KEO, a proposed space time capsule.[6][7][8]

Philippe held a degree in geophysics and also worked as a painter. He was a member of the European Academy of Science, Art and Literature and of the International Society for Art, Science and Technology (Berkeley), and the winner of many international prizes.

After his death, messages began to be collected, and an initial launch date was set for 2001. Technical feasibility demonstration and other various delays have moved the launch date to 2019.

Similar projects

Several previous spacecraft have included time capsules for humans (or aliens) in the far future. Part of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, still on the moon, includes a plaque showing the arrangement of the Earth's continents in 1969. The LAGEOS satellite (which will re-enter the atmosphere in 8.4 million years) contains a plaque showing the arrangement of the Earth's continents in the past, present, and future. Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 both contain plaques that give pictorial information about their time and place of origin. Most famously, the two Voyager spacecraft each contain a golden record that contains pictures and sounds of Earth, along with symbolic directions for playing the record and data detailing the location of Earth. The Pioneers and Voyagers have left the solar system for interstellar space. In 2004, the Long Now Foundation produced a nickel disk containing parallel texts in over a thousand languages, which was launched aboard the Rosetta.

See also

References
  1. "Les dates de KEO". keo.org.
  2. "FAQ". keo.org.
  3. "FAQ". keo.org.
  4. "Timeline of the far future". bbc.com.
  5. Edge Life Magazine, May 2003 Archived 8 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Wheye, Darryl; Kennedy, Donald (2008). Humans, Nature, and Birds: Science Art from Cave Walls to Computer Screens. Yale University Press. pp. 19–. ISBN 9780300123883. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  7. Zimring, Carl A.; Rathje, William L. (27 February 2012). Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage. SAGE Publications. pp. 1081–. ISBN 9781412988193. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  8. "The Hindu : Imprints in space and time". The Hindu. 16 September 2002. Retrieved 19 June 2016.

Further reading
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