Humanity is poised to leave an “eternal footprint” on the moon thanks to a time capsule set for launch by NASA in 2027.
The capsule contains a series of sapphire discs etched with images of human life, culture and achievements, Knewz.com has learned.
Engineers from France officially announced the project, titled “Sanctuary On The Moon,” at a UNESCO press conference on Thursday, March 21, and shared highlights from the event on social media.
“Our discs are made up of a multitude of layers, visuals, graphics, text, photos, equations…A giant puzzle to transmit our history and information into the future,” artistic director Mario Freese said, when translated from French to English.
The team said the discs would depict the “essence of humanity” with examples of mathematics, culture, paleontology, art, science and human genomes, The Daily Telegraph reported.
“The moon is the ideal place to preserve such a time capsule,” project contributor Michael Benson said. “Thanks to its ancient surface, it is impervious to flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes.”
“We’ve been on Earth for a mere 300,000 years, but our footprint up there will be eternal,” paleontologist Jean-Sébastien Steyer added. “They’ll be there long after we’re gone. That’s why it’s worth leaving messages and traces for the future.”
The project’s founder, Benoît Faiveley, worked with an international team of scientists, designers and artists to select the images for each of the 24 discs, which are being engraved at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, according to The Telegraph.
The discs contain one pixel for every human who has ever lived on the planet. Two separate discs will also feature male and female genomes, sequenced by the British Columbia Genome Sciences Center.
“It will be a variegated portrait of our species engraved in micropixels. There are important examples from astrophysics, particle physics, astronomy and planetary science,” Faiveley said.
He said he was inspired to “create a 2.0 version” of the Golden Record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc containing sounds and images — meant to portray “the diversity of life and culture on Earth” — that launched aboard a Voyager spacecraft in 1977.
“It’s an honor to have a contract with NASA. This is the first time the agency has selected this type of project in 46 years,” Faiveley said.
Former NASA chief scientist Jim Green called the project “a unique opportunity to preserve our knowledge…with selected information that describes our culture.”
“I thought it was a great idea,” Green said.
The discs will be placed into a durable aluminum capsule and delivered to the moon’s surface using an automatic space probe under a Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract with NASA.
“We hope Sanctuary will constitute a ‘cosmic hello’ to our descendants or perhaps even visitors from elsewhere,” Faiveley said.
The post ‘Cosmic Hello’: Moon Time Capsule Discs Promise ‘Essence of Humanity’ to Be Left for Future Descendants, Visitors From Elsewhere appeared first on Knewz.
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Author: Marissa Papanek
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