Messages to travel through time, space

By Lim Tri Santosa

BANDUNG (JP): When I was eight years old, I watched a documentary about a bunch of archaeologists who discovered some hieroglyphics in Egypt. I was immediately inspired. I gathered my metal lunch box, filled with 5 rupiah and 10 rupiah coins, a list of my best friends ranked in order, my "cute" photo and my best socks and handkerchief, which I was sure constituted a scientific breakthrough. I then stuffed these treasures into a plastic bag and buried my "time capsule" under roughly three inches of dirt for future generations to find.

I lied to my mom that I lost my lunch box when I was playing with my friends. My time capsule remained hidden for an entire 24 hours before my mother discovered I had no socks to wear to Sunday school.

So, not all of my projects have been a ringing success. Still, time capsules are a great way to record a special moment in history. And whether you have decided to celebrate the new millennium this year or the next, I say there is no better time to reflect on the past, speculate about the future or document questionable fashion trends than now.

That said, making a time capsule can be a lot of fun, especially if several people contribute to its contents. This makes it a perfect project for classes, families or a group of friends, and a great excuse to plan a 10 or 20 year reunion. What if you could write a note today and have it delivered to the future inhabitants of Earth 50,000 years from now. Absolutely mind-boggling, isn't it?

Yet that is exactly what the KEO project headed by French artist Jean-Marc Philippe, who began the work in 1994, aims to achieve.

Will Earth still be inhabited 50,000 years from now? A French organization thinks so. In fact, it is confident enough to send those future dwellers a gift from space. The KEO satellite, expected to be launched in 2001, will fly high above the Earth with messages from as many humans as possible, possibly well into the billions, according to project managers in Paris.

After traveling for 50 millennia in orbit, the satellite will return to the planet, delivering CD-ROM messages from KEO participants. To name their satellite project, supporters researched the most frequent phonemes in major world languages and came up with "K", "E" and "O." A phoneme is the smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning.

Anyone can submit a message at no cost to KEO via e-mail (www.keo.org). Ranging from schoolchildren to prisoners, people from more than 120 countries (including Indonesia) have already submitted missives for the future, according to the Paris-based non-profit group. The messages are uncensored and remain in their original language, but must not exceed 6,000 characters in length.

Not wired? No problem. You can send your KEO message via regular mail to KEO at 65bis, Boulevard Brune, 75014 Paris, France. The project is also looking into ways to collect messages from people who cannot read or write.

Why launch the messages into outer space? Because space appeals more to the human imagination. Furthermore, complications would have arisen over the question of where and in what country the messages would be buried, whereas space belongs to everyone.

KEO will also carry a few symbolic offerings that will be more lively and easily understood. A view of today's Earth engraved on the satellite's internal spherical envelope so that it will be immediately visible to KEO's finders. It will depict the contours of seas and continents. At the core of the satellite, portraits of men, women and children, representative of the various races at the dawn of the third millennium, which will tend to blend together with future generations. An artificial diamond will hold precious gifts: a sample of sea water, a sample of the air we breathe, a sample of human blood and some fertile soil, attesting to the present state of the key elements without which we would not exist.

KEO is designed to soar to 1,400 kilometers above Earth. As a passive satellite, it will come back to its native soil responding to the pressure of solar radiation, the lunar and planetary attraction, the laws of ballistics and the slowing effect generated by Earth's atmosphere. To ensure the safe return of its payload, it needs an extremely resistant body. Its strong external envelope, made from several distinct Titanium shells, will protect it from the dangers of a long flight in space's hostile environment. The wings should open and close as they pass between sunlight and darkness, using only natural solar power. Should KEO land in an ocean it will float.

KEO is what we would call a "passive" capsule. Once it has been launched into orbit, we can no longer contact it. The choice of a passive capsule was dictated by the length of time it would be in orbit. Working parts permitting communication would over time have undergone an unforeseeable decomposition, thus endangering the future of the capsule itself.

Even if KEO survives, how will future intelligent beings understand the perhaps billions of messages inscribed on the CD- ROMs? The satellite will include a "user manual", with instructions on how to construct a CD-ROM player.

Beyond the technological challenges, this project must also take up the challenge of giving everyone an equal chance to participate in this collective endeavor, despite differences in communications infrastructure and in literacy levels among the Earth's population.

Yet, I still have one doubt, which reminds me of an interesting question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound? Uhm ... , never mind. You still have plenty of time before the 2001 to write down your autobiography and submit it to KEO. The future looks forward to hearing your story.