Keo Satellite Time Capsule, Message To Earth’s Future

KEO is the name of a proposed space time capsule that will be launched in 2010 or 2011. There have been previous spacecrafts carrying time capsules of earth’s existence sent into space but what makes the KEO Satellite different is it will be designed to return back to earth 50,000 years later. The KEO project was conceived in 1994 by French artist-scientist Jean-Marc Philippe. If this ambitious project is realized the KEO will carry a drop of human blood chosen at random encased in a diamond, samples of air, sea water and earth and the DNA of the human genome. The satellite will also carry an astronomical clock, photographs of people of all cultures and an encyclopedia of current human knowledge.
Interesting Fact: The Satellites name is supposed to represent the three most frequently used sounds common to the most widely spoken languages today, K, E and O. Also, every person is invited to write a message addressed to the future inhabitants. The deadline is December 31, 2009.


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 in cavern walls.