KEO (satellite)

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KEO (also Kéo in French ) is a planned satellite that, like a time capsule , is supposed to store today's knowledge and messages from all earthly citizens for the earth's inhabitants in about 50,000 years. After that it is supposed to re-enter the earth's atmosphere .

The UNESCO took over the patronage of KEO in 1999 and described it as a "project of the 21st century." The project is carried out by a group of volunteers.

History of the project

The KEO project was conceived between 1992 and 1994 by the French artist Jean-Marc Philippe , a pioneer of Space Art . After two years of studies by Aérospatiale and at SUPAERO , a first feasibility study was carried out in June 1997 and presented to the public in October 1997 at the 48th International Astronautical Congress in Turin.

The start was originally planned in 2001, but has been postponed again and again for a variety of reasons. After Philippe's death on November 12, 2008, Patrick Tejedor took over the management of the project. He assumed that once the funding is in place, it will take two to three years to manufacture the satellite and collect the messages.

Since mid-2017, the project website has indicated the end of 2018 as the deadline for submitting the messages and 2019 as the start date.

The messages

KEO aims to convey messages from humanity in the 21st century to the future inhabitants of the earth. The aim is that every culture or group on earth is represented, which is why it was asked to send in messages from children or illiterate people, which are stored in the original without translation or censorship. The storage capacity is sufficient to store a four-page message from each of the more than 7 billion people . After the satellite is in orbit , the messages (without the names of the senders) will be available on the Internet .

Other payload

KEO will have a diamond on board that will serve as a container for a drop of human blood, air, seawater and earth. The human genome will also be sent. An astronomical clock shows the current speed of rotation of some pulsars . Further contents are photographs of people of all cultures and a library of today's human knowledge.

Technical

The satellite consists of a hollow titanium sphere with a diameter of 80 cm. A map of the earth will be engraved on the globe, overlying it will be several layers to protect the contents from cosmic rays, micrometeorites and the heat of re-entry into the atmosphere. One of these layers will create an artificial " polar light " to arouse the curiosity of the earth's inhabitants. KEO has no communication or drive systems. It will be launched into an orbit at an altitude of 1,800 km with an Ariane 5. The air resistance of the outer atmosphere will cause the satellite to fall back to earth in around 50,000 years without being destroyed.

The data will be stored on radiation tolerant glass DVDs , there will be symbolic instructions in various forms showing how to build a DVD reader.

KEO in the media

The course of the mission after a fictional disappearance of mankind is shown in episode 3 of the 2nd season of the documentary fiction series Future Without People (“The Cradle of Civilization”, USA 2010).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from the Commission nationale française pour l'UNESCO to Jean-Marc Philippe. (PDF) March 18, 2005, accessed on August 18, 2014 (French).
  2. ↑ The KEO team. Retrieved August 18, 2014 .
  3. ↑ VII - KEO: Developpement et Faisablité Technique. Retrieved August 17, 2014 (French).
  4. ^ Marc Montagne: Technical Feasability of the Satellite KEO. October 1997, accessed August 18, 2014 .
  5. ↑ JM. Philippe, M. Montagne: The Archeological Bird of the Future. (PDF) In: IAA-97-IAA.8.2.07. October 1997, accessed August 18, 2014 .
  6. ↑ KEO Project: Why these successive postponements of the KEO launching? June 21, 2009, accessed August 18, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Message de l'équipe du program KEO. Retrieved on August 18, 2014 (French): "Jean-Marc Philippe a rejoint les étoiles qu'il affectionnait tant le November 12, 2008."
  8. ↑ Patrick Tejedor: Patrick Tejedor. President of the Association PROGRAM KEO. June 2011. June 2011, accessed August 18, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Alert. May 20, 2017, accessed on July 22, 2017 : "Probable start date of KEO 2019"