Which satellite will carry messages to future generation ?

Kainantu

http://www.keo.org/ (website) Messages to be stored and read 50,000 years later NEW DELHI (REUTERS) - Want to send a message to your future descendants that will be read 500 centuries later? A group headed by a French scientist, putting together a satellite-based time capsule, is in India seeking messages that will orbit Earth for 50,000 years and then return to the planet. The non-profit 'KEO' program, costing at least {$50} million, is funded by more than two dozen mostly European firms, some of which have interests in the space industry. It has also been elected as UNESCO's 'Project for the 21st century'. 'It's a gift from the people of today to the people of tomorrow,' Jean-Marc Philippe, a scientist-turned-artist and the creator of KEO, told a news conference. 'We have enough memory on satellite to store six billion messages. The small, powerful, weak, strong and the rich have four pages (each) to pen down their thoughts.' The spherical, 220-pound satellite, which has several shields to protect it from shocks, cosmic debris and meteorites, will be launched in space from the French Arianne rocket by the end of 2003. 'India has such a rich legacy and diverse culture that I can't imagine KEO being launched into space without carrying India's essence aboard,' Sejal Gupta, communications officer for the program, told Reuters. Gupta said the group had met more than 1,000 Indian students on the first two days of their 20-day visit in the country. 'The response has been overwhelming in India,' Gupta said noting the project had received thousands of messages through post, and on its Web site, www.keo.org, from people aged between four and 84 years in over 60 languages and from 181 countries. Philippe said he was reasonably sure an inte Dec 18 02, 9:43 PM