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http://www.keo.org/

Not that I believe in its interest at any rate, but there is a guy that proposed this to UN in 2000, and has been announcing launch dates every two years since then...

At least he made a living out of it for himself, and seems sincere...

Ummm, the Keo guy is dead. He began his new career of pushin' up the daisies on November 12, 2008.

http://www.keo.org/

Not that I believe in its interest at any rate, but there is a guy that proposed this to UN in 2000, and has been announcing launch dates every two years since then...

At least he made a living out of it for himself, and seems sincere...

He seemed sincere, considering he died in 2008.

http://www.keo.org/

Not that I believe in its interest at any rate, but there is a guy that proposed this to UN in 2000, and has been announcing launch dates every two years since then...

At least he made a living out of it for himself, and seems sincere...

1. In Poland (generally in former soviet block) there are many schools (especially those built in 1950's) that have shelters in basement. These are probably good places to consider. If your school don't have nuclear-proof shelter, but you know such place nearby, it probably wold be good idea to hide your stuff there.
2. http://www.keo.org/uk/pages/default.html Even if you don't have comparable amount of money, there are plenty of ideas to borrow from such projects. For example all of your students could write one-page message that would be enclosed with your computer.
3. Including written materials and instructions is possible, ie. you do not have to rely on picture-based instructons, contrary to many projects (like Pioneer probes). The actual proof: it is easy to read text written 50 years ago or more.
4. On the other side 50 years should be enough to attract attention other than future students of your school. In 50 years there could be some sort of computer archeologist or other, who might be interested in such equipment. Think about: what I would like to have attached to computer that is 50 years old.

I wonder why they picked 50,000 years

From the KEO faq:

"Why 50,000 years?

50,000 years is the mirror date to a milestone in the evolution of our species: the first traces of Art reveal the human capacity for abstract thought and symbolic expression.
50,000 years is distance in time so compelling that it forces us to shed our worries and daily routine and puts us each on an equal footing, inviting us to bask in our thoughts, intuitions and deepest convictions...
However 50,000 years only represent 1% of the evolution of the human species that have appeared on Earth some 5 million years ago.
It is also the concept of time and distance that will give our treasures a genuine archeological value because it is very probable that definitive traces of the activities of the Man of today will be in turn recovered by the Man of tomorrow."

Perhaps our clearest records may come to us through our own broadcasts, IF, there is a way around C.

If we could sidestep Einstein right now, stationing a probe 40 ly out would get us fantastic coverage of the early 60's. 30 ly out would get us Vietnam. 20 ly out would get us Reagan, and the mullet.

I'd bet if there IS anyone out there listening we'll be very highly rated, at least for entertainment value. :)

In all seriousness I look for projects like http://www.keo.org to pass down records to far future generations. We have never before tried to think in two generation terms, much less in hundred or thousand generations. We have less than six hundred years of carefully-documented history.

In my eyes part of our growth as a sentient species will involve us learning how to carefully chronicle ourselves for distant-future generations, and how to think and plan in greater than ten year terms.

We still exist very much in the now, as short-lived creatures with even shorter-lived goals -- this may make no sense. My eyes are beginning to cross from fatigue. G'night.

If it is a passive satellite, how can it beat its wings?

To enable its wings to beat, KEO uses a leading-edge technology: shape memory alloys.
These are metallic alloys which are able to assume different shapes according to different temperature ranges and revert to these shapes each time those temperatures are reached.
In this instance, we are exploiting the difference in temperature between shadow and sunlight, so that during its orbit around Earth, KEO will naturally spread its wings when it is touched by the sun's rays and fold them when it re-enters the Earth's shadow.
So no form of energy is needed to make KEO's wings function.

I can't believe they're making this thing beat its wings. Surely, the time spent figuring that part out could have been better spent. Plus, won't that make the metals break down more quickly and effect the orbit and generally cause other problems?

Although, perhaps it will intrigue our target audience enough to make them take a look at it.

The FAQ on the KEO website says that they're including simple schematics and an "instruction manual" for a CD-ROM device so that the finders may be able to read the CD's.

Apparently, there's also going to be a 'library' of world history and current events, portraits of a diverse group of people, an astronomical clock showing when it was launched, and an artificial diamond containing samples of seawater, human blood, air, and soil.

Can anyone else tell that the initiator of the project is an artist, not an engineer?

Even if the satellite survives, how do I know my message will?

The CD-ROMs on which the messages will be stored underwent exhaustive testing in July 1998 at the National Grand Accelerator of Heavy Ions (GANIL). The CD-ROMs were exposed to the equivalent of 50,000 years' of cosmic radiation in GANIL's particle accelerator and passed with flying colors. Despite the heavy exposure, the disks remained intact and legible.

How will our distant descendants be able to read our messages?

It's obvious that today's state-of-the-art technology in data storage, the laser reader, will be obsolete and totally forgotten by then. At any rate, it would be impossible to include one in the cargo due to its prohibitive volume and innate fragility. We are therefore currently drafting a "user manual" using simple symbolic images to explain how to construct a CD player so as to be able to access the content of the disks. Like the Rosetta Stone, the information will be represented in such a manner so as to facilitate the task of decryption.

I cannot add much about natural media decay over time, but if you're concerned about surviving something like a nuclear disaster o a big meteor hit, I suggest KEO. Just filter your stuff to the very essential and expect your data to last for about 50,000 years.