





Jean-Marc Philippe, the creator of KEO replies to you:





It was necessary that the name of the project reflected its spirit of sharing and exchange between all people. This name had to be acceptable by all people irrespective of their age or culture. Since no such example of universality existed in our past or our local mythologies, one partner came up with the idea to research the sounds (phonemes) common to the most widely spoken languages today and to choose the ones that are used most frequently: [k], [e], and [o]... and hence was born KEO, a name that is pronounceable by all cultures.

Space appeals to the human imagination and KEO is addressed to the imagination of each one. Moreover, if we would have decided to bury this Fresco of Messages, we would have had to select a place, a country... whereas space belongs to everybody... or nobody.

KEO will certainly encounter dangers in space but will be immune to any catastrophe on Earth. In fact if there was any calamity to occur, KEO would indeed play the role of a guardian of this "souvenir of Humanity."

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.

The main risk for KEO is the possibility of a collision with micrometeorites or space debris of human origin. This is the reason why the core of KEO is protected by several layers of shields made from aluminum, titanium and tungsten, that are separated by a vacuum.

Nevertheless, if the pollution of human origin in space continues to grow at its present level over the next fifty years (+5% per annum), KEO would have practically no chance of survival.

There is no doubt, however, that restrictive measures will be taken to prevent this, since space debris is not only endangering the operation of costly military, scientific and commercial satellites, but more importantly, threatening the lives of astronauts in space shuttles and stations. Thus, the big spatial groups like the NASA or the ESA are already developing programmes to "clean" this debris. This is the reason why we consider this risk as non significant.

A technical feasibility study carried out during the years 1996-1997 concluded that KEO's safe and sound return to Earth in 50,000 years was possible. This means that KEO has reasonable chances of attaining its objective as that of an interplanetary missions being launched today. For this, KEO takes advantage of our present day capabilities in precision design, technological mastery of capsule re-entry and uses materials that have demonstrated their durability in nature (eg. Titanium, Tungsten).

(For more information, you could refer to the site, www.keo.org and download 3 pages in English that talk about the technical feasibility of the project at the 48th International Astronautical Congress, Turin, October 97.)

In July 1998, the National Grand Accelerator of Heavy Ions (GANIL) conducted an experiment whereby glass disks on which our messages will be engraved were exposed to intensive radiation. The experiment showed that the disks and their data remained intact even after they were exposed to an equivalent amount of cosmic radiation that they will undergo in 50,000 years.

It is evident that what is a "must" in our technology today -a Laser reader- will be totally obsolete in the future. However, due to its volume and innate fragility, a DVD disk reader cannot be included in KEO's payload. Therefore we are currently working on creating diagrams bearing simple symbolic explanations on the construction of a DVD disk reader in order to make it possible for our future descendants to access the contents of the disks. Following the example of the Rosetta Stone, this information will be repeatedly made available to them such that it is clear and easy to decode.

No. KEO is an operation that is open to everybody free of cost.

In order to make it possible for everybody to participate, we have managed to restrict the cost of individual participation to the cost of an Internet connection or a postal stamp to send the message.

You can send your message right now, either via Internet at our site www.keo.org by visiting the page titled "Your Message" or by post to: KEO, BP 100 - 75262 PARIS Cedex 06 - France.

Yes, each of us has 4 pages of freedom at his or her disposal to speak out, without undergoing any censorship and fully decide of the message's content. The only limit is not to exceed 6 000 signs, spaces included, that is to say the equivalent to 4 A4 size pages. This to allow the 6 billions of Earth's inhabitants, that we are today, to have a chance to participate into KEO. You only have the right to send one message. Besides, in order to permit to our descendants to know better who we were, some information fields have to be filled out: birth date, gender, mother tongue, language of the message… and others are optional, such as name, first name…

No, only written messages will be accepted. Drawings, photos and sound are heavy consumers of disk memory and would not permit each person living on this planet to express himself. Keeping in mind the physical constraints of the memory space, a certain form of restriction or censorship would have been necessary. This contradicts the spirit of the project that is collectively open to everybody. However since images and sound form an integral and important constituent of our times, they will be represented in the "Contemporary Library of Alexandria" (The Encyclopedia of all the knowledge, habits and customs of the man of the 21st century).

KEO depends essentially on the human solidarity to receive messages from those people who are illiterate.

We are currently working with several international networks to publicize the project and help in the collection of messages.

When a child hears about KEO at school, on television, in the library, or at the dispensary, we hope that he talks about this to his parents or his grand parents. If anybody amongst them do not know how to write, don't you think that this child would pen down their oral message?

If you do not have your own Internet access you may try and find it in the neighborhood-at a friend's place, at a cyber cafe, at the library, at school or at the city hall. Or you may address your message by regular post at: KEO, BP 100 - 75262 PARIS Cedex 06 - France.

The messages will be stored in the author's original language, the language that he has chosen to express himself.

Yes, all the messages, after being made anonymous, will be made available for consultation. We ourselves are looking for a wide coverage and readership of the messages. We believe that without a real exchange of messages between us, KEO will never completely attain its goal.

In fact even though KEO constitutes a formidable gift for the future generations, its real interest lies in the impact it will have on us today.

Slowly and gradually as the messages arrive they will be stocked in secured databases which will be made accessible via the Internet after the launch of KEO. Each person can thus can inquire about the community of Men in Africa, America, Australia, Asia and Europe...

KEO is a non-profit undertaking which is being realized solely through the benevolent contributions of several professionals, individuals, enterprises and institutes who pool in their knowledge free of any charge.

Thus, Programme KEO being an ethically transparent organization can avoid all criticism regarding better usage of resources for other objectives such as humanitarian goals.

Only the Project Co-ordination Team of Programme KEO that works full time to manage the different activities and participants has to find ways of financing its daily operations.

KEO does not have its own energy. It is a passive satellite which means that it does not contain any energy sources or active instrumentation on board. Once injected into the orbit, it is only subject to the laws of nature (ballistic forces, terrestrial attraction, lunar and planetary, pressure from solar radiation and breaking due to the Earth's residual atmosphere), that will be responsible for its long journey of 50,000 years before it returns to its native soil.

No, because KEO is a passive satellite and once launched into the orbit, it can no longer be contacted. Since it will be orbiting around 1,800 km above the Earth it will be possible to view its flight with the help of powerful optic telescopes. On the other hand to survive 50,000 years KEO has to be made up only of stable materials: interactive materials like batteries which would have permitted us to communicate with it, would have endangered its life due to their unpredictable decomposition.

Purely for symbolic reasons is KEO adorned with two big wings. This image will appeal to the human imagination as a mythical figure of a bird that is the messenger of the people of the 21st century.

To allow its wings to flutter, KEO uses a leading-edge technology "shape memory alloys". These are metallic alloys that are able to assume different shapes according to different temperature ranges and revert to their original shapes each time they are brought back under their original temperature.

Thus KEO's wings will go down each time the satellite enters the Earth's cone of shadow, and go up as soon as KEO encounters direct sunlight again. Therefore, no form of energy is needed to make KEO's wings function.

A "Committee of Learned People" multicultural, multidisciplinary and multidimensional has the responsibility of classifying all information, geopolitical and cultural (translating our habits and customs) of the people of the 21st century for the benefit of our future descendants.

In accordance with the non-profit philosophy of the project, the satellite will be launched as a “secondary passenger”. Therefore it is dependant on the launching of a commercial or scientific mission whose orbit fits KEO’s one. According to the projected development plan of Ariane 5/10 tons launcher, the first possible launching range takes place around 2014 / 2015 .

The first decisive step is to validate the project financing, via one or more benefactors.( step in process).

When this is achieved, we will be at the date which will be called T0 (T zero ).

From TO : creation of the project team, composed of full-time staff, led by an expert project management company .

Establishment of the team in an allotted place and working out of the project detailed planning.

At T0 + 3 months : laun ch of the communication campaign to collect as many messages as possible, from all peoples, in all languages of the Earth.

Length of the campaign. 2 years.

At T0 + 6 months : launch of the technical project to carry out the KEO capsule and to integrate it in a launcher to choose. This will be done by expert companies in this field, financed from the KEO program budget achieved at T0.

Duration of capsule construction: 2 years, then 6 months for launcher integration.

At T0 + 27 months: Closing the collection of messages that are then assembled in the CD to be loaded onto the capsule KEO.

At T0 + 30 months : c apsule ready to be incorporated into the launcher to be thrown into space.

At T0 + 36 months : providing, in an anonymous way, all messages carried out by KEO on the KEO website