When NASA launched their Voyager craft in the 70’s, each contained a space time capsule named the “Golden Record,” that included a photograph of the Taj Mahal and recordings from Bach, Beethoven and Louis Armstrong.
Now, NASA is looking to send something less tangible: tweets. A microchip embedded with those messages will be sent along with the spacecraft OSIRIS-REx, whose mission is to explore the asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx is the acronym for Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer.
While the focus of this mission is in part to learn how asteroids could impact earth, it will also help preparation for NASA’s ambitious 2025 asteroid capture mission, which would stabilize asteroids within Earth’s orbit for exploration.
NASA’s “Asteroid Time Capsule” contest, running until September 30th, asks the public to tweet their predictions about the future of space travel and communications with the hastag AsteroidMission. Of those submitted, NASA will choose 50 tweets and 50 pictures.
Along with the tweets, NASA and the Planetary Society announced their “Messages to Bennu” project, which allows the public have their names put onto another microchip.
The capsule will be opened in 2023 when the craft is due to return to Earth, and scientists look forward to seeing what predictions about space travel may or may not have come true.
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