News

NASA’s New Horizons Ready to Transmit Message to Aliens, Anyone Else Listening

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has a message for aliens and anyone else listening, which will be transmitted when the aircraft exits the Earth’s solar system.

The digital message is only 100MB and is designed to last decades, according to the New Horizons Message Initiative (NHMI), which includes a message and the names of the first 10,000 humans that signed the NHMI petition.  The money has been generated by a Kickstarter campaign and only uses non-NASA funding, with an estimated cost of $500,000 (£293,000).

It’s not uncommon for spacecraft leaving the Earth’s solar system to have some type of message to extraterrestrials, which is what Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 also did.

The spacecraft is currently past Jupiter and recently woke up for the summer – heading towards Pluto.  NASA hopes New Horizons will reach Pluto before the end of the year, with researchers currently tracking the spacecraft to refine its orbit and underwent instrument calibrations.

New Horizons was launched into space in 2006, with the ultimate goal of taking pictures of Pluto’s surface, and then will study the Kuiper Belt.  The spacecraft has already traveled more than 3 billion miles and reaching Pluto is getting closer day-by-day – and is only the fifth probe to reach interplanetary space so far from the sun.

Thank you to VentureBeat for providing us with this information

Image courtesy of NASA

Michael Hatamoto

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Assassin’s Creed Boss Calls Shadows’ Inclusivity Backlash ‘Devastating’

The Assassin's Creed Shadows development team has been facing a difficult time amid an ongoing…

2 hours ago

Yoshi-P Says He Would Like a Re-Release of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics

More than twenty years after the launch of Vagrant Story, many are still dreaming of…

2 hours ago

Still Wakes the Deep 

LIVE THE HORROR: An immersive disaster story aboard a stunningly realised North Sea oil rig,…

7 hours ago

PHILIPS 275V8LA – 27 Inch QHD Monitor

The Philips VA LED display uses an advanced multi-domain vertical alignment technology that gives you…

7 hours ago

EPOMAKER Ajazz AK820 Pro 75% Gasket-mounted Mechanical Keyboard 

【TFT Screen: The Interactive Interface】This 75% mechanical keyboard comes equipped with a TFT Screen, serving…

7 hours ago

Funko Fusion

FANDOM FUSION Play as your favorite characters and wield their unique weapons and skills. Team…

7 hours ago