A sail spacecraft using solar wind will send DNA samples out of the atmosphere
Yuval Dror
The spacecraft model based on the solar wind principle
A few weeks ago, Denis Tito landed on Earth, paying 20 million
A dollar to be the first tourist in space. Now a company from Houston offers
fly four and a half million people into space for $50. Well, no
The real people, just their DNA.
In the last century humanity has been trying desperately to make contact with intelligent life
that may be somewhere in outer space. For this purpose a friendly message will be sent into space
in several languages with the aim of announcing the existence of the human race on earth.
Now, the company Encounter 2001, located in Houston, USA, is planning
to send additional "materials" for the perusal of the friendly aliens.
Encounter 2001 is a subsidiary of the Celetis company that has been using it since 97
In rockets that leave the limits of the atmosphere carrying the ashes of
People who asked in their wills to burn their bodies and scatter their remains in space
the exterior.
Equipped with the technical knowledge of the parent company, the subsidiary plans to build a spacecraft
based on the principle of the solar wind (Solar Sail) to accomplish a goal
Other.
Solar spacecraft are different from NASA's familiar space shuttles.
Their purpose is to make use of the solar wind produced by the sun and to use it
Basically the sailboat floated on the surface of the water using the power of the wind.
To do this, the spacecraft deploys a special sail the size of a football field to it
Attached is a small container containing the contents that will be found by me
the aliens The advantage of this type of spacecraft is that while they are at the beginning of their journey they
Slow compared to traditional spaceships, after all, over time they pick up speed
and become much faster than normal spaceships. In Encounter 2001
It is estimated that the spacecraft will launch during 2003. It will orbit the ball
Haaretz for three weeks for the purpose of system testing and in 2018 they expect,
It will pass the planet Pluto - the furthest from the Sun. when you get out
The spacecraft from the solar system will have a speed of 7.8 miles per second, and this
Compared to 5 miles per second of normal spaceships.
To realize the DNA vision in space, Encounter 2001 turned to
the public and offered him, for $50, to store a picture in the space container
their digital, a unique message they will choose to convey to the aliens and a sample
A hair from their head, which contains their DNA code. The company expects you to succeed
Collect about 4.5 million such samples by the time of the historic takeoff
into space
The cost of the program is estimated at about 25 million dollars and most of it will be financed by me
private investors as well as in the hands of the public, who will ask to transfer their genetic load
into space Charles Chaper, the company's president, told the Associated Press
That so far about 67 thousand people have signed up for the program, and that he has no doubts
that in the coming months hundreds of thousands more will join.
One of the more famous participants who have already agreed to take part in the program is
Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark. Clark said he would be happy to take it
Part of the technology that he had already predicted in 1963, when he wrote a short story called
"The wind from the sun", which dealt with travel in space that uses solar wind.
"Goodbye my clone", was the message that Clark chose as a message to accompany you
His hair sample.
According to him, it is possible that in the future the spacecraft will find its way to the civilization of its choice
Clone him from the genetic information he sent into space. Clark could not appreciate the mother
His clone will write excellent books like the original.
