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Early Sunday, March 2, the ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record made a successful Moon landing as part of the Ghost Riders in the Sky Lunar mission that launched on January 15 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.��

This mission, a part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services within the Artemis program, is carrying 10 NASA experiments and the ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record, the work of an interdisciplinary research team, led by ����AV researcher and alumna .����

This ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record intends to preserve Earth’s cultural and scientific heritage for posterity with this specially designed payload, which includes a ��digital portion that mirrors the concept of the . The archive will serve as a time capsule for future humans, offering them a glimpse of life on Earth during the early 2020s.��

The creation of this lunar archive was a collaborative effort that began in early 2023 when Nick Searra, founder of the Interstellar Foundation, invited Berea to lead the project. Despite having no initial team or funding, Berea quickly gathered a group of scientists, philosophers, and linguists from such prestigious institutions as Barnard College, Columbia University, and the University of Cambridge. The team also received support from notable figures, including astronaut Scott Kelly and Jonathan Jiang from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.��

With a tight six-month deadline, the team created a message that could fit within the strict digital space limitations of the payload. The biggest challenge was deciding what to include. The team wanted the message to be a “dry-run” for future, more extensive interstellar messages, and ultimately settled on content that would be meaningful to archeologists or future pioneers.��

The archive, delivered on special physical mediums designed for space provided by mission partner LifeShip, contains a wealth of wide-ranging content, including videos, scientific materials, global aspirations, historical records, and cultural artifacts. “The payload will reside on the Moon for�� eternity,” said Berea, who teaches in of the College of Science.����

The ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record includes a 1GB microchip containing videos, images, and texts that highlight humanity’s journey on Earth and the Moon, incorporating materials that reflect Earth’s cultural, scientific, and historical achievements. Among the key items is a 24-minute that showcases global snapshots of contemporary life. Each minute represents one hour from various parts of the Earth, from morning to night, and includes scenes of families cooking, children in school, workers in offices and fields, and people participating in cultural events. This “visual quilt” stitches together snapshots from world cultures, including indigenous communities, showcasing daily routines from all corners of the planet.��

The archive also includes an , where individuals from around the world share their hopes for the future in their native languages. In addition, the payload houses images and content from UNESCO and Getty archives, including a representation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other materials include the constitutions of 192 countries on Earth, the Apollo 11 launch codes, historical works, art, music, and scientific texts, such as works by Newton, Curie, and Asimov.����

Berea even included a personal touch with an engraving of her name and affiliation with ����AV, symbolizing her contribution to this historic effort.��

“The goal of the project was not to tell the story of famous individuals or events but to encapsulate a broader representation of human life,” Berea explains.����

According to Berea, the project team chose a video format, blending video, subtitles, and code, as they believed it would be more easily understood by future beings, whether human or otherwise.��

In addition to the digital content, the team took precautions to ensure the message could survive for millennia. In case digital technology becomes obsolete, parts of the message were engraved in analog nano-fiche and synthetic DNA on a 1MB capsule. This forward-thinking approach ensures that future civilizations, regardless of technological advancement, can access the message.��

One of the most significant aspects of the ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record is the ethical responsibility of leaving a message for future generations. The team grappled with questions such as who the “receiver” of the message would be and what content would best represent humanity. “Who speaks for Earth?” they asked, recognizing the great responsibility of crafting a message that would stand the test of time.��

“I have been honored and fascinated to collaborate with this of the most amazing scientists, humanists, artists and people from all walks of life,” said Berea. “I am forever grateful to my team and our collaborators for their trust, their dedication, their passion and their support to this project that will give us a tiny place in our interstellar future history.”��