Faces from Earth

A Faces from Earth campaign to introduce the concept of possible extraterrestrial life, interstellar messages and the importance of the Voyager missions to school students.

"Faces from Earth is paying tribute to the Voyager missions and the grand concepts embodied by them and all those who made it possible.  For in a very real sense the space probes became reality by a collective effort of our civilization, both directly and indirectly.  The Voyagers gave us our first real taste, both through their journeys past immense and amazing alien worlds as never witnessed before and the messages and information they carry in those small golden discs on their sides, of what the Cosmos is really like and how we in turn appear in relation to all that vastness of space and time.

Faces from Earth is keeping alive those representation and messages for the current and future generations of humanity, for we are even now becoming Citizens of the Galaxy, no longer confined to the savannahs or villages or even this single planet.  While we are still very much the biological creatures of our distant ancestors, we now have an awareness and abilities they never dreamed of.  We must mature into the species we are moving towards, one which embodies and embraces new worlds and new ways of life scarcely imaged in the past or even now.  Faces from Earth will work together with all those who share the dream of being part of a humanity achieving its full potential among the stars."

- from: The Enduring Legacy of the Voyagers – by Larry Klaes, our Lead Journalist

The campaign shall introduce the following questions to students: 

• what if there is extraterrestrial life out there?
• what would we say to a hypothetical E.T.?
• what would you have included in the Voyager Golden Record?
  

This is the second campaign of the series and it will run as a tribute to Voyager missions on their 33rd launch anniversary – Voyager 1 - 5 September 1977 and Voyager 2 - 20 August 1977. The campaign will focus on our past space probe messages – the Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Record -, radio transmissions (Arecibo Message, Cosmic Calls, Teen Age Message, ...).  The same time we introduce our project Faces from Earth.

We are preparing our next E.T. are You out there? campaign, slated for the period 5 Sep - 26 Sep 2010, this time celebrating and paying tribute to the Voyager missions. Our Lead Journalist Larry Klaes introduces You to the fascinating story of these already legendary spacecraft. Remember, they are already on duty since 33 years,  and still counting.

"Faces from Earth is paying tribute to the Voyager missions and the grand concepts embodied by them and all those who made it possible. For in a very real sense the space probes became reality by a collective effort of our civilization, both directly and indirectly. The Voyagers gave us our first real taste, both through their journeys past immense and amazing alien worlds as never witnessed before and the messages and information they carry in those small golden discs on their sides, of what the Cosmos is really like and how we in turn appear in relation to all that vastness of space and time."

E.T are you out there? is a campaign of "Faces from Earth" project to introduce the concept of possible extraterrestrial life and interstellar messages to school students. The campaign introduced the questions to students: "what if there is extraterrestrial life out there?, what would we say to a hypothetical E.T.?". Thinking about these questions leads naturally to consider topics like sensitive communication, self-reflection, responsible preparation and handling of encounters by adults and students.

It was participated by school student groups in five countries; Hungary, Germany, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Ukraine during May 2010. Each of the groups started with an introduction to past space probe messages – the Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Record -, radio transmissions (Arecibo Message, Cosmic Calls, Teen Age Message, ...). At the end of the activity, each student/group created a “constructed message” for E.T. Some of the groups released completed messages with helium balloons as a message in a bottle.

Ein Projekt von peregrinus interstellar.

Im Rahmen von Gesichter von der Erde werden wir

• über Botschaften von der Erde - Geschichte, Begründung, mögliche Auswirkungen auf die Menschheit - informieren
• Veranstaltungen organisieren, um der Öffentlichkeit Themen der Astronomie und der Raumfahrt näher zu bringen und Deep Space Missionen zu fördern
• an der Konstruktion weiterer Botschaften arbeiten, die an Bord von zukünftigen Deep Space Missionen mitreisen werden - auch mit einer holographischen Bibliothek von Gesichtern von Menschen unserer Mosaic Earth

Die Wichtigkeit, respektvolle Bewohner der Galaxis zu sein und unseren Kindern ein wertvolles Vermächtnis zu überlassen, ist eine treibende Kraft bei der Gründung und Gestaltung von Faces From Earth. Gesichter von der Erde ist dazu konzipiert, Menschen aus einer Vielzahl von Feldern und Disziplinen der menschlichen Kultur zusammenzuführen, um auf allen zukünftigen Missionen in den tiefen Weltraum die Lebewesen und Objekte unserer Welt besser in ihrer Vielfalt dem Universum vorzustellen. Wir laden Sie und alle, von denen Sie glauben, dass sie an einem solchen Projekt interessiert sein könnten, dazu ein, sich Gesichter der Erde anzuschließen, um an unserem historischen Erscheinen im Kosmos mitzuwirken.

Faces from Earth - Prelude