Communication with the extraterrestrial life

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Human beings have always strived to compose and translate messages that could hypothetically be interpreted by another civilization more developed than Earth. Communication with the extraterrestrial life started in 1974 with the Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence CETI experiment headed by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan that developed the Arecibo communication system. The CETI developments focus on pictorial systems, algorithmic communication systems, mathematical languages and computational approaches in identifying and decoding normal language communication.

The New Millennium record and other related messages

The message will be delivered in two parts: salutations in audio format and images.

The audio part of the message will read as follows:

“Here on earth, we human beings transmit this peaceful message into the outer space .Of the millions of objects rotating around in space, some of the planets, perhaps many of them might be inhabited with civilizations of our kind or of your kind. If one superior society encounters the New Millennium record and can comprehend the contents of the record this message is from planet Earth. We are managing to stay alive in our era so we may live into a more advanced time such as yours. We trust that some day, having solved the issues that we face here on Earth that we will unite with your superior community. This record symbolizes our optimism and our willpower and our concern in a cosmic and tremendous world.”

The message has included several aspects that hint of the possibility of establishing and maintaining a cordial relationship with extraterrestrial beings. This explains why the message starts with a message of peace and acknowledgement that other forms of life exist elsewhere. The audio format ensured that the message was portrayed with the stress and gravity that it deserved. It is expected that if the aliens will respond in whatever way, their message can be recorded in an audio format that can be analyzed by scientists to decipher their language. In the event that the aliens will respond, the structure of the message was designed to ensure that we get enough information on their location as extraterrestrial beings, their intention toward new life in space and even their level of intelligence (Crawford et al, 2001).

The audio message will be encrypted in ten different languages that are a representation of the largest communities in the world. The audio encryptions will be done in Latin, English, Punjabi, Arabic, Armenian, Dutch, Korean, Persian, Russian and French. An audio format was the best format for delivering the message because it is easy to hear and understand the message. Audio messages could also be easily recorded by the extraterrestrial beings and played back later for further interpretation. The amount of information conveyed to the life in outer space needs to be descriptive, elaborate and precise. In this way, the extraterrestrial beings will have a clear picture of what earth and its occupants look like.

The message will be relayed to various locations in a systematic manner. First, it will be relayed to the moon where humankind has spent considerable amount of time exploring and established as being secure. From the moon, the messages can be relayed to planet Mars that has also been partially explored for signs of life. Planet Mars was selected because it held the most comfortable weather in the solar system after Earth (Billings, 2006). The planet had evidence that liquid water once flowed on its surface and that bacteria-like organisms once inhabited the “red” planet. These two entities will serve as the base stations for other transmissions to the rest of the objects in outer space. It is assumed that if there was evidence of living things on Mars, then relaying the audio messages on the planet’s airspace might trigger a reply from the extraterrestrial beings on it in the case that they are present.

The second part of the message will include a collage that will be displayed across the transport medium in the process of relaying the message. The collage will contain images of important milestones and activities from around the world. The exact images include the pictures of industrial activities, religious ceremonies, sports, military work, politics and business. It is intended that the collage will show the aliens what the human beings are engaged in here on earth and hope that they share similar interests. The collage will be mounted on one of the drones, satellites or devices that will be used to transport the messages to the extraterrestrial beings.

The usage of the collage serves as a safety measure incase the extraterrestrial beings cannot decipher the sound signals that are being relayed from Earth. Scientists have confirmed that nearly all living things can discern and remember images and basing our arguments such studies, the collage will serve the purpose of showing the way of life here on earth (Jonsson et al, 2012). It is expected that the extraterrestrial beings will understand these different activities going on in the image, as they are deemed superior to human beings. The collage also attempts to put forward a message that human beings are interested in making peaceful relations with other extraterrestrial entities.

The notion that the human beings are not the only living things in the universe has been proposed by various parties. Some scholars have based their research on scientific evidence while other radicals have based their arguments on hearsay. Whatever the case, the pursuit of other forms of life in outer space holds the promise of either groundbreaking discoveries or the start of another major transformation in the lives of human beings within planet Earth. The attempts of communication with these supposedly present life beings on other planets will be a great step toward determining whether they shall be amicable or aggressive in their relationship with human beings and other life on Earth.

References

Billings, L. (2006). Public communication strategy for NASA’s planetary protection program: Expanding the dialogue. Advances in Space Research, 38, 10, 2225-2231

Crawford, R., Paszczynski, A., Lang, Q., Cheng, I., Barnes, B., Anderson, T., Wells, R…. Mojarradi, M. (2001). In Search of the Molecules of Life. Icarus, 154, 2, 531-539

Jonsson, J., Sundqvist, J., Nguyen, H., Berglund, M., Ogden, S., Palmer, K., Smedfors, K, Thornell, G. (2012). Instrumentation and vehicle platform of a miniaturized submersible for exploration of terrestrial and extraterrestrial aqueous environments. Acta Astronautica, 79, 203-211