Send Text Messages into Outer Space: ET, What’s Up?

Until August 24, those die-hards yearning to text with a new and different inter galactic touch may send via an Australian website, short mobile phone-type messages into outer space. Read on for more information, and ET, stand by.

According to news sources, beginning this coming Wednesday and lasting until August 24, an Australian web site, (www.helloFromEarth.net) will facilitate a unique and out-of-this-world experience for those who desire to attempt communication with other planets. By visiting the website, they can post messages no longer than 160 characters that will be then transmitted to Gliese 581d, which is the nearest Earth-like planet outside the solar system likely to support life. Getting an answer, however, is not guaranteed, and even if it comes you might have to wait twenty years, a true test of even the most patient among us. In the words of Wilson da Silva, project spokesperson:

“It’s like a message in a bottle cast out into the stars. What’s interesting is not just whether there's anyone listening, but what the public will say to intelligent life on another planet. Hello From Earth is our way of showing that science can make the impossible possible. We have been to the moon and now, we can speak to the stars.”

The transmission process comes from the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, with the close cooperation of U.S. space agency, NASA. The project represents one segment of Australia's National Science Week and celebrates the country's most significant scientific achievements. Science Minister, Kim Carr, sent the very first text message. He said:

"Hello from Australia on the planet we call Earth. These messages express our people's dreams for the future. We want to share those dreams with you.”

Will these messages reach ears and eyes that can decipher them? If they ever do, no doubt mobile telephone conglomerates will find a way to be there, offering packaged deals on computer, cable and phone use and then there will be no escape from anything…ever! What do YOU think about this?