“Tell the story of who we are, what we know, what we do. » This is the ambition of the designers of the Sanctuary on the Moon project, a time capsule which should fly to the Moon in 2027 as part of NASA’s Artemis missions. Inside are 24 sapphire discs containing information said to represent “the very essence of humanity.” All data will be readable with the naked eye or using a magnifying glass and will be engraved, allowing it to last for “millions of years”. Officially launched on March 21, the project, initiated by French engineer Benoît Faiveley, brings together scientists, particle physicists, astrophysicists, engineers, artists, paleontologists, graphic designers and artists.
“A work of art that speaks of humanity”
If so many specialists are working on the project, it is because the creators of Sanctuary on the Moon wish to represent a diversity of knowledge on records. Concretely, the first five, “titled “Space”, Water”, “Matter”, “Life” and “Time”, cover most of our knowledge in their respective fields and contain human discoveries, art, culture, academic facts, etc. », explains Mario Freese, artistic director of the project. The next four discs integrate data on the human genome, male and female, and the tenth is devoted to living things, in order to show “that our species is a tiny twig on the tree of life,” explains Jean-Sébastien Steyer, paleontologist. who participates in the project.
The remaining discs are devoted, among other things, to cultural and artistic heritage: pop culture references like Space Invader, films, music, games… A selection of more than a hundred UNESCO sites, which supports the project will also be represented, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and 24 different languages.
At the center of each disc are the basics of science, such as the notions of mass, distance, the speed of light, the periodic table of elements, or even representations of the human body, including all the layers (skeleton, vascular system , muscle, skin, etc.) will be visible by superimposing the discs.
Speaking to future generations
Behind this “crossroads of knowledge” lies a very precise objective, which has become one of the mottos of the mission: “Leave a trace for the future in space, open a window on the present on Earth”. But leave a trace for whom? If the project evokes a message “for other potential intelligent life forms” (understand extraterrestrials), the designers, starting with Benoît Faiveley, want to be realistic: “Presumably, since we remain in the vicinity of the Earth, the potential discoverers are more our descendants,” says the engineer.
Future generations, even very distant ones, are thus the main recipients of these plaques, with a view to safeguarding them. “Nothing allows us to ensure the sustainability of humanity and the data we have on data centers more than a few centuries old, explain the designers. The Moon allows something to last without it being altered. » Jean-Sébastien Steyer, paleontologist on the project, sees it as a way of “trying to better know who we are in order to leave a slightly less ephemeral trace of what we do today”.
Update knowledge
Sanctuary on the Moon is part of the lineage of space probe plates Pioneer 10 And 11launched in 1972 and 1973, and the gold disc of Voyager 1 And 2, launched in 1977. Benoît Faiveley, at the origin of the project, is passionate about space exploration. Originally from Nuits-Saint-Georges (Côte-d’Or), a small town which gave its name to a lunar crater during the Apollo 15 mission, he is fascinated by the Moon, and “this passion [l’a] very quickly led to a reading that would change [sa] life forever: Murmurs of Earth, by Carl Sagan. The famous American astronomer, designer of the plates of Pioneer and the gold disc of To travel, tells the genesis of these projects. “I wanted to do the same and make a 2.0 version, for our descendants in the very distant future,” explains Benoît Faiveley.
The designers of Sanctuary on the Moon thus see in their project a way to “see what has been done in forty years”, between these “old” plates and now. “The image of the universe that we have between today and 1977 has nothing to do with it! At the time, we dreamed of black holes, now we have confirmed their existence,” they add.
And if the Moon was chosen, it is because men have a very special relationship with it: “It has always been in the landscape, humanity has grown up with the Moon. She is the Earth’s most faithful friend, she is there every twenty-nine days,” describes Benoît Faiveley.
An “anachronistic” vision?
This project, however, has attracted criticism, particularly from researchers in the human sciences. This is the case of Ségolène Guinard, an anthropologist specializing in the imagination of the conquest of space, who considers in particular that this desire to want to leave traces is “anachronistic”. “We are precisely at a point where we leave far too many traces, with pollution, microplastics, radiation, concentrations of CO² or methane in the atmosphere, the way in which agriculture has modified the soil… J “I have the impression that this type of project goes completely against ecological discourse,” laments the researcher.
She also believes that this mission is “very anchored in a particular culture. Who gives themselves the right to decide what a trace of humanity is? It’s a very Eurocentric ideology. Memory also passes through stories, rituals, intergenerational transmission, oral discourse, community…” The anthropologist also considers it “interesting to think that we can decide what we leave, our heritage. This goes against history, archaeology, literature and philosophy: the moment you write something, you cannot decide in advance what people will remember. . Future generations will take these traces and interpret them in the light of their own present. »
The designers of Sanctuary on the Moon hope, through their project, to “create federation and emotion”. “It’s not a question of absolutely wanting to leave a trace of humanity, it’s simply that the opportunity presents itself. And then, leaving a trace is a desire as old as humanity,” concludes Benoît Faiveley.
“I find that it is important to pose as humans, as a small grain of sand in humanity, by saying to ourselves “this is what we know, and this is what we can pass on to the generations future, for good or for bad”, adds Jean-Sébastien Steyer, who believes “that we should do this every fifty years”.