OUR MESSAGE TO THE FUTURE British teenagers were among thousands of young people who have responded to an unusual

request from scientists. They were asked to 'send a message to the future'. The messages, which describe the daily lives of the people who created them, such as personal notes, letters, pictures, and music, will be placed in a time capsule called Space Arc. They can also leave their experiences, their feelings, their concerns, their hopes and dreams. The four kilogram capsule will be on a satellite which is being launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The response to the scientists' request has been incredible. There have been thousands of letters from all over the world but scientists have selected some of the messages. Space Arc will contain all sorts of
information about life on earth today. Messages are going to include information about school, family life and religion as well as drugs and crime. It is important that the messages reflect the life on the Earth accurately. We don't want people of the future to misunderstand what life was in our time. The satellite will circle the Earth for twelve years. After that time, Space Arc, which was paid for by an American museum, will separate from the main satellite and be sent into orbit a few hundred miles above the earth. It will remain in orbit for thousands of years.

Space Arc was created in order to communicate with the people of the future. A time capsule stored with precious documents, emotions and thoughts from a past can serve as a visual and material presentation of what past times were like. It is impossible to predict exactly what will happen to it. The human race may have disappeared by the time is opened again, but we are sure Space Arc could be an important contribution towards a peaceful future.