ABOUT BEYOND THE EARTH
The Beyond the Earth foundation is a non-profit public benefits, education, and research organisation. The NGO was originally established in 2016 to examine and document the breadth of indelible legacies arising from humanities' causal relationship with our surrounding environment, while also contributing to the theoretics of information-conservation debates and communication strategies for the benefit of deep-time archaeology and stewardship discourse.The Beyond the Earth is a non-profit public benefits, education and research organisation. The NGO was originally established in 2016 to examine and document the breadth of indelible legacies arising from humanities' causal relationship with our surrounding environment, while also contributing to the theoretics of information-conservation debates and communication strategies for the benefit of deep-time archaeology and stewardship discourse.
To explore these unique yet interconnected challenges, we are pioneering novel research and practical developments within archival processes across three specific domains; archive contents (see our ‘After the Horizon’ programme), and archive design (see our practical experiment the ‘Companion Guide to Earth’), along with exploring the disciplinary limits and technical arguments associated with intelligible sign-crafting (our ‘Meaning Beyond the Modern Mind ' working group). Over the course of these investigations we intend to contribute to best practice guidelines for safeguarding identified ‘essential’ materials in other international archival repositories, while also facilitating unique outreach and engagement strategies within these critical fields of study.
The foundation is an international collective of astrobiologists, ethicists, anthropologists, artists, futurists, scientists, academics, and other professionals who possess an enduring concern for the future habitability of the Earth system. We aspire to responsibly ensure that the preservation and commensurability of essential information is maintained for future generations — to give posterity a factual opportunity to commit informed decisions on behalf of their inherited world. There are many crucial stewardship resolutions yet to be made — many by the present, but many more by the great, silent majority of future generations who will inherit and experience unfolding legacies from our eras.
COUNCIL OF TRUSTEES
Capova, Klara Anna
European Space Technology Centre (NE) & Durham University (UK)
Dunér, David
Lund University (SE) & METI International (US)
Dutil, Yvan
Ministère de la Santé et des Service Sociaux, Québec (CA)
Quast, Paul E.
University of Edinburgh (UK)
Smith, Kelly
Clemson University (US) & METI International (US) & Interstellar Beacon (US)
Stoyanova, Victoria
Napier University (UK)
Traphagan, John W.
Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin (US) & Visiting Lecturer Waseda University (JP) & METI
PARTNERING ORGANISATIONS/ INSTITUTES
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORS
Abelmann, Leon
HUDOC, University of Twente (NE)
Ansbro, Eamonn
SETI Kingsland (IE) & UK SETI Research Network
Benford, Gregory
Astrophysicist & Author (US)
Blaxter, Mark
University of Edinburgh (UK)
Brin, David
Author & Fellow of Institute of Ethics and Emergent Technologies (US)
Dravins, Dainis
Lund Observatory, Lund University (SE)
Elliot, John
Leeds Beckett University (UK), UK SETI Research Network & International Academy of Astronautics (IAA)
Evans, Chris
UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Green, David
The Ozymandias Project (US)
Ha, Bruce
Stamper Technology Inc. & NanoRosetta (US)
Hanlon, Michelle
For All Moonkind (US)
Hanlon, Timothy
For All Moonkind (US)
Haqq Misra, Jacob
Blue Marble Institute (US)
Irons, David
Lunar Mission One & Lunar Mission Trust (UK)
Kunze, Martin
Memory of Mankind (AT)
Manz, Andreas
HUDOC, University of Freidburg (DE), KIST (KR)
McCaughrean, Mark
European Space Technology Centre (NE)
Sandberg, Anders
University of Oxford - Future of Humanity Institute (UK) & UK SETI Research Network
Scotese, Christopher Robert
University of Texas (US)
Taylor, William
UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Welcher, Laura
The Long Now Foundation (US)
SUPPORTING FACILITIES/ INSTRUMENTS
NanoRosetta
FUNDING PARTNERS
The Europlanet Society
Public Engagement Funding Scheme (Heritage in Space platform)
PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS
University of Edinburgh
Humanities and Social Sciences Press & Public Relations.
EXTERNAL VISUALS & MEDIA
Azimuthal Equidistant (South Pole) Projection (2017/ 2018)
Courtesy of NS6T's Azimuthal Map generator.
Earth Full-Disk Image (2017)
NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] & GOES-16 Satellite/ Team.
ETOPO1 Global Relief Model [WebGL Capsule Canvas] (2008)
National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration [NOAA].
The Milky Way Panorama (2009)
European Southern Observatory/ S. Brunier.
Photograph of Earth rising above Moon (1969)
Apollo 11 Astronauts & NASA (AS11-44-6560).
A Simple Response to an Elemental Message (2015)
Courtesy of Paul E. Quast.
Mosquitoes fill the air outside the Toolik Field Station in Arctic Alaska (2015)
Courtesy of Jesse Krause.
Corn Field Row (2013)
Courtesy of ‘The Arkow’/ Pixabay.
Small Microplastic pellets on finger (2019)
Courtesy of iStock/ pcess609.
Dumped barrel of DDT on the seafloor near the coast of Catalina Island (2011)
Courtesy of David Valentine/ UC Santa Barbara/ ROV Jason via AP.
Rusting barrels of nuclear waste at Hurd Deep, English Channel. Remnants of barrels tipped into sea by the U.K. between 1950 and 1963 (2000)
Courtesy of Gavin Newmann/ Greenpeace (Twister expedition - GP012W3).
CLAB Interim Storage (2019)
Courtesy of SKB, Sweden.
RTG-ALSEP Setup (1971)
Apollo 14 Astronauts & NASA (AS14-67-9366).
The Runit Island Dome (2019)
Courtesy of Los Angeles Times.
Onkalo Disposal Facility Excavation (2014)
Courtesy of Posiva Oy, Finland.
Hanford Site, Trench 94 (2021)
Satellite data courtesy of Google Maps.
Bags of radioactive waste piled up at a temporary storage site in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture (2015)
Courtesy of The Japan Times.
Artur Korneyev, Deputy Director of Shelter Object, viewing the “elephant's foot” lava flow at Chernobyl (1996)
Courtesy of US Department of Energy/ Getty.
Side-scan sonar image of the Baltic seafloor detailing a scuttled ship full of chemical weapons, and trawl marks from fishing vessels nearby (2016)
Courtesy of Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oceanography.
Chemical Munition dump in Baltic Sea (2019)
Courtesy of Laurie Debove/ Arts et Humanité.
Aralsk-7 facility, Vozrozhdeniya Island (2021)
Satellite data courtesy of Google Maps.
The German cruiser Blücher listing heavily to port
Photograph courtesy of Fotograf Ukjent/ Scanpix.
Stern segment of the U-864 with most of the Mercury stored in submarine keel
Underwater scan courtesy of Kystverket/ Norwegian Coastal Administration.
Thames Richard Montgomery KC 7722
Photograph courtesy of Clem Rutter/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
Lake Nyos (30 March 2023)
Courtesy of Landsat 8 satellite (Bands: 2, 3, 4, 8) & USGS. Data processed by Paul Quast.
The tsunami stone near Aneyoshi Bay in Honshū, c. 30 October 2011
Photograph courtesy of T. Kishimoto/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Lake Kivu satellite (29 July 2021)
Courtesy of Landsat 8 satellite (Bands: 2, 3, 4, 8) & USGS. Data processed by Paul Quast.
Lahar flowing from the Mount St. Helens crater into the North Fork Toutle River valley
Photograph courtesy of USGS, taken on 21 March 1982 by Tom Casadevall.
Imagery of the asteroid 2014 JO25 (2017)
Generated with radar data collected using NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert, courtesy of NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ GSSR).
Fallen Trees, Tunguska Event (1938)
Photograph courtesy of Leonid Kulik Expedition, Wikipedia.
Chelyabinsk impact event (2013)
Courtesy of Alan Fitzsimmons & Youtube.
Barringer Crater, Arizona (2012)
Courtesy of Getty Images.
Manicouagan Crater, Canada (4 May 2015)
Courtesy of Landsat 8 satellite (Bands: 2, 3, 4, 8) & USGS. Data processed by Paul Quast.
Stellar Surface with Solar Flares and CME
Timelapse with hundreds of frames taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Stills taken from Heritage in Space platform
Visualisation generated using data from ESA’s TASC and NASA’s HORIZON services. Model developed by Beyond the Earth foundation (using coding from stuffin.space platform).
Pioneer F Plaque Location (1972)
Courtesy of NASA Press Office.
Cosmic Call 1 pictograph series [image composite of bitmaps 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18] (2001)
Courtesy of Yvan Dutil & Stéphane Dumas.
Charles Duke family portrait (1972)
Charles Duke & NASA (AS16-117-18841).
Gold-Plated Record is attached to Voyager 1 on 29 July 1977 (1977)
Courtesy of NASA Press Office.g- Radiosphere graphic
The Pitch-Drop Experiment (2017)
Courtesy of University of Queensland, Vimeo livestream of experiment.
Beal Seed Experiemnt Bottle (2021)
Courtesy of Derrick L. Turner/Michigan State University.