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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.

WHO WE ARE

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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

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PARTNERING ORGANISATIONS/ INSTITUTES

Long Now Foundation
Stamper Technology Inc.

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.
 

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