Israeli aims to send DNA into space

Released on: December 24, 2007, 1:43 am

Press Release Author: Agmno

Industry: Aerospace

Press Release Summary: Israeli project aims to break the bonds of earth and blast
people\'s digital and genetic information to outer space

Press Release Body: People all over the world gathered around a project for the
purpose of spreading life to other planets and leaving an everlasting mark in the
universe. BeInSpace, a non governmental project, aims to preserve and spread life as
we know it to outer space. It has opened a portal that allows users to send their
DNA and upload Digital information that would be sent to outer space in the spring
of 2009. \"This is the only thing that would remain of us, and it can sprout life on
a new fertile plant\" says Solomon Byron, an excited user, that sent his DNA with
hopes that it would last forever.

Francis Crick, a Nobel Prize winner for the co-discovery of a double helical
structure (DNA) published a paper suggesting that life may have arrived on Earth
through a process called "Directed Panspermia". The Panspermia hypothesis suggests
that the seeds of life are common in the universe and can be spread between worlds.
He also suggested that other civilizations could have sent it to earth. \"Why
shouldn\'t we do the same? As an intelligent being we have an obligation to spread
life to other planets! \" Says Agmon David CEO of BeInSpace and emphasize \"Someday,
somehow, life on earth will come to an end, perhaps due to wars, floods, diseases,
or the expansion of the sun to a red giant. Our role as a civilization should be to
help preserve life beyond earth.\"

www.BeInSpace.com intends to collect 1 Tara byte of a variety of digital data such
as web pages, blogs, letters, songs, stories, photos, ideas worth spreading,MP3,EXE
Flash and other files- anything that is digital and is uploaded to BeInSpace . Such
data, known as Memes, are nun genetic replicators that define our cultural
information and expresses what we are.
BeInSpace also collects DNA (genetic information) with participators receiving a
simple kit for collecting their own DNA. Once the kit is returned to BeInSpace, they
will separate the DNA from the cell, encapsulate it, and send it to outer space. \"By
sending our DNA into space, we will be protecting the millions of years of evolution
that are folded within each of our cells, and assuring a part of life will float in
deep space far into the future\" says Agmon.

How far? To ship the memes and genes into outer space, BeInSpace has established
contacts with
Leading providers of space shuttle service and will ship the data out of the
atmosphere, through space, leaving the solar system on a permanent celestial
journey.

The cost for each file, that is uploaded, is a fee based on the type and amount of
MBs that are uploaded. Every MB costs $2. Sending a DNA sample is $87.

30 years ago Carl Sagan sent on a voyager a plate with information and said:
\"A billion years from now, when everything on Earth we\'ve ever made has crumbled
into dust, when the continents are changed beyond recognition and our species is
unimaginably altered or extinct, the Voyager will still speak for us\"

The BeInSpace ambitious project will contain a billion times more information then
the Voyager and contains DNA that will give hope for the beginning of life in other
distant planets.


For decades, time capsules were buried in numerous town and cities across the world
in order to give future generations a glimpse of the past.
But increasingly these projects are moving online and even into space.
Last year, the search engine Yahoo set up a time capsule project that stored the
electronic data of over 170,000 participants - including people\'s favourite songs,
films and movies - in order to create a \"digital legacy\" of our times. Mr David says
his venture is taking the process one small step further on.
His project, however, has been blasted by one of Israel\'s leading scientists as a
\"gimmick.\"
\"This project has no value whatsoever,\" says Noah Brosch, a professor of Astronomy
and Astrophysics at Tel Aviv University.
\"The space on the satellite could be used for doing some useful science. But people
are gullible and will go for it.\"
Alien
But Mr David remains undeterred and convinced of the feasibility of the venture. He
points to the 400 people that have signed up for the project since his website
started operating last month.
Every DNA sample will cost the buyer $87 (44) and $1.99 (1) per megabyte of
information that the participant wants to launch into space.
To send the gathered material in space will cost about $200,000 (100,000),
according to Mr David.
Those who have already signed up for the project are expressing rather practical
reasons for participating.
\"It\'s like buying a lottery, it allows you to fantasise,\" says Noam Permont, 28, a
web media manager based in Tel Aviv.
\"Perhaps, one day an alien will find my DNA, and make me again.\"
Another participant, Liron Zur, 28, and also from Tel Aviv, says that he\'s not gone
for the DNA option - \"it\'s too expensive for my tastes\" - but is keen to have his
pictures in space.
\"I try and put my pictures in as many places as I can,\" says the computer software
developer.
\"I don\'t keep albums anymore. But I try and spread them around so I\'ll be able to
look at them in 20 or 30 years time.\"


Web Site: http://www.beinspace.com

Contact Details: FOR IMMEDIATE
PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Agmon David
Tel: 972 506595963
Email: agmon@beinspace.com

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