George Mason scientist, Anamaria Berea leads team to design lunar cultural archive for the ‘Pioneers of Tomorrow’

5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – blastoff.

On the morning of Wednesday, January 15, 2025, the ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record blasted into orbit as part of the Ghost Riders in the Sky Lunar mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Firefly missions are part of the NASA CLPS initiative in the Artemis program. The ASPIRE ONE Lunar Record interdisciplinary research team, led by George Mason University Associate Professor of Computational and Data Sciences, Anamaria Berea, aims to establish a new theoretical framework for planetary-scale archival communication. In this case, the team of scientists from several universities designed a part of the LifeShip payload to preserve our Earth’s cultural and scientific heritage, and are placing it on the Moon with the Blue Ghost Lander.

The digital portion of the LifeShip payload, similar to the Voyager Golden Records, is intended for future humans and contains diverse content including videos, global aspirations, scientific materials, historical records and cultural artifacts.  “If launched successfully, and landed successfully, it is supposed to be set on the Moon after 45 days (early March) and live there for posterity/eternity,” Berea explained. The first phase, launch, occurred successfully.

What will those accessing this interstellar archive encounter? 

“We basically created a 1GB microchip on which we encoded various videos, images, and texts related to the cultural and scientific heritage about the Moon and Apollo 11 missions,” Berea said. It is also engraved with nano-fiche with selected images from the payload, including Berea’s name and affiliation with George Mason University.

The lunar record also contains a selection of scientific, historical and cultural content along with Moon-related materials.  The included Daily Life video depicts global snapshots of contemporary life, while the Aspirations video features individuals sharing hopes for the future in their native languages. A collection of images from the UNESCO and World Heritage archives accompany a Getty images documentation of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. “This portion of the payload included the Apollo 11 launch code, various works of art and music, information about the Moon, and all Earth Constitutions, and more,” Berea shared. “Not only my face, voice, name, and work will be on the Moon for future generations, but George Mason University too.”

Learn more about Berea and her work in this recent Access to Excellence Podcast. Please direct media inquiries to Tracy Mason at tmason11@gmu.edu.

Between now and the lunar landing later this spring, this article will provide updated posts offering glimpses of the special payload videos and historical information included in the mission.