Patrick Tejedor
Chairman of the Association PROGRAMME KEO
January 2019

Jean-Marc Philippe had this wonderful idea to invite all the inhabitants of the planet to write a message to our faraway descendants: they will receive these messages through a satellite that will first turn around the earth during several centuries before landing back on Earth.

This is the KEO project.

How will this project materialize?

In the project’s initial version, the objectif was to find out volunteers to carry out all stages of the project. T he economic crisis and the reality of our world are showing us today that it is unfortunately no longer possible. We will therefore have to separate the project contributors: those who know how to do and who will do through a business contract, and those who will provide the financing.

In order to have this financing accepted universally, it is necessary to get a moral sponsorship recognized by all people on Earth.

Thus, a trio consisting of a KEO Sponsor, of benefactors, few but decisive, and of Companies chosen for their skills, will make an utopian project a reality!

We are currently in this research phase of benefactors. If any ideas appear among the readers of this editorial, please let us know at eko@keo.org.

Once sponsorship and financing are found, t he project will take about three years to complete.

On one hand, we will go on collecting from all continents the messages of today’s men and women to our faraway descendants. To this end, we will work with hundreds of already existing relays or new ones to be solicited.

On the other hand and in parallel, our industrial partners will build the satellite object, its components, including the supports of the messages to take away, and will prepare the shipment in space aboard a rocket capable of accommodating KEO.

This humanistic project requires motivated actors (individuals, companies, institutions, associations), filled with the KEO spirit that Jean-Marc Philippe was able to breathe for years.

Today Jean-Marc Philippe is gone. He joined the stars in November 2008, after a courageous fight against disease. He left us his project, which we will carry forward.

The KEO project is a humanistic project. It puts all human beings on an equal playing field in face of their distant future. It allows them t o write a message that our faraway descendants will read someday into centuries. I t encourages a reflection on human nature. It will also allow to keep the memory of the thousands of languages spoken in the world today even though each year dozens of them disappear.

But KEO’s ambition does not affect only our distant descendants.

When all messages are sent into space, they will become accessible to our contemporaries as we will put them, anonymously, on the Internet where they might become subject of studies for passionate experts. The purpose is to enable today's men and women to get to know themselves better, to better understand and tolerate each other through this wonderful material that will be the millions of messages from all the people of Earth.

O f course, deadlines have slipped, but the project is more relevant than ever. Numerous messages continue to arrive from all continents. Join them and share with your loved ones this invitation to think differently about ourselves.

Welcome aboard the KEO project.