Russia to Launch Satellite to Communicate With Aliens
Russian satellite experts have developed new panels that will allow people to send messages into space where they can be intercepted by interstellar civilizations. The new generation satellite, Glonass-M, is set to be launched on Dec. 25, with six initial information panels.

Russians will be able to send their space ads for free, but the company will determine which ones they accept.

The Krasnoyarsk satellite company that created the new panels said they had come up with the new way to make use of satellites — apart from their primary function, “satellites can be used as interstellar postmen,” the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The satellite will orbit at distance of 20,000 kilometers and can theoretically remain in space forever. Information in the form of drawings or script can be placed on special aluminum sheets with an area of 12cm x 26cm.

Six panels with information about the company that developed them, and its founder, Mikhail Reshetnev, have already been installed on the Glonass-M that is set to be launched next month.

“The company is already accepting applications for messages to be sent along with the next satellite, which is scheduled for 2005,” Itar-Tass quoted a source in the company as saying.

Not all messages will automatically be sent, however. The priority will lie with information about the planet Earth and its civilization, the activities of enterprises and people involved in developing space technology.

This is the kind of thing that interstellar civilizations may be interested in, the source said.

so what are your thoughts?

Eghhh...sounds like another Voyager/SETI type mission...you got my hopes up