The Vatican Preps To Launch Pope’s Message Of Hope Into Orbit
It is a remarkable time to be the Pope. Not only has the sovereign pontiff been spotted in a streetwear-eque puffer jacket—only for the sightings to be proven false (they were AI-generated; welcome to 2023)—but his good wishes will soon travel via rocket to cloak the earth (this one’s true).
The Vatican announced in a press briefing on Monday that Pope Francis’ message of faith and hope to comfort grieving souls during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 will set off to orbit this June 10.
The speech, delivered in March 2020 amid fears of a new and mysterious virus, has been converted into a ‘nanobook’ with text and images of the moment of prayer intact. This tiny but spiritually substantial book is only under two millimeters wide, about the size of the tip of a pen. It can only be deciphered by high-tech nanotechnology reading devices.
The nanobook will be carried from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to an altitude of about 326 miles on a satellite—which is roughly the size of an American football—via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Video via Spei Satelles
The Pope’s prayer is being transported closer to the heavens as the Vatican had requested a solution to carry “the Holy Father’s words of hope” beyond the earth’s parameters to reach “the greatest possible number of women and men on our troubled planet,” explained Italian Space Agency president Giorgio Saccoccia. This sparked the launch of the Spei Satelles (Satellites of Hope), or SpeiSat, initiative.
Aside from playing messenger to the holy words, SpeiSat is offering up “virtual boarding passes,” in which the names of interested members of the public will be inscribed in a memory chip and taken on its mission. These hopeful space tourists will also have to be Samaritans, as the mission’s organizers ask that they carry out an act of mercy “on behalf of peace and hope” to qualify for a place.
The satellite is designed to survive in orbit for up to 12 years. However, due to the limited capacity of the battery in its radio transmitter, it will only broadcast the Pope’s message for six months to a year, the Vatican’s communications network outlines.
[via Phys.org / AFP and Vatican News, cover photo 247560811 © Grigor Yepremyan | Dreamstime.com]
