First International Library on Mars

The planetary society is sending a DVD full of names of people from around the world on the Pheonix landers mission to Mars. The purpose of this remains a mystery to me, but 200,000 people from 70 countries have all ready signed up. Unfortunately the deadline has passed so no one reading this blog will have a chance to land on Mars with Pheonix. The society will send a small dvd disc with the names of individuals, (all ages were encouraged, especially children) and "the disk will also include "Visions of Mars," a collection of 19th and 20th century stories and art by some of Earth's visionaries." Once pheonix lands on Mars the dvd will be the first interplanetary human library in existance. We will spread our knowledge and names to the martians and let them know we have arrived. Perhaps this is meant to be some sort of high-tech time capsule, and in 200 years when humans are living on mars we will find this mini-disc and learn about the names of people living in the early 21st century. At least multiple countries are involved in this gound(space)breaking moment in history.