NASA wants to send photos into space in the hopes of communicating with alien species. Naked people are one of such pictures.
The goal is to make aliens more comfortable with humans by familiarizing them with our appearance. It’s almost like an invitation to engage with people, but with nude people. In this photograph, the man and female are waving to make themselves look more welcoming.
In addition, NASA will transmit visuals of math difficulties, DNA structures, our Solar System, and a few other things.
This study included a map of the Solar System “with the indication of where the Earth is found relative to our host star and the other planets – along with a digitized map of Earth with relative proportions of land to water. This provides the ETI with the necessary information to make contact with us either by sending a follow on transmission to Earth or, if their technology is sufficiently advanced, by sending a physical vehicle to Earth at some point in the future. They will also include an invitation to respond if any aliens find the images in space.”
This effort is part of the “Beacon in the Galaxy” project which aims to send messages to other lifeforms. According to a report, these images will be sent in binary code because it is the “universal language across all intelligence”.
This report adds, “helping drive an open debate of the issue towards a maximally-informed consensus should rationally be a common goal of our civilization and stands among the purposes of this study”
This isn’t the first time that photographs of people have been blasted into space in the hopes of making contact with aliens. Plaques and discs were launched by the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, delivering cultural knowledge and human greetings.