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Richard Littledale

Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: March 2004

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Coal delivery, 21st-century style

The Rosetta spacecraft was launched by the European Space Agency into space aboard an Ariane V rocket on 2 March. This was the first stage of its ambitious 10 year long journey to rendezvous with a comet hurtling through space at the other end of the universe. After circumnavigating the comet to map its contours, it will then despatch a small lander, Philae, onto its surface. Data obtained by the lander from the comet could give clues about the 4.5 billion year old origins of the universe.

The scientific ambition and technological expertise involved in the project makes science fiction of old look like fantasy from the nursery. It is breaking barriers and crossing distances deemed impossible in the past. However, the curious thing about all this is that aboard the ultra-modern Rosetta is a disc etched with extremely ancient writing - the first three chapters of Genesis in 1000 languages (see The Rosetta Project and a report on the BBC website).

One wonders for whose sake this has been included? Is it for the sake of any creature who might hijack the spacecraft on its flight, for some dweller on the surface of the comet itself, or to appease the conscience of the scientists themselves? Is there still in this brave new world of universe-shrinking space travel a concern that somewhere God might be watching?

If He is watching, He will doubtless have done the maths involved. The cost of sending three chapters of the Bible on such a long journey to an uninhabited rock, could doubtless have paid for many to have the whole Bible on this particular overcrowded rock, the Earth. Then again, is the percentage likelihood of someone reading it on board Rosetta any less likely than a person reading it who has access to it anyway? For a Christian to take the Bible next door may take as much effort as it will take the scientists to get the disc to the comet.

It is the particular choice of Bible portion which has the greatest irony. With so many books and chapters to choose from, it is the much-disputed account of creation which has been selected. The precious cargo on this mission to discover the origins of life will be a description of the origins of life. For all its technical wizardry, perhaps Rosetta will sound a like a coal truck on its way to Newcastle as it rattles overhead!

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