Superintendent Elsie Arntzen Encourages Students to Send Messages to the Moon

• Brian O'Leary
• March 03 2022

HELENA – Superintendent Elsie Arntzen is encouraging Montana students to participate in Montana State University’s (MSU) messages to the moon program. MSU spent over ten years researching and creating a new computer that can operate in space. This new computer, called RadPC, has been selected by NASA to travel on a mission to the moon to undergo testing. MSU has added extra memory so that it can store messages from Montanans and bring them to the moon.

The messages:

• Must be around 50 words
• Should inspire future generations, highlight positive aspects of our state, or pay tribute to someone important in your life
• Can include a JPG image less than 200kb showing the future what life is like in 2022
• Submit messages by March 11, 2022, here.

“This is a wonderful creative opportunity for our Montana students’ voices to be paired with computer science and astronomy,” said Superintendent Elsie Arntzen. “I would like to thank Dr. Brock LaMeres and his team for their work on this exciting project. This Montana message to the moon is a once in a lifetime opportunity to share student learning with future generations.”

“We want to give every Montana student, teacher, and parent the chance to be part of this historic project,” said Dr. Brock LaMeres. “This will be the first experiment that is designed and built in Montana that will reach the moon”.

To see recent stories on messages to the moon click here and here.

For more information, please contact Dr. Brock Lameres at lameres@montana.edu or (406) 994-5987.

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