PARIS, July 20 — Nasa has carried out its first transmission of a hip-hop song into space, bound for Venus. The song was Missy Elliott’s debut solo single, The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly), released in 1997, which travelled over 250 million kilometres to reach the planet.
“Traveling at the speed of light, the message took about 14 minutes to reach Venus, thanks to the powerful 34-meter wide antenna nicknamed ‘Venus’ at @NASAJPL’s Deep Space Network’s Goldstone complex in California,” Nasa announced in an Instagram post.
In this short amount of time, the song lyrics travelled the 254 million kilometres that separate Earth from Venus. Only one other song (Across the Universe by The Beatles) has previously been transmitted into space via this system.
Nasa’s Deep Space Network, or DSN, is the US space agency’s largest and most sensitive telecommunications service, used in particular to send and track commands, but also to receive scientific data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond. It comprises three ground station complexes located in California, Spain and Australia.
On X, Missy Elliott said: “YOOO this is crazy! [...] My song The Rain has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus, the planet that symbolises strength, beauty and empowerment. The sky is not the limit, it’s just the beginning.”
In a nutshell, this initiative aims to merge art and science. Technically, it is above all a practice run for future transmissions to Venus dedicated to specific space missions.
DAVINCI (for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging), and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) are two missions scheduled for launch in 2029 and 2031 respectively. The former will study Venus’ atmosphere, while the latter will focus on high-resolution mapping of the planet’s surface. — ETX Studio
