COSMOS Magazine | National Science Week | Australian Goverment Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
Hello From Earth

About Us

HELLO FROM EARTH was created by COSMOS magazine for National Science Week in Australia, an annual festival of science, innovation and technology now in its 12th year. It has been made possible thanks to the support of Australia's Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research; the U.S space agency NASA and Australia's national science agency, the CSIRO.

COSMOS is Australia's #1 science media outlet, reaching 400,000 people every month. It is a bi-monthly print magazine, a daily news site and a weekly newsletter.

The HELLO FROM EARTH project would not have been possible without the generous donation of time, effort and resources from many organisations and individuals.

The People Who Made It So

Wilson   Wilson da Silva is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of COSMOS. He has a long history as a science journalist and editor, including Quantum on ABC TV; magazines such as Newton, 21C and New Scientist; The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers; ABC Online and Reuters. HELLO FROM EARTH is his brainchild, partly driven by his enduring fascination with all things space.
     
John Pickrell   John Pickrell is deputy editor of COSMOS and has been a science journalist for the past nine years. Formerly at New Scientist in London, he's been a reporter for the magazines Science and Science News, and regularly wrote for National Geographic's online news service and BBC Wildlife magazine. He's a graduate in biology from Imperial College and has a Masters from London's Natural History Museum.
     
Jacqui Hayes   Jacqui Hayes is assistant editor at COSMOS and a closet space nut who tries to hide her obsession with physics, but often fails. She studied physics at the University of Sydney and science communication at the Australian National University, which allowed her to perform science shows in schools and fairs around Australia with the Shell Questacon Science Circus.
     
Dean Turnbull   Dean Turnbull is the head developer for Sydney based IT company eNerds, Dean leads eNerd's internal hosting & development team, his web based experience lies in both the PHP/MySQL & ASP/SQL models, plus the development of VB.NET packaged applications, Dean was the head developer on the hellofromearth.net project.
     
Heather Catchpole   Heather Catchpole is a freelance science writer whose work has appeared in COSMOS as well as other publications. The editor of The Australian Geologist, she has a degree in science and a Masters of Science Communication. Her book, It's True! Space Turns You Into Spaghetti, was shortlisted in the Royal Society's Prizes for Science Books. Heather wrote the articles on the hellofromearth.net site.
     
Luke Downend   Luke Downend is a town planner by trade but has a keen interest in science and technology and is a big fan of COSMOS. Luke's is the British face of HelloFromEarth, moderating messages and looking after the site from England, while the Sydney-based team is tucked up in bed.

Organisations Participating


Senator the Hon Kim Carr   A very big thank you to the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research who backed the project and whose support helped make it happen. Senator Carr took time out of his busy schedule to launch the site live on 12 August 2009, and had the honour of entering the very first message.
     
NASA Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex   Many thanks to Dr Miriam Baltuck, Director of the Tidbinbilla complex and head of NASA Operations in Australia. She convinced the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration that the project was not only feasible, but an exciting way to help Australia celebrate National Science Week. Many thanks to Glen Nagle and all the folks at Tidbinbilla, and the gang at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California who will be converting the messages into a signal. No message would have been sent without them!
     
CSIRO   The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national science agency and the country's largest scientific organisation, employing more than 6,500 scientists and support staff. They help manage the Tidbinbilla complex along with Raytheon Australia.
     
eNerds Managed IT Services   A big thanks to the dynamic Sydney-based IT services provider eNerds, and especially Web Services Manager Dean Turnbull, who built the HELLO FROM EARTH site, and Managing Director Jamie Warner, whose team backed the concept and provided support and assistance as needed. No wonder they made the Business Review Weekly's Fast 100 Businesses list in 2008!
     
Anchor Systems   Many thanks to the tech gurus at Anchor Systems, the Sydney-based company which hosted our site and has managed our servers to ensure optimal performance. Special thanks to Emmanuel Galanos, Barney Desmond, Andrew Rogers and the rest of the team. They keep the site humming away so it can collect your many messages.
     
Holy Cow! Design & Advertising   Thank you to Melissa Webber and her team at the Sydney web and print design company Holy Cow! for developing the distinctive logo for HELLO FROM EARTH.
     


Get Into Science Week


  Visit 10 Days of Science, the lively new blog where you can read stories, flick through pictures, hear music and join in discussions around science. It includes stories by Jon Lomberg, the artist behind the Voyager Interstellar Record who worked with Carl Sagan over 25 years and whose credits include the Cosmos TV series and the Jodie Foster movie Contact.
     




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