On Wednesday, May 24, Earth will receive its first “alien” message from Mars. However, This is an experiment from the SETI Institute. (Look for intelligences aliens), a non-profit organization that is dedicated to exploring the origin and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe.

The goal is to prepare scientists for when creatures from other planets actually make contact, the researchers said. The team is keeping important details about the experiment under wraps, including the type of signal and what it contains. The message is sent by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), a spacecraft that has been studying the Martian atmosphere since 2016.

The European Space Agency’s Mars orbiter will transmit the coded message and it will be received on Earth 16 minutes later, after traveling 180 million miles through space. This coded message will reach three major radio astronomy observatories in different parts of the world: the Allen telescope array (ATA) of the SETI Institute, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) from the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) and the Medicine Radio Astronomy Station, which is run by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF).

After transmission, the scientists will process the signal and make it available to the public for decoding. Daniela dePaulis, the visionary artist behind the A Sign in Space project, said in a statement: “Throughout history, humanity has searched for meaning in powerful and transformative phenomena. Receiving a message from an alien civilization would be a deeply transformative experience for all of humanity.”

“A Sign in Space offers the unprecedented opportunity to tangibly rehearse and prepare for this scenario through global collaborationpromoting an open search for meaning across cultures and disciplines.

Once SETI picks up the ‘alien’ signal, the teams will securely store the processed data in collaboration with Open Data Archive and Filecoin, a decentralized storage network. To engage the public, the SETI Institute is hosting a livestreamed social media event featuring interviews with key members of the team, including scientists, engineers, artists, and more, participating in the livestream from around the world, including the ATA, GBT and Drug Control Rooms.

“Anyone working on decoding and interpreting the message can analyze the process on the A Sign in Space Discord server.SETI shared.

Following the broadcast, the A Sign in Space team will host a series of Zoom-based discussions open to the public on topics that consider the societal implications of detecting a sign of an alien civilization. The SETI experiment could be put to good use as a separate study predicts aliens will make contact with Earth by 2029.