by Chris Thomason

Some great news in that Virgin Mobile have partnered with SentForever to allow all mobile users to send a text into space simply by sending a message to 80995 (in the UK). Here’s the press release:

Virgin Mobile today announce the launch of ‘Texts into Space’, a service which allows people to send their text declarations of love and affection into the uncharted territories of space where they will travel through the cosmos for all eternity.

Ever said ‘I’ll love you forever’? Well now you can prove it!

Launching just in time for Christmas this is a unique gift idea for any loved one. The texts are transmitted via a satellite Earth Station in Cornwall by SentForever.com. Once sent you can ensure your message will live on eternally, a concept that will surely touch the recipients heart.

The ‘text into space’ costs the price of a normal text and can be sent from any mobile phone by texting the desired message to the Virgin Mobile short code 80995. Then, for just £9.95, the message recipient will receive a formal ‘Certificate of Transmission’ from SentForever.com confirming the launch of the eternal message and details of how to track the message on the SentForever.com website as it continues to travel through time and space. Email updates are also available to alert the recipient as to when their message has passed key milestones.

Tim Dowling from Virgin Mobile said “We are quite literally over the moon at the thought of millions of wishes and messages of love being texted into space”.

Stephanie Baillache, Managing Director of SentForever.com, said, “We are delighted to be working with a leading telecoms organisation such as Virgin Mobile. The collaboration of these two innovative brands will ensure our exciting service reaches a much wider audience and thankfully there are no roaming charges in space!”

I think Eternity is a really interesting subject. It has a clearly defined starting point, which is right now – but no end point. It’s like flicking a light switch to turn a light on, which then disappears so you can never turn it off again. It takes so little effort.

And that’s what’s really weird about eternity, as you’d think that it takes an incredible amount of effort to make something last forever – but no, it’s really quite easy sometimes.

When you tell someone you will love them forever by sending a greeting card, the mere fact that the card will probably get thrown away or lost after a short time doesn’t align itself with the principle of forever, does it? However, going to the effort of sending a special message into deep space where it really will last forever, may be more relevant.

It is also a most unusual gift too. The promotions manager of a leading daily newspaper reviews lots of unusual gift ideas and upon trying out our special message service declared “This is so cool” and promptly ran a promotion for all their readers.

Eternity is associated with time but also with distance too. When you send a message with SentForever, the radio waves used to transmit your special message keep travelling forever. They do get weaker over time but they never ever stop. Radio waves also travel at the speed of light in space, so your unique gift to somebody special will actually be travelling at 671 million miles per hour!

So, by sending someone a personalized message into deep space with SentForever, you’ll be sending a unique gift that goes at the speed of light and that will continue to travel forever! That’s a special gift to someone that is really out there…. literally!

What do you think about regarding eternity, and what would you send into eternity if you had the chance?
By Chris Thomason