This Father-Daughter Duo Decodes ‘Alien’ Message from Mars

In an extraordinary effort, a father-daughter duo from the United States managed to decode an "alien-like" message sent from Mars to Earth. This message wasn’t a spontaneous cosmic phenomenon, but rather part of an ambitious project by the European Space Agency (ESA). The initiative, called “A Sign in Space,” is aimed at engaging people worldwide in interpreting simulated extraterrestrial signals. The idea behind the project is to explore how humanity might react if we ever truly received a signal from an alien civilization. By involving citizen scientists in decoding these signals, the ESA hopes to better understand both the technical and social challenges that come with deciphering messages from space.

The “alien” message originated from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a spacecraft orbiting Mars as part of a joint mission by ESA and Russia's Roscosmos. On May 24, 2023, the orbiter sent the signal toward Earth, where it was intercepted by three radio observatories. These observatories—California’s Allen Telescope Array, West Virginia’s Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, and the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station in Italy—successfully picked up the signal and transmitted the raw data online. This open-access approach allowed scientists and enthusiasts around the world to collaborate in attempting to decode the mysterious signal.

A Year-Long Effort by Citizen Scientists

Among those who took on this challenge was Ken Chaffin and his daughter, both citizen scientists with a shared curiosity for space. For nearly a year, they worked on decoding the message, often spending long hours experimenting with different ideas. The duo used various mathematical simulations, visual tools, and creative thinking to interpret the complex data. Their dedication paid off in June 2024 when they successfully deciphered the message, an achievement recognized by the space agency in October.

Their decoded version of the message revealed a complex arrangement of pixels and patterns, and they soon realized it contained representations of amino acids—chemical compounds that are building blocks for life. While the message is confirmed to contain encoded amino acids, the precise meaning remains a mystery. What makes this discovery particularly intriguing is that amino acids are universal to all life on Earth, so their presence in the message raises questions about how alien civilizations might communicate life-related concepts.

Unpacking the Cosmic Puzzle

The visual form of the decoded message consists of clusters of white pixels on a black background, forming five specific configurations. Interestingly, the message is dynamic; it flashes on the screen only momentarily, each configuration displaying for just a tenth of a second. This brief display hints at the possibility of an intentional design, perhaps simulating a quick or coded form of communication.

The creators of “A Sign in Space” confirmed that amino acids were indeed the intended message, but they left the interpretation open to everyone, encouraging participants to develop their own theories. For Ken Chaffin and his daughter, this exercise wasn’t only about decoding but about applying skills in a real-world scenario that mimics how humanity might react to an actual alien message. Ken, who has decades of amateur experience working with cellular automata (a type of mathematical model), said he felt he had the expertise needed for the task. He and his daughter joined the project’s Discord chat, a space where other citizen scientists from around the world shared ideas, discussed theories, and collaborated in real time.

The Journey of the Mars-to-Earth Signal

The process of sending the signal from Mars was carefully timed, with the ExoMars orbiter sending it directly toward Earth. Traveling across the expanse of space, the signal took approximately 16 minutes to reach Earth, where the three observatories eagerly awaited its arrival. Once the observatories captured the transmission, scientists and participants then worked to extract and interpret the encoded information, which was entangled with other data from the orbiter. Sorting through this data took a high degree of precision, and it was only with the help of the collaborative community that meaningful patterns began to emerge.

The Role of Amino Acids in the Signal

The central theme of the decoded message—amino acids—was no coincidence. Amino acids are considered the basic building blocks of proteins and are essential to all known forms of life. The fact that the signal represented amino acids could suggest a symbolic gesture toward life or biology. In scientific discussions, amino acids often appear as a hypothetical “universal language” that could bridge the gap between different life forms, if life exists beyond Earth.

In this case, the use of amino acids could also have been an intentional choice by ESA project designers to simulate a language that would be challenging but possible to decode. If an alien civilization were to communicate with us, they might use biochemical symbols to establish a common ground, assuming that life anywhere in the universe might share fundamental chemical similarities with life on Earth. As researchers analyze the message, there’s growing interest in what these specific amino acids and their arrangements might signify, with some participants suggesting they could represent a code for understanding alien biochemistry or a “universal” signature of life.

A Global Collaboration to Decipher an Alien Message

The “A Sign in Space” project has captured the interest of both the scientific community and the public, uniting people worldwide in a collective effort. The project’s Discord chat serves as a platform where participants exchange findings, theories, and ideas. Together, they have run mathematical models, created visual simulations, and tested potential meanings for the encoded amino acid clusters. The collaborative nature of the project highlights the role of citizen scientists in tackling major scientific questions, especially when real-time input and cross-disciplinary expertise are involved.

Ken and his daughter represent just one of many examples of how non-professional scientists have contributed to this international effort. By enabling public access to real space data, the project not only encourages scientific curiosity but also fosters a sense of global cooperation. It’s a shared journey into the unknown, with participants speculating on how an alien civilization might communicate and what it might want to convey.

The Ongoing Search for Meaning in the Cosmos

Though the amino acids are confirmed as the intended content of the message, the precise reason for their inclusion remains open to interpretation. Some researchers suggest that this mystery encourages deeper thinking about how humanity might respond to a genuine signal from an intelligent alien civilization. It raises essential questions: How would we interpret a foreign language from an entirely different species? Would they use biochemical symbols, mathematical patterns, or other universal elements as a bridge to communicate?

The “A Sign in Space” project underscores the idea that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is not merely a technical challenge but also a philosophical and cultural one. As we look deeper into the universe, humanity must also prepare for how we will respond if or when that call is answered.

For now, the father-daughter duo’s success in decoding this alien-like message stands as a powerful example of human curiosity and resilience in tackling the unknown. Their efforts, along with those of others involved, continue to push the boundaries of our understanding of the cosmos and how we might one day communicate with life beyond Earth.