Launched in 2001, the VLC multimedia player wants to celebrate its 20th anniversary in an original way. Project officials plan to send a fake construction cone to the Moon. This will contain many cinema classics as well as videos from Internet users.
VLC media player (VLC) is a open and free media player launched in February 2001. From the VideoLAN project, this player had around 400 million users in 2019. It must be said that VLC has many advantages, in particular its distribution on nearly twenty platforms. Above all, it can play many audio and video formats and perform file conversions. In a Twitter post on February 2, 2001, those responsible for the project shared photos from the time of the development of the famous software.
Particularly this was a reminder that VLC, born at the École Centrale Paris – now CentraleSupélec – would never have known such success without having taken up the niche of free software. Indeed, VLC is under General Public License (GNU). In addition to the desire to return to this odyssey, those responsible for the project have declared that they want to go much further. In a second tweet of February 8, 2021, the latter announced that they wanted to send a construction cone to the Moon.
Obviously, this is not a real plastic construction cone. Rather, it will be a kind of box integrating a time capsule project . The cone-shaped box made of aluminum will contain several 1TB microSD cards, on which will be videos of all kinds. VLC notably mentioned a thousand cinema classics, including Journey to the Moon (1902) by Georges Méliès.
Internet users are also invited to participate. Anyone can upload a video maximum size 100MB , or about twenty seconds in HD. VLC has set a deadline for participation, namely February 20, 2021. In addition, do not wait too long because places will be limited. Another fact, VLC pointed out that there would be no moderation regarding videos. This looks like an open door to all excesses, but also a bias assumed by those responsible. In any case, VLC encourages Internet users to leave a video message to future lunar explorers.
VLC hasn't announced any timelines, so no one really knows when the capsule will open. In any case, this type of object is based on the principle of long conservation. Maybe the capsule will resurface on another VLC anniversary date? Nobody can say that. Anyway, one thing is certain:this same capsule will integrate NASA's Peregrine mission at the end of 2021!
