Space To Be Filled With Magazine About Space

While most SF magazines and websites dream of some variation on world domination, British magazine SFX has gone one further and taken their particular variation on nerditry to another stratosphere. Literally. In another example of publicity stunts that make little sense, each and every issue of SFX from now on will be turned into radio waves and transmitted into space, so that even aliens can get excited about Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark in this summer's most-talked-about blockbuster.

A post on the magazine's website explains:

From now on, each issue of SFX will be beamed via satellite into space at phenomenal speeds. Just a few milliseconds after transmission the signal passes about 450 miles above the French Mediterranean and will pass the orbit of Pluto and leave our solar system in a fraction over 5 hours... The first issue of SFX beamed into space, issue 170 hits UK newsagents on Wednesday 7 May. SFX will be available FREE in other galaxies, until further notice.

The move isn't just a decision made to try and corner the Alpha Centauri magazine market; it's really an unusual promotional push for a website called SentForever, which wants to send an important message of your choice into space for around $20 in order to make said message more lasting, if in an entirely unable to prove way:

SentForever was founded in 2007 by Stephanie Baillache and Chris Thomason. Stephanie was disillusioned with the way that standard greeting cards seemed so temporary in nature - often being thrown away just a few days after being sent. "I wanted to find a way to send personal messages that was much more meaningful, and a way that would help to get across the feeling and emotion behind an important message."

That way, of course, involves turning that important message into something that will be shot out into the cold reaches of space where it will be used as the foundation for some alien civilization that will, centuries from now, attack Earth demanding to know who "Tracy" is, and what is a "Will you marry me," anyway.

SFX Boldly Goes Where No Mag Has Gone Before [SFX]
SentForever

Send an email to Graeme McMillan, the author of this post, at graeme@io9.com.