New Yorkers Line Up at Outer-Space Phones

NEW YORK —  A boy who hailed a win by the hometown team and another who spoke of the “quest for knowledge” were among the first earthlings to try to reach out and touch extraterrestrial beings Thursday via “space phones.”

Using free phones set up through Saturday in the atrium of AT&T; headquarters, New Yorkers will have a chance to communicate with someone who could hear their voice long after they’re dead, said AT&T; spokesman Brian Monahan.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, about 30 hours of recorded audio-visual messages will be beamed to outer space by the telephone company’s satellite dishes during early-morning hours when the dishes aren’t being used for business.

Poignant to Silly

Among the first to send messages were students from Manhattan’s Clinton School, whose pronouncements to the aliens ranged from the poignant to the silly.

“I hope the quest for knowledge lasts forever,” said Kiernan Varas, 13, a member of the Young Astronauts of America. He explained later that he was concerned about the damage that drugs are doing to the world. “I hope . . . they don’t get stupid like us.”

Like most of the youngsters, Varas said he believed it’s highly probable that someone would see or hear the messages.

If so, the aliens will receive a basketball report from Moises Bermudez, 13. His message: “I hope you saw the Knicks versus the Bullets, because the Knicks won.”

Moises said later: “I don’t think there are UFOs, but maybe there is a life form out there. But it’s probably used to its environment, so how could it visit us here on Earth?”

Monahan said AT&T; has 30-meter dishes across the country aimed at communications satellites, and one or two would be realigned to beam the radio waves. “They’re very powerful,” he said. “We’re going to crank these up.”

The messages will travel at the speed of light in a straight line until they run into something, Monahan said.

“I think it appeals to the imagination--the idea of hurtling messages at the speed of light,” he said. “And, of course, it’s free, so if people don’t get a call back they won’t be upset.”

The so-called “space phones” are not the first high-tech attempt to communicate with possible extraterrestrials. When the Voyager spacecraft was launched in 1977, it carried a digital record of 118 photographs of Earth, 90 minutes of the world’s greatest music and greetings in almost 60 human languages and one whale language.