The Immortality Drive is a small memory device which was taken to the International Space Station

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 in a Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...

 on October 12, 2008. The Immortality Drive contains digitized DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 sequences of a select group of humans, such as physicist Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...

, comedian Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...

, Playboy

Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 Jo Garcia

Jo Garcia

Jo Garcia is an American nude and lingerie Playboy model who became Playboy's Cyber Girl of the Year for 2008, after being named Cyber Girl of the Month in October 2007, and Cyber Girl of the Week for the week of June 18, 2007....

, game designer Richard Garriot, Pro Wrestler Matt Morgan, and athlete Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong

Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...

. The microchip also contains a copy of George's Secret Key to the Universe

George's Secret Key to the Universe

George's Secret Key to the Universe is a 2007 children's book written by Stephen and Lucy Hawking.Its main characters are George, Eric, Annie, Dr. G. Reeper , and Cosmos, the world's most powerful computer. Cosmos can draw windows allowing people to look into outer space, as well as doors which act...

, a children's book authored by Stephen Hawking and his daughter, Lucy

Lucy Hawking

Lucy Hawking is an English journalist and novelist. She is the daughter of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and she lives in London.-Education and career:...

.

The intent of the Immortality Drive is to preserve human DNA in a time capsule

Time capsule

A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...

, in case some global cataclysm should occur on Earth.

The Immortality Drive was featured in History Channel's Life After People

Life After People

Life After People is a television documentary series where scientists and other experts speculate about what the Earth might be like if humanity no longer existed, as well as the impact humanity's disappearance might have on the environment and the artificial aspects of civilization...

, first season episode "The Bodies Left Behind".