When Ultima and Tabula Rasa creator Richard Garriott ventures into space this fall, he will deposit a "digital time capsule" on the International Space Station that packs the digital DNA of certain Tabula Rasa (PC) subscribers.

Dubbed Operation Immortality by publisher NCsoft, the capsule will contain "the digitized DNA of select video game players and space aficionados" along with copies of all active Tabula Rasa characters as of September 2, 2008.

"I've been able to do some very exciting things in the games business, but nothing of this magnitude," said Garriott. "A select few will have their DNA digitized and sent. And, theoretically, if anything happens to the human race, it could be their DNA that is used to resurrect humanity."

The promotional campaign extends to those who don't play Tabula Rasa, with OperationImmortality.com hosting online polls regarding humanity's greatest achievements, though only active Rasa players will have the "chance" of their DNA being sequenced, digitized and sent into space for all .