seti_2020_roadmap MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has always been a long shot in the dark. A new action plan is being pursued that could hasten the day when
Earth is on the receiving end of signals from civilizations circling distant stars.The privately funded
SETI Institute here is moving forward on a three-pronged effort to be carried out over the next two decades. A specially convened working group, made up of 30 engineers, scientists, astronomers, technologists and others from around the globe, worked for two years to script the SETI 2020 report.
The soon-to-be-published study is considered a turning point in creating powerful search engines to snag signals from other star folk.
Pulses from planets
One recommendation made by the blue-ribbon study group is that the SETI Institute invest in efforts that might detect extraterrestrial technology at optical and infrared wavelengths.
Since it was established in 1984, SETI Institute experts have concentrated efforts to look for life elsewhere in what is called the "watering hole" of
radio frequencies -- the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum that is the quietest provided by nature. A great spot to eavesdrop on ET radio traffic.Optical SETI, as it is termed, is designed to scan the cosmos for pulses of laser light. ET-generated nanosecond pulses of light would be 1,000 times brighter than the planets own star.
"Its time to get serious about optical SETI," said Thomas Pierson, chief executive officer of the SETI Institute. Recent advances in technology here on Earth make nanosecond laser pulses a viable means of communicating over vast distances. "The analog of that is somebody out there sends laser pulses towards us that are detectable," Pierson told SPACE.com.
Works like a charm
Optical SETI experiments funded by the organization are already underway at the
neighboring Lick Observatory, said Frank Drake, chairman of the board of trustees for the SETI Institute. The inexpensive and simple to operate detector equipment is mounted to a 40-inch (1-meter) telescope at the observatory. ~
"It works like a charm. It is fully operational and, at least for now, is the most sensitive in the world," Drake said. "Optical SETI, in a way, is more of a stretch than radio SETI. For it to succeed, it really depends on the extraterrestrials helping. They have to target us," he said.
Pierson said the SETI 2020 group also endorsed a revolutionary concept to observe all the sky, all the time, in a wide range of radio frequencies. Studies on how best to move this Omni-directional Sky Survey into reality has started at Ohio State University.
"It is something that actually cant be built today. The compute capabilities would be far too expensive right now," Pierson said.
Mass-produced array
A third prong of SETI 2020 is also underway.
The Allen Telescope Array -- named after the major investor in the project, philanthropist Paul G. Allen -- differs in practice, appearance and cost from optical and radio telescopes currently in use. Hundreds of mass-produced small dishes would form a collecting area of 107,640 square feet (10,000 square meters). The array is to be situated at the Hat Creek Observatory in California, tucked away in mountains northeast of San Francisco.
SETI artist's concept of the Allen Telescope Array.
As the array begins first work in 2003, then moves to fully operational status in 2005, the $26 million project is to be used by SETI 24 hours a day. To handle the workload of surfing through a huge number of frequencies eking from stars, a souped-up electronics system is on tap that is far more powerful than equipment in use today.
The first prototype of the telescope, which is being designed jointly by astronomers and engineers at the SETI Institute and the University of California at Berkeley, was unveiled last April.
Around-the-clock operations with the Allen Telescope Array is a far cry from what Pierson said is todays way of doing SETI duties -- obtaining "blips of borrowed time" on radio telescopes.
Multigenerational search?
SETI Institute radio astronomers engaged in the groups signature SETI enterprise, Project Phoenix, are getting ready to head down to the
Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. As the worlds most ambitious ET search ever attempted, Project Phoenix is ready for another stint of upcoming observations, this time from February 26 to March 19, said Peter Backus, observing program manager for the SETI Institute.
The Arecibo radio telescope has been utilized on and off by the SETI Institute since 1998 to search a thousand nearby star systems for extraterrestrial signals. To date, nothing has been found, Backus said, with roughly 500 stars monitored over various frequencies.
SETI work is tireless, Pierson said. "Weve only just begun. This is a scientific experiment. Im willing to say that we may never get a signal. I hope we get a signal tomorrow, but I think we have to be realistic. This could be a multigenerational search," he said.
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