home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- From: anna@moxie.hou.tx.us (Anna Anderson)
- Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors
- Subject: NASA TO BEGIN SEARCH FOR INHABITED PLANETS
- Message-ID: <1992Oct4.132953.22159@moxie.hou.tx.us>
- Date: 4 Oct 92 13:29:53 GMT
- Sender: anna@moxie.hou.tx.us (Anna Anderson)
- Organization: University of Houston
- Lines: 291
-
-
- > From: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
- > Subject: HRMS Press Kit
- > Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro
- > Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- > Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 00:57:16 GMT
-
- NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
- HIGH RESOLUTION MICROWAVE SURVEY (HRMS)
- PRESS KIT
-
- OCTOBER 1992
-
- PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACTS
-
- NASA HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
- Office of Space Science and Applications
- Michael Braukus
- (Phone: 202/358-1547)
-
- Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.
- Michael Mewhinney
- (Phone: 415/604-9000)
-
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
- Mary Hardin
- (Phone: 818/354-5011)
-
-
- CONTENTS
-
- General
- Release 1
- Media Services Information 3
- Quick-Look Facts. 4
- Project History 5
- Project Objectives 6
- Targeted Search 7
- Sky Survey 9
- Signal Detection Plans 10
- Project Management. 11
-
-
- RELEASE: 92-161
-
- NASA TO BEGIN SEARCH FOR INHABITED PLANETS
-
- On Oct. 12, NASA will begin the most comprehensive search
- ever conducted for evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the
- universe.
-
- The search will use telescopes and antennas to detect radio
- transmissions from other planetary systems. The search will
- commence 500 years after Columbus landed in North America.
-
- "In the first few minutes, more searching will be
- accomplished than in all previous searches combined," according
- to Dr. John Billingham of NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain
- View, Calif.
-
- "Over the past few decades, " Billingham added, "scientific
- opinion has increasingly supported the theory that complex life
- may have evolved on planets orbiting other stars in the galaxy
- and the universe. In some cases, further evolution may have led to
- the emergence of intelligence, culture and technology."
-
- Billingham, the program chief at Ames, said the High
- Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) consists of two parts -- a
- Targeted Search and a Sky Survey.
-
- The Targeted Search will use the largest available radio
- telescopes around the world to search the frequency range from
- 1,000 to 3,000 megahertz, seeking a variety of patterns that may
- indicate the presence of an artificially generated signal. A
- megahertz is a unit of frequency equal to one million cycles per
- second.
-
- The Targeted Search will perform the most sensitive search
- ever conducted of solar-type stars less than 100 light-years
- distant. The Targeted Search begins from the world's largest
- radio telescope at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's
- Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It is operated for the
- National Science Foundation by Cornell University.
-
- The Sky Survey will use the 34-meter antennas at NASA's Deep
- Space Network sites in the northern and southern hemispheres to
- scan the entire sky over the frequency range from 1,000 to 10,000
- megahertz. The Sky Survey begins at the Goldstone, Calif., site.
-
- "Because of the large increase in the area of sky and
- frequencies covered, a signal will have to be stronger to be
- detected by the Sky Survey," Billingham said. "But it could
- detect signals emitted in distant regions from directions that
- would be overlooked if the search were limited to nearby solar-
- type stars," he added.
-
- Both elements of the HRMS are using specially developed
- digital signal processing systems capable of simultaneously
- analyzing tens of millions of radio frequency channels.
-
- The HRMS is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center, which
- also is responsible for the Targeted Search project. The Jet
- Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is responsible for the
- Sky Survey.
-
- The HRMS is part of NASA's Toward Other Planetary Systems
- program in the Solar System Exploration Division, Office of Space
- Science and Applications at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
-
- - end -
-
-
-
- MEDIA SERVICES INFORMATION
-
-
- NASA Select Television Transmissint on Oct. 12, 1992. Video footage of
- the HRMS deployment will be taken for documentary and archival purposes.
-
-
- Media Coverage
-
- Those interested in attending the initial deployment at
- Arecibo on Oct. 12, contact Michael Mewhinney at NASA Ames
- Research Center by calling 415/604-9000. Those wishing to attend
- the initial deployment at Goldstone, Calif., contact Mary Hardin
- at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory by calling 818/354-5011.
- Because of limited parking, use of private vehicles at both sites will be
- restricted. Buses will be available at both locations to
- transport reporters. Reportt the press desks
- at either the Holiday Inn, Barstow, Calif., or the Hyatt Dorado
- Beach Hotel, Dorado, Puerto Rico, for transportation and
- admissionhis telescope is operated for the National
- Science Foundation by Cornell University. The new 34-meter (112-
- foot diameter) antenna at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space
- Communications Complex near Barstow, Calif., will be used for the
- Sky Survey.
-
-
- Time of Deployment: Targeted Search at 3 p.m. EDT, Arecibo,
- Puerto Rico; Sky Survey at noon PDT, Goldstone, Calif.
-
-
- Project Duration: Expected to last until about 2001.
-
-
- PROJECT HISTORY
-
- The Earth is the only location known to harbor life. But as
- knowledge of the nature of lhere may, in the long run, be one of
- science's most important and most profound contributions to
- mankind and to our civilization." Also in 1972, NASA published
- its first report describing how NASA-developed technology could
- make such a search possible.
-
- In the years between 1972 and 1988, NASA maintained a low-
- level research and development activity that resulted in the
- initiation of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- Microwave Observing Project (MOP) in FY 1989.
-
- In 1992, NASA established the High Resolution Microwave
- Survey (HRMS) as part of the Toward Other Planetary Systems
- (TOPS) program within NASA's Solar System Exploration Division.
-
- The Sky Survey (scanning the entire sky for strong signals
- coming from any direction) will begin observations at noon PDT
- using a 34-meter antenna at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space
- Communications Complex near Barstow, Calif.
-
-
- PROJECT OBJECTIVES
-
- The detection and characterization of planetary systems
- around other stars is the goal of NASA's Toward Other Planetary
- Systems (TOPS) program. Earth's solar system is still the only
- known example of a planetary system, and Earth is the only known
- planet that sustains life. Recent astrophysical observations
- suggest the existence of other planetary systems around distant
- stars. The existence of these systems could support the
- hypothesis that lifts TOPS program to include a new
- project called the High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS). The
- project will observe the microwave region of the electromagnetic
- spectrum in a manner that can detect signals produced by a
- distant technology.
-
- Potentially, there are billions of solar systems in the
- Milky Way galaxy at tremendous distances from Ear provide for an expanded
- comparative study of the universe.
-
- TARGETED SEARCH
-
- Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center will conduct the
- Targeted Search portion of the HRMS.
-
- The Targeted Search will examine 1,000 nearby solar-type
- stars within 100 light years distance from Earth (one light year
- is approximately 5.9 trillion miles). The objective is to test
- the hypothesis that extraterrestrial technologies are
- transmitting radio signals whose characteristics are greatly different
- from natural sources of radio emissile sensitivity, the largest
- available radio telescopes will be used to conduct the Targeted
- Search. The number of targets covered will be much larger than
- previous searches, and the range of frequencies covered will be
- thousands of times greater than all previous searches combined.
-
- To accomplish this, specialized digital signal processing
- equipment has been constructed to listen for microwave radio
- transmissions reaching the Earth from distant planetary systems.
-
- The specialized digital signal processing equipment will
- simultaneously study the radio spectrum over tens of millions of
- individual frequency channels, at spectral resolutions ranging
- from 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28 helses, a likely form of interstellar
- transmission. An automatic data analysis subsystem will be used
- to detect the presence of fixed frequency or drifting continuous
- wave (CW) signals or sequences of regularly spaced pulses.
-
- The Targeted Search will use the National Science
- Foundation's National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's 305-meter
- (1,000-ft) diameter radio telescope located at the Arecibo
- Observatory near Arecibo, Puerto Rico, for the initial deployment
- of the HRMS on Oct. 12, 1992. Theng very large observations of each
- target at each frequency. It will serve as the logistical hub of
- the HRMS Targeted Search. Over the next 3 years, three more such
- systems will be built and packaged into two mobile research
- facility trailers for air transport to the observation sites.
-
-
- SKY SURVEY
-
- The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will
- conduct the Sky Survey portion of NASA's HRMS to search for radio
- signals from other planetary systems. The Sky Survey will scan
- all directions of the sky to cover a wide range of frequencies
- from 1,000 to 10,000 megahertz.
-
- NASA's HRMS will conduct a comprehensive, systematic search
- of a portion of the microwave radio spectrum to detect evidence
- of radio transmissions from other planetary systems. An
- intentionally transmitted signal is easiest to detect in a
- frequency band where the background radio noise or static is
- minimal. One of the quietest frequency bands is the "microwave
- window," which lies between 1,000 and 10,000 megahertz. Since
- thstic of microwave ally mapping small areas of the sky, called sky
- frames. As the observations are completed, over the entire sky.
- For each of 31 frequency bands, the sky is divided into sevplex of
- NASA's Deep Space Network in California's Mojave Desert. Toward
- the latter part of the survey, the search will move to a
- The prototype receiver, spectrum analyzer and signal processor
- will break up incomiwith 40 megahertz total bandwidth or a
- dual polarization mode with 20 megahertz total bandwidth.
- Specially designed digital hardware, operating at supercomputer
- speeds, will simultaneously process the 2 million channels to
- identify and separate intersterch organizations.
-
- After the discovery has been verified, national and
- international authorities are to be informed. News of the
- confirmed discovery then will be disseminated promptly, openly
- and widely through scientific channels and the news media. All data
- necessary for the confirmation of the detection will be made
- available to the international scientific community through
- publications, meetings, conferences and other appropriate means.
-
- No response to any confirmed signal will be sent from Earth
- until appropriate international consultations have occurred.
-
-
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT
-
- NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
-
- Dr. Wesley Huntress Director, Solar System Exploration Division
- Dr. Nicholas Renzetti Manager, Telecommunications and Data Acquisition
- Science Complex
-
- Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex
-
- Dr. Michael J. Klein JPL SETI Project Manager and HRMS Sky Survey Manager
- Dr. Samuel Gulkis HRMS Deputy Project Scientist
- J. Richard Kolden HRMS Sky Survey Implementation Manager
-
-
- Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico
-
- Dr. Daniel Altschuler Director
- ___ _____ ___
- /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
- | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab |
- ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |__ M/S 525-3684 Telos | Einstein's brain is stored
- /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | in a mason jar in a lab
- |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | in Wichita, Kansas.
-
-