The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI

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Philip Morrison, John Billingham, John Wolfe
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1977 - 276 páginas

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Página 11 - It is both timely and feasible to begin a serious search for extraterrestrial intelligence. 2. A significant SETI program with substantial potential secondary benefits can be undertaken with only modest resources. 3. Large systems of great capability can be built if needed. 4. SETI is intrinsically an international endeavor in which the United States can take a lead.
Página 6 - ... Some conjecture that we might hear from near-immortals the views of distant and venerable thinkers on the deepest values of conscious beings and their societies! Perhaps we will forever become linked with a chain of rich cultures, a vast galactic network. Who can say? If it is true that such signals might give us, so to speak, a view of one future for human history, they would take on even greater importance. Judging that importance lies quite outside the competence of the members of this committee,...
Página 135 - L, libration point of the Earth-Moon system, a point at lunar distance but on the opposite side of the Earth from the Moon. Among several desirable features of an orbiting antenna system are the complete sky coverage, the ability to track a given star continuously if a signal is detected, the reduced system temperature, and the potential structural simplicity and longevity made possible by the weightlessness and benign environment. Further studies are needed of the space-based SETI and of the alternatives...
Página v - It is precisely because I believe theologically that there is a being called God, and that He is infinite in intelligence, freedom, and power, that I cannot take it upon myself to limit what He might have done." Once he created the Big Bang - and there had to be something, call it energy, hydrogen, or whatever, to go bang - He could have envisioned it going in billions of directions as it evolved, including billions of life forms and billions of kinds of intelligent beings. I will go even further....
Página 12 - K main sequence stars at ever increasing range seems very natual; the only life we know lives on a planet around a G2 dwarf star. This strategy takes us only as far into space as necessary to discover our nearest radiative neighbors around such stars. On the other hand, only slightly older cultures may be capable of radiating much more 'powerful signals, or they may know that life is to be found only around a few stars of a certain spectral class and age and may beam signals at these. As is true...
Página 19 - FOURTH CONCLUSION SETI IS INTRINSICALLY AN INTERNATIONAL ENDEAVOR IN WHICH THE UNITED STATES CAN TAKE A LEAD The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence offers benefits for all nations. The search would certainly be facilitated by, and may even require, international cooperation. It is a serious exploration, as important as any ever undertaken, and surely of larger scope than the journeys to the Earth's poles early in the century. We can hope for relatively quick results, but must prudently prepare...
Página 6 - Other imaginative and enthusiastic speculators foresee big technological gains, hints and leads of extraordinary value. They imagine too all sorts of scientific results, ranging from a valid picture of the past and the future of the Universe through theories of the fundamental particles...
Página 4 - We do not intend to send any signals out to add to those which have already gone out from our TV transmitters and our powerful radars. Rather, we want to listen, to search all the directions of space, the many channels of the radio (and other) domains, to seek possible signals. Perhaps it will be only an accidental signal, as we have made ourselves. That would be harder to find. Or perhaps there is a deliberate signal, a beacon for identification, or even a network of communication. There seems no...
Página 19 - The USSR is capable of substantial space technology should that prove important in the future. Finally, joint leadership of an international SETI program by the US and the Soviet Union might constitute a logical continuation of the cooperative endeavors in space initiated by the Keldysh-Low agreements most recently responsible for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program. West European nations, especially West Germany, Holland, and England, have also evidenced increasing interest in new radio astronomical endeavors....
Página 20 - US and foreign scientific community in a large scale enterprise; d. in-house expertise in the relevant fields of technology; and e. long range goals compatible with SETI. Since NASA clearly meets these criteria it is particularly appropriate for NASA to take the lead in the early activities of a SETI program. SETI is an exploration of the Cosmos, clearly within the intent of legislation that established NASA in 1958. SETI overlaps and is synergistic with long term NASA programs in space astronomy,...

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