Page 33 - 201007 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - July 2010

July 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 31/07/2010 10:53 AM Page 33 Listening for Aliens 33 Listening for Aliens: What Benford, "but if you add up the total observing which intended to develop and test three X-38 Would E.T. Do? time over last half century, it's a total of only a lifeboats — was to cost $1.3 billion. But seven few months." years into the project, with just one test flight to By Michael D. Lemonick That's started to change with the debut go and $50 million left to spend, the Bush of the Allen Telescope Array in California, run Administration pulled the plug. John Muratore, by the SETI Institute and devoted full-time to the original project manager, said of the What would E.T. do? It's an improbable question, but it's one Gregory Benford has been ET hunting, as opposed to all of the SETI work debacle, "It's like taking a course where you've performed to date, which had to be scrounged gone to all the lectures and turned in all the thinking about a lot lately. That's not entirely surprising, since Benford is an award-winning from whatever telescopes were available. But assignments, but the professor doesn't give you for much broader coverage, the Benfords also a grade." science-fiction writer. In this case, though, he's want to enlist the SETI League, an association speaking in his capacity as a professor of of amateurs who use small radio dishes — 5 - The Hubble Telescope physics at the University of California at Irvine. including satellite-TV receivers — to listen to The Hubble Space Telescope began its outer- Along with his twin brother, James, and James' son Dominic, Benford has been rethinking the the heavens. If they're right about what ET space adventures in April 1990. Although the project had been in the works for 44 years, would do, so many people listening to so rich a search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, region of the sky might even pick up the telltale NASA only noticed a pretty significant problem now celebrating its 50th year. signal of intelligent life on a distant world once the telescope was actually launched. The The SETI project is, as its name suggests, a continuous hunt for sentient, within a few years. Even the SETI folks agree state-of-the-art machine — designed to provide otherworldly life. It involves pointing a radio that's possible — and don't seem to mind being us with our first real glimpses of quasars and told that they've been going about things the distant galaxies — was sending fuzzy pictures receiver at a candidate star (one that is sunlike wrong way. back to Earth. The Hubble telescope had a and not too far away) and listening for some sort "They make a good point that the aliens vision problem. Nearly four years and $700 of steady signal — an alien radio broadcast, on would use beacons, not continuous beams," million later, NASA finally repaired the all the time. Like Jodie Foster in the movie Contact (vaguely like that, anyway), SETI says Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI telescope's incorrectly ground lens. Institute. "The idea isn't new — I think I have searchers would tune in for a while, and if they several papers published in the last five or more 6 - The Final Apollo Missions got nothing, they'd move on. "We've now years with similar suggestions. But hey, these NASA planned 13 manned missions to space, looked out to about 500 light-years or so," says guys have worked out beacon parameters, and starting with Apollo 8. The first 10 went Gregory Benford, "and found no such transmissions." that's a good thing to do." relatively fine (well, except for Apollo 13). But Apollo 18-20 never got off the ground. Of course, all the new work may be The reason, the Benford clan claims in a unnecessary, since it's just possible we've Literally. Apollo 20 was canceled first; its set of papers in the journal Astrobiology, is that spotted ET already. Several times over the past rocket was needed for another project. Then a SETI scientists have been listening for the 50 years, searchers have picked up radio signals series of congressional budget cuts required wrong thing. A continuous broadcast powerful enough to reach across interstellar space takes a that flashed once or twice, then disappeared. NASA to scale back on costs. In September 1970, Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 were scrapped. The best known of these is called the "Wow" huge amount of energy. The oft-repeated claim signal, because that's what an astronomer who These days, you can see Apollo 18's Saturn V that our own TV and radio broadcasts could be picked it up wrote on a printout from a radio rocket lying on its side in Houston. It is now leaking out and giving us away to alien listeners telescope at Ohio State University in the 1970s. essentially a $225 million lawn ornament. is a popular idea, but a highly dubious one. Yes, I Love Lucy shows have now traveled 50 light- SETI searchers went back to the star in question 7 - Back to the Moon! Or Not immediately, but heard nothing. It may be well years into space, but the transmissions are so be, suggests Benford, that we detected On the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 incredibly weak that it doesn't matter. extraterrestrials more than three decades ago — moon landing, President George H.W. Bush Based on an exhaustive analysis, the Benfords have concluded that it would be far and because we weren't taking into account capitalized on the excitement surrounding the more cost-effective for aliens who wanted to be what E.T. would do, failed to confirm it. commemoration of the landmark spacewalk by announcing big goals for the U.S. space detected to send out short, powerful bursts program. In remarks delivered at the every so often to signal their presence. "You Top 10 NASA Flubs Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum send out a few pulses, then move on and come Continued from Page 32 on July 20, 1989, he said the U.S. would go, back every once and a while," Benford says. "That makes sense if aliens don't really know 3 - Mars Climate Orbiter "Back to the moon: back to the future. And this time, back to stay," hinting at the much we're here." These so-called "Benford beacons" NASA scientists are ridiculously smart, but promised manned moon base that was supposed (a nickname bestowed by others in the even geniuses have bad days. Sept. 23, 1999, to have gotten under way in the 1970s. He also community who are familiar with the idea) proved to be a particularly bad — and expensive said the U.S. would launch a manned mission to wouldn't necessarily show up when earthbound — duh moment for NASA when a Mars orbiter scientists happened to be listening, so it would crashed into the Red Planet's surface because of Mars. Though Bush's announcement served to excite NASA and the public, the numbers be easy to miss them. a simple conversion error: one engineering team weren't pretty. A NASA study estimated the The solution, say the Benfords, is to had used metric units while another team had monitor many stars continuously, and the used feet and inches. After nearly 10 months in long-term cost of Bush's plan would be approximately $500 billion — a staggering direction to look is the center of the Milky Way, space, the navigation mishap pushed the Mars for three reasons. First, there are simply more Climate Orbiter too close to the planet's surface. figure, even when spread across 20 to 30 years. As a result, NASA transitioned away from stars there, where the galaxy gets more and The crash effectively ended the mission — human exploration and focused on earth and more crowded. Second, those stars tend to be designed to help scientists study the history of space science. Following in his father's older, meaning civilizations would have a head water on Mars — on the day NASA had hoped footsteps, President George W. Bush announced start on developing technology. Third, a smart to celebrate the craft's successful entry into ET — and we're assuming they'd be smart — Mars' orbit. NASA's associate administrator for on Jan. 14, 2004, that the U.S. would return to the moon by 2020. "We do not know where this would point a beacon out along the precise space science said in a written statement at the journey will end, yet we know this: human radius of the galaxy, since such a clean and time, "People sometimes make errors." This beings are headed into the cosmos." Bush obvious direction is where an equally smart elementary mistake cost $125 million. announced an ambitious plan to send robotic species (us, for instance) would aim its listening devices. 4 - The X-38 probes to the lunar surface by 2008, followed by a manned mission by 2015. While Bush's charge Unfortunately, just as continuous The X-38 project was meant to develop a prompted NASA to start Constellation, a project broadcasting takes up resources, so does wingless glider that could be parked at the space aimed at sending humans to the moon, the plan continuous listening. "People assume that SETI station to serve as a return or rescue pod for was scrapped by President Barack Obama. searches are going on all the time," says crew members. Started in 1995, the project — (Continued on Page 34)