Story by Seth Shostak
They don?t wear coonskin caps, but they?re traipsing the wilderness nonetheless, working the margins of the Final Frontier.
The accomplishments, plans, and dreams of today?s space industry are showcased every year at a mammoth event known as the International Astronautics Congress (IAC). For an entire week, thousands of rocket engineers, space agency types, and satellite builders swarm like psychotic ants within the IAC?s cavernous convention halls, seeking the most exciting panels and plenaries. Furry fedoras and Bowie knives are out, while Italian suits and cell phones are in. Fact is ? sartorial distinctions aside -- exploration today is not much different than when the pioneers slogged the west: difficult, dangerous, and oddly seductive.
Since 1971, SETI has been part of the IAC, and is usually celebrated with an entire day of presentations on the latest data, the technology, and the social implications of the search for intelligent life beyond Earth. This year?s Congress was in Vancouver, a Canadian city that crouches like a spangled jewel caught hard in the grip of mountains and sea. Appropriately enough, Vancouver bears the name of one of the 18th century?s most accomplished explorers.
The gamut of the SETI presentations ran from the latest telescope engineering to the language ET would use to signal. A comprehensive review of this material would likely exceed both reader patience and permitted word count, so I have cherry-picked a few items of note below.
The University of California?s SETI efforts continue to be expansive and ambitious. Graduate student Aaron Parsons described how the Berkeley group?s optical SETI search, which uses the Leuschner 30 inch telescope (situated on a hill a few dozen miles east of San Francisco), has so far checked out 7,500 star systems and 132 galaxies. Like other optical projects, the scheme looks for nanosecond flashes (one-billionth of a second or less) that momentarily outshine the light from a star.
...
read the Full and very intersting Story Why the Search for Life Drives Space Exploration
Sir Ulli
They don?t wear coonskin caps, but they?re traipsing the wilderness nonetheless, working the margins of the Final Frontier.
The accomplishments, plans, and dreams of today?s space industry are showcased every year at a mammoth event known as the International Astronautics Congress (IAC). For an entire week, thousands of rocket engineers, space agency types, and satellite builders swarm like psychotic ants within the IAC?s cavernous convention halls, seeking the most exciting panels and plenaries. Furry fedoras and Bowie knives are out, while Italian suits and cell phones are in. Fact is ? sartorial distinctions aside -- exploration today is not much different than when the pioneers slogged the west: difficult, dangerous, and oddly seductive.
Since 1971, SETI has been part of the IAC, and is usually celebrated with an entire day of presentations on the latest data, the technology, and the social implications of the search for intelligent life beyond Earth. This year?s Congress was in Vancouver, a Canadian city that crouches like a spangled jewel caught hard in the grip of mountains and sea. Appropriately enough, Vancouver bears the name of one of the 18th century?s most accomplished explorers.
The gamut of the SETI presentations ran from the latest telescope engineering to the language ET would use to signal. A comprehensive review of this material would likely exceed both reader patience and permitted word count, so I have cherry-picked a few items of note below.
The University of California?s SETI efforts continue to be expansive and ambitious. Graduate student Aaron Parsons described how the Berkeley group?s optical SETI search, which uses the Leuschner 30 inch telescope (situated on a hill a few dozen miles east of San Francisco), has so far checked out 7,500 star systems and 132 galaxies. Like other optical projects, the scheme looks for nanosecond flashes (one-billionth of a second or less) that momentarily outshine the light from a star.
...
read the Full and very intersting Story Why the Search for Life Drives Space Exploration
Sir Ulli
