The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) turned on the first telescope “to seek out new life and new civilizations” better known as the Allen Telescope Array. This telescope system marks the first real endeavor to hunt for alien life forms with a dedicated telescope.
“We could have a billion intelligent cultures with radio waves buzzing around them, but we haven’t had the capability to detect them,” said astronomer Michael M. Davis, who oversees the project.
The massive telescopic array still has much more development to go but the first aspect called the Production Test Array (PTA) has gone online and will performs series of tests as the rest of the project develops further.
What will the PTA test?
* antenna pointing performance at various wind speeds and temperatures-initial tests indicate excellent performance
* performance of the fiber optic transmission system in the actual physical and radio-frequency interference (RFI) environment
* performance of the novel ATA feed and low-noise amplifier at room temperature
* antenna gain pattern
* whether one antenna can “see” leakage signals from the front or back of the others
* reliability of the moving parts in constant motion
* software for monitor and control of the antennas.
The ATA is so named for it’s primary benefactor and co-founder of computing giant Microsoft, Paul Allen. The satellite dish ranch sits on a 90 acre spread. SETI worked hard to keep the costs low on this one. Most of the parts were fairly common off the shelf stuff for this project keeping the cost to about $35 million for the project instead of $200 million.
For information about his great project, check out SETI’s homepage.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
