Claudio Maccone - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Videos by Claudio Maccone

In the year 2009 Claudio Maccone published his Book ""Deep Space Flight and Communications - Expl... more In the year 2009 Claudio Maccone published his Book ""Deep Space Flight and Communications - Exploiting the Sun as a Gravitational Lens". This was and still is (in 2021) the first scientific treatise (i.e. with the mathematics written down) about the FOCAL space mission to 550 Astronomical Units (AU) (about half a light-week) where the minimal focal sphere of the Sun is found.
In other words, Einstein's general relativity predicts that, if you look back towards the Sun from a distance of 550 AU OR BEYOND (say up to 1000 AU), then you will get a hugely magnified picture (either at radio and/or optical frequencies) of any source of electromagnetic waves located beyond the Sun exactly along the FOCAL-to-Sun straight line.
In 2020, NASA awarded a $2million grant to JPL to study in depth the FOCAL space mission.
The FOCAL acronym stands for "Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens" and intuitively refers to the closest FOCAL sphere of the Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL).

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This was the first presentation ever (August 18, 1999) by Dr. Claudio Maccone at NASA-JPL about t... more This was the first presentation ever (August 18, 1999) by Dr. Claudio Maccone at NASA-JPL about the FOCAL (= Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens) space mission to 550 Astronomical Units from the Sun. The trajectory is a straight line in the direction opposite to the TARGET object to be MAGNIFIED by the Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL).
Historically, this presentation marked the beginning of a strong NASA interest into the FOCAL space mission especially by JPL's Dr. Slava Turyshev and co-workers, under the overall coordination by JPL's Dr. Leon Alkalai.
Funds: in 2020 the NASA NIAC awarded a $2million grant to JPL, the Aerospace Corporation and other companies to study the FOCAL space mission and prepare for a possible future launch.
Also the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, ALA,
was involved in the FOCAL design by the Team led by Dr. Les Johnson. This Team cared about the trajectory to 550 AU and about a Solar Sail to reach 550 AU in the least possible time.

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Papers by Claudio Maccone

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2020

In this work, we propose a new method of computing the Karhunen–Loève Transform (KLT) applied to ... more In this work, we propose a new method of computing the Karhunen–Loève Transform (KLT) applied to complex voltage data for the detection and noise level reduction in astronomical signals. We compared this method with the standard KLT techniques based on the Toeplitz correlation matrix and we conducted a performance analysis for the detection and extraction of astrophysical and artificial signals via Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. We applied our novel method to a real data study-case: the Voyager 1 telemetry signal. We evaluated the KLT performance in an astrophysical context: our technique provides a remarkable improvement in computation time and MC simulations show significant reconstruction results for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) down to −10 dB and comparable results with standard signal detection techniques. The application to artificial signals, such as the Voyager 1 data, shows a notable gain in SNR after the KLT.

54th International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Institute of Space Law, 2003

The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a project whose goal is to find possible l... more The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a project whose goal is to find possible life signatures emitted (intentionally or unintentionally) by possible civilizations from other habitable planets. Historically, the narrow-band FFT approach has been used, since a quasi-monochromatic signal is the most probable signal one would use to send a message to another world, that is in the case of intentionallytransmitted signals. Nevertheless, we could receive an unintentionally-transmitted signal as well. In that case, it would most certainly not be a quasi-monochromatic signal, but would probably be similar (with a wider bandwidth, of the order of MHz) to the signals that we use for conventional communications on Earth. The Kahrunen-Loève Transform (KLT) is a powerful algorithm for such a kind of research. However, a real-time implementation of the KLT has thus far not worked due to a lack of technological resources. We describe a hardware-software infrastructure at the Sardi...

Acta Astronautica, 2016

Abstract Darwinian Evolution over the last 3.5 billion years was an increase in the number of liv... more Abstract Darwinian Evolution over the last 3.5 billion years was an increase in the number of living species from 1 (RNA?) to the current 50 million. This increasing trend in time looks like being exponential, but one may not assume an exactly exponential curve since many species went extinct in the past, even in mass extinctions. Thus, the simple exponential curve must be replaced by a stochastic process having an exponential mean value. Borrowing from financial mathematics (“Black–Scholes models”), this “exponential” stochastic process is called Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM), and its probability density function (pdf) is a lognormal (not a Gaussian) (Proof: see ref. Maccone [3] , Chapter 30, and ref. Maccone [4] ). Lognormal also is the pdf of the statistical number of communicating ExtraTerrestrial (ET) civilizations in the Galaxy at a certain fixed time, like a snapshot: this result was found in 2008 by this author as his solution to the Statistical Drake Equation of SETI (Proof: see ref. Maccone [1] ). Thus, the GBM of Darwinian Evolution may also be regarded as the extension in time of the Statistical Drake equation (Proof: see ref. Maccone [4] ). But the key step ahead made by this author in his Evo-SETI (Evolution and SETI) mathematical model was to realize that LIFE also is just a b-lognormal in time: every living organism (a cell, a human, a civilization, even an ET civilization) is born at a certain time b (“birth”), grows up to a peak p (with an ascending inflexion point in between, a for adolescence), then declines from p to s (senility, i.e. descending inflexion point) and finally declines linearly and dies at a final instant d (death). In other words, the infinite tail of the b-lognormal was cut away and replaced by just a straight line between s and d, leading to simple mathematical formulae (“History Formulae”) allowing one to find this “finite b-lognormal” when the three instants b, s, and d are assigned. Next the crucial Peak-Locus Theorem comes. It means that the GBM exponential may be regarded as the geometric locus of all the peaks of a one-parameter (i.e. the peak time p) family of b-lognormals. Since b-lognormals are pdf-s, the area under each of them always equals 1 (normalization condition) and so, going from left to right on the time axis, the b-lognormals become more and more “peaky”, and so they last less and less in time. This is precisely what happened in human history: civilizations that lasted millennia (like Ancient Greece and Rome) lasted just centuries (like the Italian Renaissance and Portuguese, Spanish, French, British and USA Empires) but they were more and more advanced in the “level of civilization”. This “level of civilization” is what physicists call ENTROPY. Also, in refs. Maccone [3] and [4] , this author proved that, for all GBMs, the (Shannon) Entropy of the b-lognormals in his Peak-Locus Theorem grows LINEARLY in time. The Molecular Clock, well known to geneticists since 50 years, shows that the DNA base-substitutions occur LINEARLY in time since they are neutral with respect to Darwinian selection. In simple words: DNA evolved by obeying the laws of quantum physics only (microscopic laws) and not by obeying assumed “Darwinian selection laws” (macroscopic laws). This is Kimura׳s neutral theory of molecular evolution. The conclusion is that the Molecular Clock and the b-lognormal Entropy are the same thing. At last, we reach the new, original result justifying the publication of this paper. On exoplanets, molecular evolution is proceeding at about the same rate as it did proceed on Earth: rather independently of the physical conditions of the exoplanet, if the DNA had the possibility to evolve in water initially. Thus, Evo-Entropy, i.e. the (Shannon) Entropy of the generic b-lognormal of the Peak-Locus Theorem, provides the Evo-SETI SCALE to measure the evolution of life on exoplanets.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence must include complementary observing programs that i... more The search for extraterrestrial intelligence must include complementary observing programs that investigate our solar system and near Earth. Solar system observing strategies involve a search for energy (e.g., artificial microwaves) or physical manifestations (e.g., exploratory robotic probes) that may be present. Artificial electromagnetic emissions from robotic probes may be detectable using existing ground-based radio-telescope observatories like Arecibo, or those undergoing construction such as the Allen Telescope Array (ATA). Future systems like the SETI League’s Array2k and the SETI Institute’s ATA are well suited to the task of searching the solar system for anomalous microwave phenomena. Steerable phased arrays have the unique ability to produce multiple beams, and shaped antenna patterns to target and track specific planet-moon systems or regions of deep space. At distances less than 50 AU, large SETI arrays can detect electromagnetic emissions much fainter than those from ...

The Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) is a gift of nature that Humanity is now ready to exploit. SGL... more The Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) is a gift of nature that Humanity is now ready to exploit. SGL physics started with Einstein's 1936 paper on the gravitational lensing; it was not until 1979 that the idea of a space mission reaching the Sun's nearest focal sphere at 550 Astronomical Units (AU) was put forward by Von Eshleman. By the year 2000, the senior author of this paper (CM) had submitted a relevant formal proposal to ESA about the relevant space mission to 550 AU. He presented his ideas at NASA-JPL for the first time on August 18. In 2020 NASA awarded a $2million grant to JPL to prepare for the first FOCAL space mission. But radio bridges between the Sun and any nearby star may also be conceived. The idea is that, if Humanity will be able to send unmanned space probes to the nearest stars in the future, each of these probes could be placed behind the star of arrival and along the star-Sun line, thus allowing for TWO gravitational lenses to work together. That will re...

Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress; (October 2019), 2019

InCosmiCon (Intelligence in the Cosmic Context) is a project about SETI and Big History which ari... more InCosmiCon (Intelligence in the Cosmic Context) is a project about SETI and Big History which arises on one side from the experience of the Italian SETI program, and on the other side from the project La vida en el universo: su origen, su naturaleza, su sentido (Life in the universe: its origin, its nature, its meaning), which has been developed in Peru as one of the six Oxford Templeton Visiting Fellowships to Latin America offered by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the Oxford University and the John Templeton Foundation in 2017. From that project, originally proposed by two Universities of Lima, the UCSS (Universidad Cat\uf3lica Sedes Sapientiae) and the UNIF\uc9 (Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Coraz\uf3n), many new relationships and projects have arisen, so that finally we had the idea of creating a stable international interdisciplinary research group, based at the University of Insubria (Italy) and open to scholars from any countries all over the world, but, first of all, from Italy and Peru. The name InCosmiCon means that we want to investigate, through both theoretical reflections and field researches, the topic of intelligent life in the universe, first of all from the point of view of classic SETI, but also into the more general framework of the so-called Big History, as strongly suggested by the present Chairman of the IAA SETI Committee, Dr. Claudio Maccone. A special role will be played, as already in the project La vida en el universo, by the UCSS Amazonian seat of Atalaya (called UCSS Nopoki), one of the very few cases in the world (maybe the unique fully successful) of a positive interaction between cultures with a very different technological level, as on one side our Western civilizations and on the other side the 14 native Amazonian peoples having their sons studying in Nopoki, which could be also a model for a positive interaction with a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization. In the present paper some of the founders of the InCosmiCon project are going to present its basic features, its main goals, and its future perspectives

International Astronautical Federation, 2020

As announced at the IAC 2019 held in Washington, at the beginning of 2020 the University of Insub... more As announced at the IAC 2019 held in Washington, at the beginning of 2020 the University of Insubria (Italy), in collaboration with the UCSS of Lima (Peru), has created a new research center called InCosmiCon (Intelligence in the Cosmic Context), based at the Department of Human Sciences, Innovation and Territory (DISUIT). Its goal is to investigate the nature of intelligence in an interdisciplinary way and with a realistic approach, in the context of the history of humankind, of our planet and the whole universe, avoiding the specular errors of reductionism and dualism. InCosmiCon has already been joined by various illustrious scientists in the field of space sciences, as the former IAU Secretary General Piero Benvenuti, now Honorary President of InCosmiCon, and also by some members of the IAA SETI Committee, as Paolo Musso, Director of InCosmiCon, and the present Chairman of the IAA SETI Committee Claudio Maccone, who has been nominated Coordinator of the InCosmiCon SETI Section, whose aim is to support the implementation of SETI programs everywhere it is possible, especially in Italy and Latin America, and to participate in the interdisciplinary work about extraterrestrial intelligence promoted by the IAA SETI Committee. Other Sections of InCosmiCon are devoted to Big History and Intercultural Communication, especially focusing on the extraordinary experience of the UCSS Amazonian seat, the UCSS-Nopoki of Atalaya, which could be also a model for a positive interaction with a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization. In the present paper some of the InCosmiCon members are going to present its structure, its first results, and its projects for the next future, while a separate paper will be specifically devoted to a Peruvian project about Astrobiology and Optical SETI

An exceptional opportunity to study the tiny lunar ionosphere became available in the spring of 2... more An exceptional opportunity to study the tiny lunar ionosphere became available in the spring of 2006. In fact the European Probe SMART-1, then in orbit around the Moon, would have crashed on the Moon surface on Sunday, September 3. While most scientists declared their interest to observe SMART-1 especially during its final crash, our team gathered radio data in S-band from the occultations of SMART-1 by the Moon during the week prior to the crash (August 29 thru September 3, 2006). These occultations were observed by virtue of the two 32meter dishes of INAF (the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics) located in Medicina (near Bologna) and in Noto (in Sicily). This paper is an updated description of our observations, but not a model of the lunar ionosphere yet.

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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2020

54th International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Institute of Space Law, 2003

Acta Astronautica, 2016

Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress; (October 2019), 2019

International Astronautical Federation, 2020

ACTN3 encodes the protein α-actinin-3, which affects the muscle phenotype. In the present study, ... more ACTN3 encodes the protein α-actinin-3, which affects the muscle phenotype. In the present study, we examined the association of ACTN3 R577X polymorphism with body somatotype and cardiorespiratory fitness in young, healthy adults. The study group included 304 young adults, in whom cardiorespiratory fitness was evaluated and the maximum oxygen uptake was determined directly. The somatotype components were calculated according to the Heath-Carter method. Genotyping for the ACTN3 gene was performed using a polymerase chain reaction followed by high-resolution melting analysis. In the female group, a lower maximal heart rate (HRmax) was more strongly associated with the RR genotype (p = 0.0216) than with the RX and XX genotypes. In the male group, the ACTN3 RX genotype, as compared with other genotypes, tended to be associated with a lower percentage of adipose tissue (p = 0.0683), as also reflected by the body mass index (p = 0.0816). ACTN3 gene polymorphism may affect cardiorespiratory fitness. Our analysis of ACTN3 gene polymorphism does not clearly illustrate the relationships among genotype, body composition, and somatotype in young, healthy adults.

Proceedings of the 70th International Astronautical Congress, 2019

InCosmiCon (Intelligence in the Cosmic Context) is a project about SETI and Big History which ari... more InCosmiCon (Intelligence in the Cosmic Context) is a project about SETI and Big History which arises on one side from the experience of the Italian SETI program, and on the other side from the project La vida en el universo: su origen, su naturaleza, su sentido (Life in the universe: its origin, its nature, its meaning), which has been developed in Peru as one of the six Oxford Templeton Visiting Fellowships to Latin America offered by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the Oxford University and the John Templeton Foundation in 2017. From that project, originally proposed by two Universities of Lima, the UCSS (Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae) and the UNIFÉ (Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón), many new relationships and projects have arisen, so that finally we had the idea of creating a stable international interdisciplinary research group, based at the University of Insubria (Italy) and open to scholars from any countries all over the world, but, first of all, from Italy and Peru. The name InCosmiCon means that we want to investigate, through both theoretical reflections and field researches, the topic of intelligent life in the universe, first of all from the point of view of classic SETI, but also into the more general framework of the so-called Big History, as strongly suggested by the present Chairman of the IAA SETI Committee, Dr. Claudio Maccone. A special role will be played, as already in the project La vida en el universo, by the UCSS Amazonian seat of Atalaya (called UCSS Nopoki), one of the very few cases in the world (maybe the unique fully successful) of a positive interaction between cultures with a very different technological level, as on one side our Western civilizations and on the other side the 14 native Amazonian peoples having their sons studying in Nopoki, which could be also a model for a positive interaction with a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization. In the present paper some of the founders of the InCosmiCon project are going to present its basic features, its main goals, and its future perspectives.