Interplanetary and interstellar optical communication between intelligent beings: a historical approach (original) (raw)

Engineering Planetary Lasers for Interstellar Communication N 93-I 4010

2006

spacefaring skills evolved in the twenty-first century will enable missions of unprecedented complexity. One such elaborate project might be to develop tools for efficient interstellar data transfer. Informational Unks to other star systems would facilitate eventual human expansion beyond our solar system, as weU as intercourse with potential extralem!strial intelligence. Ibis paper reports the major findings of a 600.page, 3-year, NASA-funded study examining in quantitative detail the requirements, some seemingly feasible methods, and implications of achieving reliable extrasolar communications.

Interstellar Communication Theories and its Possibilities

This paper reviews and discusses the research dimensions in four dimensional time travel and time dependencies of future and past on the basis of present. The paper investigates the theories that support time travel in any manner and explore possibilities based on them for interstellar communication.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) in the optical spectrum: a review

1993

This paper strongly suggests that the microwave rationale behind modern-day SETI lore is suspect, and that our search for electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrial technical civilizations may be doomed to failure because we are 'tuned to the wrong frequencies'. The old idea that lasers would be better for interstellar communications is revisited. That optical transmissions might be superior for CETI/SETI has generally been discounted by the community. Indeed, there is very little in the literature about the optical approach, as its efficacy was more or less dismissed by SETI researchers some twenty years ago. The main reason that the laser approach to SETI has been given a bad 'press' is the assumption that ETIs lack the skills to target narrow optical beams into selected stars. This assumption of ineptitude is shown to be erroneous, and calls into question some aspects of the rationale for Microwave SETI. The detectability of both continuous wave and pulsed visible/infrared laser signals is described in some detail.

Interstellar Communication Techniques for Long Range Mission Spacecraft

We are presently on the verge of expanding our technology in the outer solar system environment. Voyager 1 has landed its first step outside the hemisphere. Data transfer at large distances of astronomical units and light years is a challenging matter of research and a key issue of the interstellar communication. If robotic instruments are sent aboard interstellar spaceflights, managing them from earth with a definite time lag is a puzzle of its own kind. However artificial intelligence can come out to as a great tool in the future for missions beyond and far from the solar system. For such interstellar medium missions, we need to develop appropriate technology to recover the data from Earth from very large astronomical distances. Assuming that such high velocity unmanned robotic spacecrafts are a nearby possibility, we look into this problem in detail and try to explore the related fields which can help in upgrading the present level of interplanetary space communication. Data transfer has to be efficient with a minimum amount of data loss in travelling long distance in the space particularly the interstellar medium. Properties of interstellar medium can be studied closely in such missions that will carry advanced space based sensors, detectors and scientific instruments for taking measurements during the mission. Such a data can be analyzed by onboard computers and also be sent to earth with minimum possible attenuation due to the effect of large distances in the interstellar medium. Advanced data encryption methods and holographic techniques can be studied in details to shortlist the advanced onboard data-sending instruments technology. This paper discusses these in detail and the inception of appropriate protocols for dealing with these issues

Searching for Extraterrestrial Technologies Within Our Solar System

Proceedings of The International Astronomical Union, 2004

We speculate about possible cosmic exploration by extraterrestrial civilizations using interstellar smart probes. We call attention to some emerging technologies that may be used for interstellar exploration. We estimate that advanced civilizations may already have these technologies and may be using them to contact their galactic neighbors. We explore some observational consequences of these contacting strategies.

The interstellar communication relay

International Journal of Astrobiology, 2020

The paper describes the architecture for a data repository and distribution system to be used in the case of a SETI detection event. This system is conceptually modelled after the Deep Space Network, although the hardware and infrastructure involved are different and substantially less expensive to operate. The system is designed to accommodate a large number of users from a variety of fields who wish to contribute to the analysis and comprehension effort that would follow the detection of an information-bearing signal.