 |
 |
||
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
 |
Space Topics: Search for Extraterrestrial IntelligenceThe Planetary Society and SETIThe Planetary Society has been engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence almost since the organization began in 1980. During the past two decades the Society has funded numerous SETI projects, ranging from radiotelescope searches to optical SETI to the incredibly popular SETI@home program in which people around the world could participate. The following is a timeline of Planetary Society SETI highlights . 1981: The Planetary Society campaigns to restore funding
for NASA's SETI. 1983: The Planetary Society sponsors a southern hemisphere SETI survey using NASA's 64 meter deep space tracking antenna 20 miles south of Canberra. Samuel Gulkis and Thomas Kuiper of JPL are the chief investigators. 1983: The Planetary Society supports the publication
of the first year of Bioastronomy News. 1983: At the suggestion of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, Film director Steven Spielberg offers to fund the Planetary Society's Million Channel Extraterrestrial Assay (META). September 29, 1985: Paul Horowitz launches Project
META at the Oak Ridge Observatory at Harvard, Massachusetts. 1988: The Planetary Society helps fund Project Circe on
communication with and among dolphins. The purpose is to study the potential
for inter-species communications. Diana Reiss of San Francisco State University
and the Marine World Foundation was the chief investigator. May 1990: With Planetary Society funding, META
II Begins SETI observations at the Argentine Institute of Radio Astronomy,
30 miles south of Buenos Aires. 1995, 1996: The Planetary Society funds Robert Gray's search for the "Wow!" signal using the Very Large Array in Socorro, New Mexico. 1996: A Planetary Society grant saves U.C. Berkeley's Project SERENDIP when NASA funding for SETI was cut. "The Planetary Society saved us in the nick of time" said project leader Dan Werthimer. Data from Project SERENDIP was later used for SETI@home. December 10, 1996: META II upgrade equipment arrives in Argentina. December 26, 1996: META II resumes operations Spring of 1998: The Planetary Society becomes the founding sponsor of SETI@home, led by David Anderson and Dan Werthimer. The project processes data collected by the SERENDIP IV receiver at Arecibo by distributing it to millions of PC users worldwide. 1998: The Planetary Society begins supporting Optical SETI projects at Harvard and U.C. Berkeley. May 17, 1999: SETI@Home software released online. August, 1999: SETI@home passes the 1 million users mark. May, 2000 : SETI@home passes the 2 million users mark. January 22, 2001: At a news conference in San Jose, California, The Planetary Society announces funding for a new dedicated optical SETI observatory Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard Massachusetts. February, 2002: The New 76'' Optical SETI telescope is installed in the newly constructed observatory building at Oak Ridge, Massachusetts. March, 2003: SETI@home revisits the most promising candidate signals in a Stellar Countdown. July, 2005: SETI@home prepares to implement Real Time Analysis of incoming signals. April, 2006: Inauguration of The Planetary Society Optical SETI Telescope at the Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts. |
|||||
 |
 |
|||||
[ what is this? ]