The Optical Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Using Large Arrays of Solar Heliostat Mirrors
Members of the High Energy Astrophysics Group at Case Western Reserve University have begun a preliminary exploration of the future potential application of large heliostat facilities such as the National Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life (SETI).
This work is part of a new interest in searching for signal from intelligent life in the Universe at optical wavelengths (called OSETI) instead of the more favored radio wavelengths that have been the focus of most of the effort during the past decade.
Currently OSETI groups at Harvard, Princeton, UC Berkeley, and Columbus are developing programs to conduct a search for extremely brief laser light pulses from outer space which might be indicative of such a signal.
Since the technology required to detect extremely short light pulses is the same whether the pulses are due to lasers or Cherenkov light from cosmic ray air showers. Therefore it makes sense to at least consider the sensitivity that an experiment similar to STACEE with many large heliostat mirrors might have to such a signal. In fact, preliminary considerations indicate that Cherenkov gamma-ray detectors such as STACEE can be very sensitive to such a signal without major equipment or operational modifications. A summary of such an analysis has been presented at the Third International Conference on Optical SETI (an SPIE conference, January 2001). At this conference, Corbin Covault presented a paper on the topic entitled "Large Area Solar Power Heliostat Arrays for OSETI" . A copy of this paper can be found here (PDF document, 4.5 megabytes).
Important note: No one in the STACEE collaboration is currently undertaking any observations to conduct any search for Extra-Terrestrial signals of any kind at the NSTTF. We have no immediate plans to do any searches. No federal research dollars have been used to conduct any of these preliminary explorations. Currently the only member of the High Energy Astrophysics Group at CWRU who is actively investigation the prospects for OSETI is Corbin Covault.
OSETI Links
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