Some of the dishes in the SETI array

Due to funding issues, SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence), shut down almost six months ago. The search had come to an end. The 42-antenna Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Northern California went dark.

Despite Stephen Hawking warning us all to stay quiet, since a possible intelligent life form that hears our calls may want to plunder our lush orb, the SETI Institute set up a website to collect donations in June of 2011. (SETIstars.org) To this point, they have raised $226,406 of the $200,000 needed to reopen the two-way comm to the cosmos.

Now reaching the goal, SETI is scheduled to restart operation in September 2011. The donation line remains open, but how long the doors remain open is another issue. SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson stated that ATA's long-term success may come with a slight re-purposing of the array. The Institute is trying to solicit the U.S. Air Force to use the array for orbital debris tracking. It would track in the day, and talk to E.T. at night. 

I am with Stephen Hawking on this one. I expect the worst from an E.T. encounter. However, if the Air Force does use it for debris tracking, I will send some money their way. The future of space flight might literally be blocked by the shell of space garbage circling the planet.

Cabe

SETI donation fun facts:

● Among the donators was celebrity Jodie Foster, who played a SETI researcher in the movie "Contact."

● Larry Niven, writer/creator of "Ringworld."

● Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who travelled around the moon in 1968. Attached to his donation Anders wrote, "It is absolutely irresponsible of the human race not to be searching for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence."

Two way, simultaneous, wireless communications over a single channel has been demonstrated by Stanford's researching engineers Jung Il Choi, Mayank Jain, and Kannan Srinivasan.

"Textbooks say you can't do it," said Philip Levis, assistant professor of computer science and of electrical engineering. "The new system completely reworks our assumptions about how wireless networks can be designed." But wait, I can talk and listen on my cell phone! The research team claims the way companies achieve this effect is much more costly and cumbersome than there method.

Transmission of a radio signal is much more powerful than what the device needs to listen to. Levis explains, "When a radio is transmitting, its own transmission is millions, billions of times stronger than anything else it might hear [from another radio], It's trying to hear a whisper while you yourself are shouting." They defeated this issue with a simple idea: "What if radios could do the same thing our brains do when we listen and talk simultaneously: screen out the sound of our own voice?" Similar to noise cancelling headphones, the transmitter filters out what it is sending. Immediately the incoming signal can be heard.

Levis explains a major use of the technology in the future, " With current systems, if two aircraft try to call the control tower at the same time on the same frequency, neither will get through. Levis says these blocked transmissions have caused aircraft collisions, which the new system would help prevent."

The now patented technology has the potential to double data rates in every communication system. The team continues to work towards extending the range and power of their device.

Eavesdropper