Crowd-Funded Radio Beacon Will Message Aliens 196
astroengine writes "In the hope of uniting people around the globe in a long-duration project to send a radio 'message in a bottle' METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) signal, a crowd-funded project utilizing a refurbished radio telescope in California has begun its work. Lone Signal is a project initiated by scientists, businessmen and entrepreneurs to set up a continuous radio beacon from Earth. To support the operations of the Jamesburg Earth Station radio dish in Carmel Valley, Calif. (a dish built to support the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969), a crowd-funding effort has been set up so that for a small fee, users can send images to the stars. If you're content with sending a text message, your first message is free. The radio dish's first target is Gliese 526, a red dwarf star 18 light-years from Earth, but the project will be considering other stellar targets believed to be harboring habitable worlds."
We should stop this (Score:5, Interesting)
I am hereby setting up a crowd funded effort to bomb and destroy this radio dish. I don't want any aliens appearing on my front doorstep. We've all seen the movies, this never ends well.
Seriously though, it seems to me incredibly arrogant and self centred for a private group of people to try and contact aliens, because the potential results of aliens turning up could be catastrophic, and that's a decision that all mankind should make together, not some private group.
The only reason I'm not concerned is that I think this has precisely a zero point zero chance of success.
Proper lead account for? (Score:4, Interesting)
Rookie error #3: Point the radio transmission directly at the star.
Unless the target is moving directly toward or away from us relatively speaking, pointing it at the star will target where the star was 36 light years before the transmission will arrive. If it -is- moving directly toward or away, are they accounting for Doppler?