QUESTIONS FOR DR. FRANK DRAKE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRANK AND THE SETI INSTITUTE -BROCK: We have perused the SETI web pages, some of us for the first time, but the SETI Institute, no... the search for life in the universe... has a long and rich history. Could you open by telling us about yourself, your youth and training, and how you became focused on your quest to find ET. Did you experience a defining moment in your life when your path lay clear before you? -BROCK: Second, could you provide, in your own words, the origins and evolution of the SETI Institute from small government funded organization with one one or two projects to a substantially privately funded organization that is now engaged in educational outreach and a host of astrobiology experiments- in addition to the building of the Allen Telescope. -CHRIS: You recently celebrated 40 years of SETI. What do you see as the role of the SETI Institute over the next 40 years? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEARCHING -MATT: Everyone on earth is very eager for SETI to prove successful, if there is extra-terrestrial intelligence to be discovered. To what extent is the lack of detection to date of visible extra-terrestrial civilizations taken as an indication that this intelligence will remain undetectable for the near future? -MATT: How much more powerful will the Allen telescope array be once completed than the instruments that are currently at your disposal? How is this power measured? Does more power mean that we will be able to perceive signals from deeper space? With greater precision? And is this detectable space all within our own galaxy, or is any of it beyond the reaches of our galaxy? -JENN: Which do you think is more likely to find an extraterrestrial signal, optical SETI or radio observation? -JENN: There have been several different possibilities for sending messages to outer space for other planets to receive. Is SETI looking for all of these types of messages? What were you other alternatives before you decided to focus on light and radio communication? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPACE SETTLEMENT -MATT: How do you feel about purposely spreading terrestrial life to nearby planets and moons that appear to be barren? Is it more important to exhaust all possibilities for discovering life on the surfaces of those planets and moons (as the discovery of life, uni-cellular or not, would be a boon to our understanding of life in the universe) before introducing life to (and thereby contaminating) those systems? -KYLE: Plans to establish an observatory on the moon using large arrays of high-powered satellites and telescopes on the dark side of the moon could be very much a reality in the future. These devices will be shielded from the radio noise coming from the Earth. What are your views on such a project and how do you think it will affect the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence? -MIKE: What do you see as the best direction to push for the advancement of human space settlement? (i.e. NASA's approach, private ventures) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTHER -MIKE: There is a great deal of uncertainty within the Drake equation, which, for the foreseeable future, limits its practical application. In your words, what is it's idealogical aim? -JENN: In 1989, SETI scientists submitted a set of post-contact protocols to the International Academy of Astronautics. The contents of the declaration include: check the signal to be sure that it's truly extraterrestrial, then notify the astronomical community, the government, and the public (the order is unspecified). Since the protocols have not be ratified by any government or the UN (ha ha), it amounts to "gentlemen's agreement." What do you think the actual scenario would be if contact were made? -BROCK: What do you think the impact of such a discovery would be on society? For example, would it change people's attitudes toward their fellow "man" in terms of perceiving themselves as "humans" first instead of "Americans," "Russians," "Christians", "Moslems," etc.? -KYLE: With the limited guarantee of results, what kind of difficulties has your institute faced grabbing attention from investors and possible donations to the cause? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ET HERE? -RICARDO: Do you think that the earth has been in the past and/or is being at present visited by alien civilizations? Do you think that the US Government-Military are hiding information from the public? -RICARDO: If you have a civilization technologically capable of traveling through interstellar distances in at reasonable time lengths; this civilization should be capable of traveling faster than light, and if so, of communicating faster than light  If this is the case, then electromagnetic radiation wouldn't be a preferred means of communication and the interstellar space would appear noiseless!  Why do you expect to find information exchange in the electromagnetic spectrum? -RICARDO: Do you think that the people on earth are mature enough to accept the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, especially if they are technologically more advanced  Wouldn't this be an explanation of why putative aliens haven't publicly manifest themselves to everyone? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IF TIME -KYLE: We saw the press release on SETI@home and how a team is going to follow up on possible signals. With the advancement of computers happening yearly, if not monthly, what do you see in the future for the SETI@home project as far as how much can be done by the personal computers of everyday consumers? Anyone for Allen Telescope data? -MIKE: The current method of identifying planet hosting stars uses the star's "wobble" to detect Jovian sized planets. I've heard it said that this precludes the possibility of earth like planets in these same systems, is this true. Why? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------