From: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Subject: HRMS Press Kit
Followup-To: sci.space
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   
Reply-To: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 00:46:30 GMT

              NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
               HIGH RESOLUTION MICROWAVE SURVEY (HRMS)
                            PRESS KIT

OCTOBER 1992

PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACTS

NASA HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Office of Space Science and Applications
Michael Braukus
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.
Michael Mewhinney
(Phone:  415/604-9000)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Mary Hardin
(Phone:  818/354-5011)


CONTENTS

General
Release                             1
Media Services Information          3
Quick-Look Facts.                   4
Project History                     5
Project Objectives                  6
Targeted Search                     7
Sky Survey                          9
Signal Detection Plans             10
Project Management.                11


RELEASE:  92-161

NASA TO BEGIN SEARCH FOR INHABITED PLANETS

     On Oct. 12, NASA will begin the most comprehensive search
ever conducted for evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the
universe.

     The search will use telescopes and antennas to detect radio
transmissions from other planetary systems.  The search will
commence 500 years after Columbus landed in North America.

     "In the first few minutes, more searching will be
accomplished than in all  previous searches combined," according
to Dr. John Billingham of NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain
View, Calif.

     "Over the past few decades, " Billingham added, "scientific
opinion has increasingly supported the theory that complex life
may have evolved on planets orbiting other stars in the galaxy
and the universe.  In some cases, further evolution may have led to
the emergence of intelligence, culture and technology."

     Billingham, the program chief at Ames, said the High
Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) consists of two parts -- a
Targeted Search and a Sky Survey.

     The Targeted Search will use the largest available radio
telescopes around the world to search the frequency range from
1,000 to 3,000 megahertz, seeking a variety of patterns that may
indicate the presence of an artificially generated signal.  A
megahertz is a unit of frequency equal to one million cycles per
second.

     The Targeted Search will perform the most sensitive search
ever conducted of solar-type stars less than 100 light-years
distant.  The Targeted Search begins from the world's largest
radio telescope at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.  It is operated for the
National Science Foundation by Cornell University.

     The Sky Survey will use the 34-meter antennas at NASA's Deep
Space Network sites in the northern and southern hemispheres to
scan the entire sky over the frequency range from 1,000 to 10,000
megahertz.  The Sky Survey begins at the Goldstone, Calif., site.

     "Because of the large increase in the area of sky and
frequencies covered, a signal will have to be stronger to be
detected by the Sky Survey," Billingham said.  "But it could
detect signals emitted in distant regions from directions that
would be overlooked if the search were limited to nearby solar-
type stars," he added.

     Both elements of the HRMS are using specially developed
digital signal processing systems capable of simultaneously
analyzing tens of millions of radio frequency channels.

     The HRMS is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center, which
also is responsible for the Targeted Search project.  The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is responsible for the
Sky Survey.

     The HRMS is part of NASA's Toward Other Planetary Systems
program in the Solar System Exploration Division, Office of Space
Science and Applications at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

- end -



MEDIA SERVICES INFORMATION


NASA Select Television Transmissint on Oct. 12, 1992.  Video footage of
the HRMS deployment will be taken for documentary and archival purposes.


Media Coverage

     Those interested in attending the initial deployment at
Arecibo on Oct. 12, contact Michael Mewhinney at NASA Ames
Research Center by calling 415/604-9000.  Those wishing to attend
the initial deployment at Goldstone, Calif., contact Mary Hardin
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory by calling 818/354-5011.
Because of limited parking, use of private vehicles at both sites will be
restricted.  Buses will be available at both locations to
transport reporters.  Reportt the press desks
at either the Holiday Inn, Barstow, Calif., or the Hyatt Dorado
Beach Hotel, Dorado, Puerto Rico, for transportation and
admissionhis telescope is operated for the National
Science Foundation by Cornell University.  The new 34-meter (112-
foot diameter) antenna at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space
Communications Complex near Barstow, Calif., will be used for the
Sky Survey.


Time of Deployment:  Targeted Search at 3 p.m. EDT, Arecibo,
Puerto Rico; Sky Survey at noon PDT, Goldstone, Calif.


Project Duration:  Expected to last until about 2001.


PROJECT HISTORY

     The Earth is the only location known to harbor life.  But as
knowledge of the nature of lhere may, in the long run, be one of
science's most important and most profound contributions to
mankind and to our civilization."  Also in 1972, NASA published
its first report describing how NASA-developed technology could
make such a search possible.

     In the years between 1972 and 1988, NASA maintained a low-
level research and development activity that resulted in the
initiation of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Microwave Observing Project (MOP) in FY 1989.

     In 1992, NASA established the High Resolution Microwave
Survey (HRMS) as part of the Toward Other Planetary Systems
(TOPS) program within NASA's Solar System Exploration Division.

     The Sky Survey (scanning the entire sky for strong signals
coming from any direction) will begin observations at noon PDT
using a 34-meter antenna at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space
Communications Complex near Barstow, Calif.


PROJECT OBJECTIVES

     The detection and characterization of planetary systems
around other stars is the goal of NASA's Toward Other Planetary
Systems (TOPS) program.  Earth's solar system is still the only
known example of a planetary system, and Earth is the only known
planet that sustains life.  Recent astrophysical observations
suggest the existence of other planetary systems around distant
stars.  The existence of these systems could support the
hypothesis that lifts TOPS program to include a new
project called the High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS).  The
project will observe the microwave region of the electromagnetic
spectrum in a manner that can detect signals produced by a
distant technology.

     Potentially, there are billions of solar systems in the
Milky Way galaxy at tremendous distances from Ear provide for an expanded
comparative study of the universe.

TARGETED SEARCH

     Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center will conduct the
Targeted Search portion of the HRMS.

     The Targeted Search will examine 1,000 nearby solar-type
stars within 100 light years distance from Earth (one light year
is approximately 5.9 trillion miles).  The objective is to test
the hypothesis that extraterrestrial technologies are
transmitting radio signals whose characteristics are greatly different
from natural sources of radio emissile sensitivity, the largest
available radio telescopes will be used to conduct the Targeted
Search.  The number of targets covered will be much larger than
previous searches, and the range of frequencies covered will be
thousands of times greater than all previous searches combined.

     To accomplish this, specialized digital signal processing
equipment has been constructed to listen for microwave radio
transmissions reaching the Earth from distant planetary systems.

     The specialized digital signal processing equipment will
simultaneously study the radio spectrum over tens of millions of
individual frequency channels, at spectral resolutions ranging
from 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28 helses, a likely form of interstellar
transmission.  An automatic data analysis subsystem will be used
to detect the presence of fixed frequency or drifting continuous
wave (CW) signals or sequences of regularly spaced pulses.

     The Targeted Search will use the National Science
Foundation's National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's 305-meter
(1,000-ft) diameter radio telescope located at the Arecibo
Observatory near Arecibo, Puerto Rico, for the initial deployment
of the HRMS on Oct. 12, 1992.  Theng very large observations of each
target at each frequency.  It will serve as the logistical hub of
the HRMS Targeted Search.  Over the next 3 years, three more such
systems will be built and packaged into two mobile research
facility trailers for air transport to the observation sites.


SKY SURVEY

     The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will
conduct the Sky Survey portion of NASA's HRMS to search for radio
signals from other planetary systems.  The Sky Survey will scan
all directions of the sky to cover a wide range of frequencies
from 1,000 to 10,000 megahertz.

     NASA's HRMS will conduct a comprehensive, systematic search
of a portion of the microwave radio spectrum to detect evidence
of radio transmissions from other planetary systems.  An
intentionally transmitted signal is easiest to detect in a
frequency band where the background radio noise or static is
minimal.  One of the quietest frequency bands is the "microwave
window," which lies between 1,000 and 10,000 megahertz.  Since
thstic of microwave ally mapping small areas of the sky, called sky
frames.  As the observations are completed, over the entire sky.
For each of 31 frequency bands, the sky is divided into sevplex of
NASA's Deep Space Network in California's Mojave Desert.  Toward
the latter part of the survey, the search will move to a
The prototype receiver, spectrum analyzer and signal processor
will break up incomiwith 40 megahertz total bandwidth or a
dual polarization mode with 20 megahertz total bandwidth.
Specially designed digital hardware, operating at supercomputer
speeds, will simultaneously process the 2 million channels to
identify and separate intersterch organizations.

     After the discovery has been verified, national and
international authorities are to be informed.  News of the
confirmed discovery then will be disseminated promptly, openly
and widely through scientific channels and the news media.  All data
necessary for the confirmation of the detection will be made
available to the international scientific community through
publications, meetings, conferences and other appropriate means.

     No response to any confirmed signal will be sent from Earth
until appropriate international consultations have occurred.


PROJECT MANAGEMENT

NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Dr. Wesley Huntress      Director, Solar System Exploration Division
Dr. Nicholas Renzetti    Manager, Telecommunications and Data Acquisition
                         Science Complex

Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex

Dr. Michael J. Klein     JPL SETI Project Manager and HRMS Sky Survey Manager
Dr. Samuel Gulkis        HRMS Deputy Project Scientist
J. Richard Kolden        HRMS Sky Survey Implementation Manager


Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico

Dr. Daniel Altschuler    Director
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Einstein's brain is stored
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | in a mason jar in a lab
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | in Wichita, Kansas.

Newsgroups: sci.space.news