IsaacKoi

seti

  • 1900.1217 Guzman Prize

     

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    Guzman Prize

    SETI: The Pierre Guzman prize (commonly referred to as “the Guzman Prize”) of one hundred thousand francs is announced in Paris by Clara Gouguet in memory of her son by a former marriage. The prize was to be awarded “a celui qui aura trouve le moyen de communiquer avec an astre autre que la planet Mars (“to him who has found the means of communicating with a star other than Mars”).

    The prize was administered by the French Academy of Sciences.

    (The date of the announcement of the prize various from source to source, e.g. Moore says 1900.1217 whereas Crowe says 1891).

     

  • 1901.0209 Tesla and mars

     

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    Tesla and mars

    An article by Nikola Tesla entitled “Talking with the Planets” is published in Collier’s Weekly in which he stated that “at the present stage of progress, there would be no insurmountable obstacle in constructing a machine capable of conveying a message to Mars, nor would there be any great difficulty in recording signals transmitted to us by the inhabitants of that planet, if they be skilled electricians”.

    Tesla described “mysterious effects” he claimed to have observed and commented that “the feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another”.

     

  • 1902.0102 Goddard and other worlds

     

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    Goddard and other worlds

    SETI: On 2 January 1902, Robert H Goddard publishes an essay entitled “The Habitability of Other Worlds” in which he deduced the existence of extrasolar planetary systems and commented “that among these countless planets there are conditions of heat and light equivalent to those we experience; and if this is the case, and the planet is near our age and size, there may very likely exist human beings like ourselves, probably with strange costumes and still stranger manners”.

     

     

  • 1919.0120 Marconi and other worlds

     

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    Marconi and other worlds

    SETI: On 20 January 1919, the New York Times prints an article entitled “Radio to Stars, Marconi’s Hope” in which Guglielmo Marconi is reported to have stated that “… communication with intelligences on other stars … may some day be possible” and that he had received unexplained signals which might have originated from the stars.

     

     

     

     

     

  • 1924.0822 Todd and Mars

     

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    Todd and Mars

    SETI: On 22 August 1924, during an approach of Mars, David Todd attempts to detect radio signals from that planet.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 1962.0000 SETI "top priority"

     

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    SETI "top priority"
    During 1962, in “A Review of Space Research”, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council state that the goal of finding extraterrestrial life “should be acclaimed as the top-priority scientific goal of our space program”.

     

     

     

  • 1962.0322 Lovell on SETI

     

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    Lovell on SETI
    On 24 January 1878, Congressman Emilio Q Daddario asks Sir Bernard Lovell (of the Jodrell Bank observatory, England) and Harrison Brown about SETI. Sir Bernard Lovell commented, “I think that now one has to be sympathetic about an idea which only a few years ago would have seemed rather farfetched”.

     

     

     

  • 1966.0810 SETI panel discussion

     

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    SETI panel discussion
    On 10 August 1966, a televised panel discussion on SETI was hosted by David Susskind. The panel included Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.

     

     

     

  • 1967.0203 Air Force on Soviet SETI

     

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    Air Force on Soviet SETI
    On 3 February 1967, the Foreign Technology Division of the US Air Force produces a 67 page report on the Soviet Effort to Contact Extraterrestrial Life.

     

     

     

  • 1971.0904 US-USSR SETI Conference

     

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    US-USSR SETI Conference
    On 4 September 1971, a joint US-USSR conference relating to SETI was held in Byurakan, Soviet Armenia.

     

     

     

  • 1971.1228 Philosophers consider SETI

     

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    Philosophers consider SETI
    On 28 December 1971, Lewis White Beck (President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association) calls for philosophers to consider the problems arising from exobiological studies in a presidential address delivered before the sixty-eighth Annual Eastern Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in New York City.

     

     

     

  • 1972.1120 Philosophers and SETI

     

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    Philosophers and SETI
    On 20 November 1972, a symposium jointly sponsored by NASA and Boston University was held at Boston University to explore the social, philosophic and humanistic impact of SETI.

     

     

     

  • 1973.1016 Russian SETI announcement

     

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    Russian SETI announcement
    On 16 October 1973, the Russian newspaper Tass reported that Professor Samuel Kaplan (director of the Radio Institute at Gorky) had announced a Russian radio wave program directed by Professor Vsevolod Sergeevich Troitskii had found a signal which Professor Troitski believed came from some extra-terrestrial point. The signal was later found to have come from an American Big Bird satellite.

     

     

  • 1975.0324 Extra-Galactic SETI search

     

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    Extra-Galactic SETI search
    On the night of 24/25 March 1975, Carl Sagan and Frank Drake used the Arecibo radio telescope in an attempt to detect extra-galactic signals on 1420 MHz from nearby galaxies.

     

     

     

  • 1977.0000 NASA SETI Special Publication

     

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    NASA SETI Special Publication
    During 1977, NASA released NASA Special Publication 419 (“NASA SP-419”). This was a report entitled “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” edited by Philip Morrison, John Billingham and John Wolfe.

     

     

     

  • 1977.0000 SERENDIP SETI search

     

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    SERENDIP SETI search
    During 1977, the “SERENDIP” (“Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emission from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations”) piggybacking SETI program began operation. It was developed by Professor Stuart Bowyer and colleagues at the University of California.

     

     

     

  • 1977.0000 Starship detection SETI article

     

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    Starship detection SETI article
    During 1977, David Viewing (a member of the British Interplanetary Society) and two colleagues publish an article entitled “Detection of Starships” in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society discussing the possibility of detecting alien starships in space

     

     

     

  • 1977.0000 X-Ray SETI article

     

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    X-Ray SETI article
    During 1977, Andy Fabian publishes an article entitled “Signaling Over Stellar Distances with X-Rays” in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society discussing the possibility of matter being dropped on to neutron stars to produce burst of x-rays to signaling over stellar distances.

     

     

     

  • 1978.0000 Asteroid belt SETI article

     

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    Asteroid belt SETI article
    During 1978, Michael Papagiannis (Boston University professor of astronomy) publishes an article suggesting that if there are any extraterrestrial probes, then the asteroid belt seems the most logical place to look for them.

     

     

     

  • 1978.0216 SETI "Golden Fleece"

     

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    SETI "Golden Fleece"
    On 16 February 1978, Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis) awards NASA his “Golden Fleece” for proposing to use taxpayer money on SETI. Several months later, NASA SETI funds were stricken from the 1979 HUD appropropriation bill.