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SETI Battle of the Bandwidth: Beatles Outsignaled by Bob Marley

February 3rd, 2008
Author Leonard David
Blasting Beatle music into the cosmos in a Òhi-frequencyÓ hello to aliens is behind the power curve.

Using its Deep Space Network, NASA is blasting the Beatles Across the Universe directly into deep space at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, February 4th. The transmission is being aimed at the North Star, Polaris, which is located 431 light years away from Earth.

But Jamaican musician Bob Marley and his reggae rhythms were shot spaceward some nine years ago. ThatÕs the word from Charles Chafer, the Chief Executive Officer and originator of the Cosmic Call concept. He reminded me of the following:

ÒIn 1999 and again in 2002, my company leased the large (70 meter) steerable radio astronomy dish in Evpatoriya, Ukraine from Energia and the Ukrainian Air Force. Under the direction of Russian Academy of Sciences astronomer, Dr. Alexander Zaitsev, and Richard Brastaad, we beamed over 100,000 messages from people from all over the world to several stars selected on the basis of possibly having an Earth-like planet near them,Ó Chafer said.

ÒI used my prerogative to be certain that the music of Robert Nesta Marley Ñ the song, One Love Ð was included in both transmissions. I love the Beatles, but somehow I felt that Bob MarleyÕs music best captured the spirit of the planet, so I selected that song as a representation of Planet Earth,Ó Chafer advised me.

Meanwhile, thereÕs quite the discussion underway regarding intentional broadcasting to alien civilizations, an off-shoot from the traditional Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in listen-only mode. Do we want to tip off our hand that we are hereÉradio waving to less than friendly aliens?

ItÕs dubbed ÒActive SETIÓ - and I asked astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute to relay to me what he thinks.

ÒI am sympathetic to the idea that active SETI might be a worthy endeavor. The problems are (1) who will pay for it, given that even passive SETI Ñ which could succeed virtually immediately Ñ doesnÕt ever seem to be over-abundant with funds, and (2) what is the strategy? Just pinging random star systems would take a very long time with the kind of equipment we can muster, and then thereÕs always the matter of monitoring for replies that would be at least decades away,Ó Shostak told me. (...)