Ever since the technology necessary to send signals into space was invented, scientists, philosophers, and the general public have been awaiting the coveted moment when we finally make contact with a civilization from another planet. Hundreds of attempts have been made to send signals out into space with the hope that they will eventually hit their desired target and result in a response, but calculating the probability of success is a highly technical field that has a great deal of research associated with it. So what factors go into this statistical chance? Besides resting on the sheer existence of another life form, the probability of successfully communicating depends on various technological factors: the chance of the signal being sent
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Drake revolutionized the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI) by allowing us to associate a quantitative characteristic to a thought that once could only be pondered in a conceptual fashion. In regard to planetary communication, it not only allowed scientists to have a better idea of the chances of a successful communication, but also gave them insight on the specific way to transmit signals. The accuracy of this value did not necessarily have to be correct since all the scientists were observing was the change in probability. For example, a term could have been added to the Drake equation that represented the chance that the type of we send will be able to be detected by an extraterrestrial civilization; scientists could then hypothesize different values based on the different types of technology that were currently being used to broadcast signals into space. By altering the different terms and recording the change in the produced N values, the Drake equation helped determine the technique that may yield the highest probability of …show more content…
Since all of the different types of electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed (~3x108 m/s), the only factor to change is the wavelength (λ) or its inverse, the frequency (μ). To acquire this value, the ideas of electromagnetic and cosmic radiation have to be accounted for. Because all objects in our universe and anything between us and the receiving planet emit some sort of electromagnetic radiation, extensive research has been put into determining the range that incurred the least amount of noise. As a society, we base our daily life on radio communication — television, cell phones, and everything in between use frequencies from 0.5 - 1 GHz, so there is too much interference in this range. In addition to the interference, the Doppler effect applies to radio waves as it does sound and light, so the smaller the frequency, the greater the distance between the crests of the waves, causing the signal to reach the destination more spread out and resulting in a great deal of interference. This led scientists to prefer a higher
Drake revolutionized the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI) by allowing us to associate a quantitative characteristic to a thought that once could only be pondered in a conceptual fashion. In regard to planetary communication, it not only allowed scientists to have a better idea of the chances of a successful communication, but also gave them insight on the specific way to transmit signals. The accuracy of this value did not necessarily have to be correct since all the scientists were observing was the change in probability. For example, a term could have been added to the Drake equation that represented the chance that the type of we send will be able to be detected by an extraterrestrial civilization; scientists could then hypothesize different values based on the different types of technology that were currently being used to broadcast signals into space. By altering the different terms and recording the change in the produced N values, the Drake equation helped determine the technique that may yield the highest probability of …show more content…
Since all of the different types of electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed (~3x108 m/s), the only factor to change is the wavelength (λ) or its inverse, the frequency (μ). To acquire this value, the ideas of electromagnetic and cosmic radiation have to be accounted for. Because all objects in our universe and anything between us and the receiving planet emit some sort of electromagnetic radiation, extensive research has been put into determining the range that incurred the least amount of noise. As a society, we base our daily life on radio communication — television, cell phones, and everything in between use frequencies from 0.5 - 1 GHz, so there is too much interference in this range. In addition to the interference, the Doppler effect applies to radio waves as it does sound and light, so the smaller the frequency, the greater the distance between the crests of the waves, causing the signal to reach the destination more spread out and resulting in a great deal of interference. This led scientists to prefer a higher