Sun 26 Apr 92 2:05
By: Don Allen
To: All
Re: Q & A on "Project" Seti

** Forwarded from Usenet **

=========================================================================

From: Bob_Dixon
Subject: What is the Current Status of Project SETI?
Date: 21 Apr 92 15:21:57 GMT

In response to Jon Noring's questions of Apr 17:

There is no such thing as Project SETI. SETI is just an acronym that
stands for a particular field of research, like brain surgery. There are
many Projects around the earth, run by many different people and
organizations, that are engaged in the field of SETI.

The longest-running SETI program on Earth is the one at here at Ohio
State. Another very important one is at Harvard. The only other
continuous program is one started recently in Argentina.

NASA plans to start their own program next October, using various radio
telescopes around the world (primarily NASA-owned).

The SETI detection protocol discussed earlier on this newsgroup
formalizes the distribution of any discoveries, making it unlikely that
they could be classified. But even without that, classification does not
seem to be a real threat. No government has ever mentioned such a
possibility. Nobody in a position to classify anything knows what is
going on day-by-day at any observatory. Surely the scientists involved
will notify one another at the various observatories before making any
announcement. By then it will be too late for classification to make any
difference.

Bob Dixon
Director, OSU SETI Program

Charles,
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080
IRC www.irccloud.com/irc/ricksbbs/channel/ricksbbs
---
þ Synchronet þ Rick's BBS telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23