How to conduct a galactic survey and probe deep space in search of living Earth-like worlds?

Here's a prime example of precisely the kind of thing I'm talking about, with the slight variation of having a second stage launch from Earth orbit, to send the radio telescope(s) itself into deep space to form part of a very large baseline, very large array, at points across a distance as far as the moon is from the earth, or longer, in orbit along with the earth and moon around the sun. It must be possible to orbit the earth and moon from a distance..?

Russia Launches Long-Delayed Deep Space Radio Telescope

An artist's depiction of Russia's huge Spektr-R radio astronomy satellite in Earth orbit. The satellite launched on July 18, 2011.Credit: NPO Lavochkin

PARIS — Russia's long-delayed Spektr-R radio telescope successfully launched July 18 aboard a Zenit rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the country's Federal Space Agency said.

There was no immediate word on the operational status of the new radio observatory beyond the fact that it was placed into the planned elliptical orbit that peaks nearly 207,000 miles (330,000 kilometers) above the Earth, and reaches a low of about 621 miles (1,000 km).

Featuring a giant 30-foot (10-meter) wide antenna, the Spektr-R observatory is part of the international Radioastron astronomy project.

"The aim of the mission is to use the space telescope to conduct interferometer observations in conjunction with the global ground radio telescope network in order to obtain images, coordinates, motions and evolution of angular structure of different radio emitting objects in the universe," Federal Space Agency officials said in a statement. "Scientists also expect to obtain more information about pulsars and interstellar plasma, black holes and neutron stars in the Milky Way."

Scientists from more than 20 nations, including the United States, are participating in the project, either through contributions of on-board hardware or access to the terrestrial antennas that, working with Spektr-R, will permit interferometry measurements during the observatory's planned five years of operations.

www.space.com...

Russia's new Spektr-R radio telescope launches into space atop a Zenit rocket on July 18, 2011 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Spektr-R observatory will study black holes, pulsars and other deep space objects.Credit: Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos)

When a moon base IS established, it could then include another array on the surface of the moon, or maybe there's a way of distributing them across the surface of the moon to create a moon-sized "eye" to be added to this deep space platform, along with earth orbit and land-based telescopes, all combined in one very, very long baseline, very, very large array or a VVLB, VVLA..

www.goldennumber.net... www.goldennumber.net...


With the ability to perform exo-planet atmospheric spectroscopy, I think we should then look for exo-moon transits that are on par with Earth's single, giant moon, which as far as I've been able to tell from the research I've done, is almost certainly a pre-requisite for an Earth-analogue with life such as four legged (or more or less) ground animals and birds and stuff.

Oh how exciting it would be to fine one, or many of them, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that they'll find them in a band in the Galactic disc within which the Earth is located, like a galactic goldilocks zone, and that they will have a similar configuration to the Earth-moon-sun, while guarded and shielded by a gas giant like Jupiter or many of them creating a safe-zone for long term sustained and stable, evolutionary development.

Our single, giant moon appears to have been running and facilitating a long range evolutionary program for life on Earth. Even our own human reproductive and gestation cycle is interwoven with it. Without our single, giant moon neither we nor anything like us would be here as we are, yet it's very existence, as it is, defies any sort of strong anthropic principal that's capable of discarding it as meaningless and without any sort of value in the equation of life as we know or (or similar), particularly if we're looking hard for Earth-like worlds in our Galaxy.

Because of the three body problem, without our single giant moon, the Earth's rotation would have wound down into a tidal locking, as per the inner planets, and the Earth would not retain our 24 hour day/night 365 day/yr cycle, which is certainly a nice rhythm for life as we know it, while noting its sustained axial inclination on it's elliptical orbit around the sun that accounts for the four seasons and the churning of ocean currents and weather patterns.

Rocky water worlds with a giant moon, is what we ought to be looking for, and soon we'll have the tools with which to do it for real. Oh how exciting!

If they're not exceedingly uncommon (like one or two per galaxy, if that), then we are likely to find them in the neighborhood of our own galactic quadrant and general location on the galactic arm (making things perhaps easier). If not, then a search of a similar band right around the Milky Way ought to be the focus, if the concept of galactic evolution in favor of life as we know it is considered as a distinct possibility, instead of say just a purely random distribution with the Earth nothing but a fluke.

If you think intelligent design is real as I do, then the probability only increases by many orders of magnitude that we WILL find and discover that they (Earth-like worlds) are in the same general neighborhood of the galaxy, as if just waiting there to be discovered all along.

Any such discovery would be absolutely trippy, but as yet we don't have the tools or the eyes.

WAKE UP NASA!!!

We need a new deep space program and this is it.

It could be a work in progress that in many ways is already well under way, but might as well begin with the end in mind and if such an undertaking is doable and relatively affordable then we should do it if at all possible, and answer the all-time scientific question that's been posed since man first looked up at the stars in wonderment and awe and an intense curiosity and need to know more about the truth; a truth which when it comes will blow our minds and alter our whole perception of the world, and maybe certain religious beliefs even though I still purport that Jesus is number one for personifying a universal principal of civilized leadership even Kingship in servant leadership and love, so my theology is perfectly safe and sound no matter what we find. And maybe that's why Jesus referred to himself as "the son of man" so as not to overstep himself, while at the same time laying in a cornerstone and a building block at precisely the right location and at precisely the right time and place, pointing to our place of inclusion at the table of the Lord, which in truth might look more like a certain scene from the movie Star Wars than we might care to be forced to have to consider. lol

We can already perform measurements on exoplanets' atmospheres, believe it or not. www.nature.com...

In recent years, however, observers have begun to make headway. Some have extracted the spectra of light passing through the atmospheres of exoplanets as they cross the face of their parent stars — the equivalent of measuring the colour of the firefly's wings as it flits through the searchlight beam. Others have blocked the light of the parent star so that they can see exoplanets in distant orbits and record their spectra directly.

In the past two years, astronomers have begun to record spectra from a new generation of custom-built instruments such as the Gemini Planet Imager on the 8.1-metre Gemini South telescope at the summit of Cerro Pachon in Chile. Exoplanet spectroscopy will be a priority for several spacecraft and ground-based telescopes that are now in development.

As for the deep-space-based gigantic telescope array, you're talking about it as it's gonna be cheaper and easier to achieve than the Solar System exploration we've been doing to date. I doubt that. In any case, before trying to make big breakthroughs in exploring our galaxy, we should concentrate on exploring and studying our own Solar System.

Another thing is, you can only learn so much about an exoplanet from radio waves. To study them properly, we also need infrared, optical, and UV telescopes. Which is why a variety of such telescopes on the ground, in Earth's orbit, or on the Moon, will achieve the goal better.

I think our space exploration missions have been on the right track so far, nothing got wasted and we gained tons of valuable knowledge.

What's great is that NASA and ESA are open to suggestions for future space missions, and actively work with the young generation at schools and universities. Perhaps there's a chance for you to forward your ideas to them as well. However, I'm sure they will better listen to people with scientific or engineering background, rather than any old "armchair scientist".

a reply to: wildespace

Ok, I'll write them about the very long baseline, very large array idea, and while I hear what you're saying about earth or moon-based telescopes I still don't understand why they can't be put in space and positioned to continually increase that baseline while adding more and more surface area for capture, whether radio, optical, UV and infra red etc.

I'd ask them why not two Hubbles or two or more James Webb telescopes, to set up binoculars? Also, why can't radio telescopes be designed to unfurl like a blooming flower when it reaches it's destination..?

Maybe you're right, that there's a reasonable answer for why we're not doing that or making that attempt.

Once in Earth orbit, finding any orbit at any distance wouldn't require that much more energy, even if it took quite some time to reach it's destination, stop, and begin operations.


Thank you for your contribution.

originally posted by: tempestking
a reply to: AnkhMorpork

i dont think that we can send a prob but what we can do i think is get a beam with a code inside it then send it out to a satellite booster that when it gets the beam it splits it to loads of other beams with each having a cod and then the satellite booster sends the millons of beams all over the galaxy at a very high rate so if something is out there it will uderstand the code and send it back .

They'll have a difficult time understanding if we don't use punctuation.

If not floating out in space in a large orbit using a very very long baseline, very very large array (cheaper I think that placing them on the moon, although also doable), then at the very least we should be landing them on the moon, a very large baseline, very large array, in combination with earth based and those in earth orbit.

Our eye on the cosmos and the galaxy, which could then be catalogued while noting all the living worlds which transit relative to us, from spectroscopic analysis identifying a rocky, water world with the byproducts of LIFE beyond Earth.

I predict we'll find our first living world within 10 years from now, or about precisely 10 years out.

What a finding that will be!

We need a remote viewing centipede 😜