Extraterrestrial

Frank Drake criticizes plan to contact aliens

By T.K. Randall
February 17, 2015

Image: OVRO 40 Meter Radio Telescope
Credit: Salvor Hardin / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The decision to attempt communication with an extraterrestrial civilization by sending regular messages towards nearby planets has proven far more divisive that anyone could have expected.

Some scientists, such as Professor Stephen Hawking, have doubted the wisdom of broadcasting our existence to potentially hostile alien species while others have branded the endeavor a waste of time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Now Frank Drake, the astronomer who famously developed an equation designed to estimate how many advanced extraterrestrial civilizations there are within our own galaxy, has weighed in on the debate by suggesting that sending messages at this point in time would be futile.His objections stem from his view that the project would provide no benefit for at least another 50-100 years and that continuing our search efforts would be a more efficient use of resources.

Drake also maintains that an advanced extraterrestrial race would be unlikely to travel between the stars because of the immense energy requirements needed to travel even a short distance.

His calculations for a 100-year trip to a nearby star at one tenth the speed of light resulted in an energy requirement equivalent to the entire power output of the United States for 200 years.

Source: Boing Boing

Tags: Frank Drake, SETI, Extraterrestrial