Heaven at SETI's Doorstep

Releasing the news to the public ••• ••••

  The questions that the SETI-NASA team faced now were multifaceted. Much more complex and deeper than before! Who was behind the response signals? Could there be living beings under the moon’s surface? What would they look like? Could these light beams have been generated by a base established and populated by aliens? Or could this be an alien instrument base controlled remotely from some other unknown site in the universe? When would they be able to gain further knowledge on this? How were they to proceed further? What steps would be required to obtain clearance from the government to release this information? How can the SETI-NASA team be kept tight lipped?

  It had been an uncontested assumption that any alien life forms in the universe that might try to contact earth would be superior to humans both physically and in intellect. The finding of extraterrestrial life outside our planet would have a big impact on the philosophical and sociological structure of human beings. It would send a massive distress signal to our human psyches, pointedly challenging the assumption that we are the most superior life form in the universe. The news might also trigger wide spread panic.

  Some decades ago, a number of intellectuals brought these facts and issues to the attention of the SETI Institute to prepare them for such eventualities. The SETI Institute carefully perused and considered these ideas and evolved pre-defined policies, protocols and guide lines defining how the information should be disclosed to the domestic and international public, concerning the existence of or contact with extraterrestrial life forms. As the release of information was a huge responsibility on the ruling government, the SETI Institute sought the participation of regulatory bodies and jointly finalized the format and content of all policies, protocols and guidelines. It is a well-known that in the nineteen sixties, the Moon Treaty that was drawn up, proclaimed the obligation to disclose any organics found on the moon or elsewhere. At the time these drafts were produced, the preparatory works seemed to be based on possibly farfetched expectations and predictions of an alien encounter. But, taking the whole world community by surprise it appears the time arrived when these protocols and policies have to be implemented.

  Officials of SETI Institute and NASA met with Federal government officials to discuss the issue of the release of information, as they had clear evidence that an interactive exchange had occurred with the moon signal source. As this was an event of extraordinary significance and was also one without precedent; the decision making process as regards the specific content and scope of information to be released was a complicated issue and constituted a bureaucratic nightmare.

  The media grew suspicious and formed the view that some secretive exchange was taking place between SETI Institute, NASA and governmental officials, as their discussions had already gone on into a full second day. The government officials were yet not decided whether or not to treat all the information as classified. If it was to be treated as classified, security clearance was needed on the specific information to be released to the public. If not they could treat all the information as unclassified and permit it being broadcast in the public domain, as had been done in the past. Due to the vast public interest in the project, the US government was under extreme pressure to release a news bulletin as soon as possible. Some groups of governmental advisors held the view that the news might create panic locally and internationally. The more generally held view however, was that the news would definitely have short term unsettling effects but that these would fade out and will not have a bearing in the medium or long term. The main short term effect would be panic among some sections of the people due to disturbances to their psyche by the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence. However, whether the news was released or not, media responses and hype could cause havoc amongst the general public and bring to bear disruptive and devastating consequences to be handled by the federal, state and local government units. Separately also, complications could be caused by political maneuvering by various groups seeking advantages in the context of the turmoil created.

  Even though the United States had in place the Freedom of Information Act, in actual fact, the government had retained many past documents connected with space exploration, under classified status. The silence of a few days led to enormous pressure being exerted by the media to release whatever findings at the time. The US government could not continue their silence and had to decide one way or another. A bold decision by the President of the United States resulted in all agencies being authorized to release information without reservation. There was a mood of optimism amongst most officials that any negative effects would recede very quickly.

  NASA began to release all their findings in the various media formats including still pictures and videos. Within a few minutes, their website crashed due to a severe overload of internet traffic but this problem was put right within the day. Unlike many governmental documents that had been released online, the NASA documents did not have blacked out parts. The curiosity of the world population was fed with news freely and accurately.

  The groups that claimed the existence of UFOs declared this to be the day they had been waiting for, though nobody in the group was quite sure exactly what the moon signal source would turn out to be.

  In double quick time the news reached all corners of the globe. There was a great diversity of responses through various public media. Some were very spontaneous and joyous while others were urging utmost caution. The range of responses varied mostly between extremely positive and extremely negative while neutral groups were small in number. Everybody was trying to make sense of the event, projecting their own interpretations as to what or who was behind the mysterious response from the moon.

  Those who were inclined to view the event positively felt the aliens or the mysterious source to be very advanced and of compassionate nature. Terms of description such as “Godly figures” were mentioned along with the suggestion that one day they would get in touch with the earth and bestow it with wisdom, kindness and comfort. However those who were apprehensive imagined that the aliens would be fearsome, ruthless warriors who might one day destroy the earth. The neutral groups were not interested in speculating on what aliens might be like. They did not project their fears or premonitions and decided to stay with the basic fact only that there was a single indication of a signal from the moon in response to the signal from our satellite “Hi” in moon orbit.

  Many scholarly presentations and articles on TV, the newspapers and in accredited science magazines appeared commenting on the pros and cons of communicating with aliens and eventually meeting them. Some of the optimistic scholars spelled out the benefits that would result from contact with the aliens as well as the potential issues that would be thrown up by encountering them physically. They pointed to the fact that the aliens might be thousands of years ahead of us and could help us in improving on food production technology & nutritional inputs, medicine & health care and possibly many more areas; Sociological benefits such as elimination of ill will, development of unity and achieving of harmonious living; Solving the riddle of the origin of life; Acquiring information on other known worlds and civilizations and belief systems; Understanding their perspectives on our belief systems, self, secular movements for altruistic service, our ultimate destination and solve the fundamental mysteries of the universe as they could have interacted also with other civilizations in the universe. The Aliens could also assist us in intergalactic missions and provide know how to organizations such as NASA to enable them to undertake such missions. NASA could even tap into the vast bank of knowledge that the aliens have gathered over ages. It was hardly possible to limit the possibilities that might open up ... Even hard headed scientists found their minds swimming in all manner of wishful thoughts.

  Some religious leaders were deeply shaken by the news. They were very restrained in making comments or stating their opinions as they wished to avoid running the risk of creating controversy within their doctrines. Most religiou
s practices are based on relatively rigid or inflexible belief systems and strong group loyalties. Science had not helped most belief systems in the past. To safeguard their beliefs against threats that might arise from this encounter, the clergy united and armed themselves with their own interpretations. There was actually nothing new from their point of view. They had been able to overcome such situations in past centuries when conflicting scientific discoveries were encountered. The last thing they wanted however was for the aliens to force on the earth community another religion in the midst of the technological and culture shock that the discovery of their existence had already created.

  The “Extreme Negatives”, those who were badly perturbed by the news had a lot to say. Their main request was “do not disturb the hornets’ nest”. Their fear and expectation of adverse consequences from the alien encounter were drastically opposite to the positive benefits enumerated by the “Extreme Positives”. Some of this negativity could possibly be attributed to a few causes. These could be the events shown in movies on aliens that they have seen, reflection on how powerless groups have been treated by powerful ones in the past centuries, and also partly due to the influence of their religious and other beliefs.

  Some arguments of the “Negatives” were very logical and worth being considered seriously. They were of opinion that the signal source should not be contacted any further without knowing absolutely what or who was behind it. Hasty action could result in utterly irreversible disaster. “Time is on our side!” they thought. Another valid major issue was how the USA or some group in USA could take a decision on behalf of the whole world, as an encounter with aliens would without doubt have a serious impact on the entire world and not USA alone. What type of safeguard could USA avail to the other countries if the whole episode turned out to be a catastrophe? The “Negatives” asserted that The United Nations Organization should step in and suspend all further action by the SETI-NASA team until world consensus was reached.

  The SETI-NASA team was still in touch with the moon signal source by way of the light/LASER signal combination. By this time the SETI-NASA team had come to realize that there was no possibility as yet to engage in meaningful radio communication.

  You know why it is? Yes of course! -- But not the SETI-NASA team!

  However, use of the radio signal would be considered again if it could be made viable in the future as it was a better way of communicating. This did not occur to Dooda and Loola as they were fascinated with the exchange of light signals. Even if they had realized it, they were ignorant of how to manipulate a radio signal effectively. They could only transmit but even so, they did not know this fact as they thought of their transmitter as a device to remove dust on the roof of their caves.

  The days up to the next 14th day transmission seemed to pass quicker than before. As usual the SETI-NASA team received the radio signal. The movement of dust was observed and it was confirmed that the radio signal correlated directly to the movement of dust. After several weeks of study, the SETI-NASA team concluded that if there were living beings directly sending out these signals, they could not be more technologically advanced than mankind on the earth. If however the signals were operated remotely then the aliens responsible for the remote operations could be highly advanced. Such advanced aliens could already know our language through surreptitious gathering of information from us. If so, they themselves would be capable of compiling a language that the SETI-NASA team could understand. But nothing of this sort had happened so far so that it would be reasonable to think that technologically advanced aliens were not involved.

  The signal exchanges so far have been relatively passive and uninformative. The SETI-NASA team was exerting themselves to the utmost to introduce a meaningful code into their LASER communication to establish a dialog. But it proved to be more difficult than expected. People have had a limited amount of success in communicating with animals without use of words. Interacting with Dolphins is a good example. But in the successful instances sign language has been used. Loola already had experience in coding light signals to deliver messages between the moon cities of Daaadi and Laaahi. But as those codes were based on the language used by the moon people, his experience did not help either.

  Could the light signal sequences be pursued further to develop a dialog with the remote source? It seemed like an impossible task. However, Loola who had experience in this field suggested to Dooda that they transmit three “dots”, a small pause, two more “dots” and then five “dots” after a big pause to indicate that it was the value resulting from addition of the previous three and two “dots”. Dooda did as Loola suggested. This sequence was repeated a few times. The SETI-NASA team understood the message. Immediately the SETI-NASA team sent similar math questions to Dooda to answer. They answered it correctly. This confirmed that Dooda’s original signal was a math question. They understood each other’s math questions correctly and reciprocated in the sending of answers. This was a new development that was initiated by the moon people. These innovations strengthened interactions to a much greater extent but the arithmetical question and answer sessions did nothing to elevate the significance of the exchange of information. What was now required was to move to a higher step at least to be able to code in a simple questions such as “What is your name?”; Mere continuation of the exchanges so far would take them nowhere other than to an increased state of frustration.

  It was noticed that there were instances where the light signal from the moon did not respond to the satellite signal. The SETI-NASA team was of the view that such cases coincided with periods of resting of the signal source as the intervals were of a repetitive nature. These observations led to some progress in communications. The SETI-NASA team introduced a wakeup call to the moon source with a long “dash” signal. They named it the “hello” signal and both parties understood it very well. Progressing further, they established that a signal with 3 “dashes” denoted “Bye! Bye!” and was it was beamed at the end of a long communications session. However, as time passed both parties began to see that they were not making any further progress nor did they have any idea as to what more they could do.

  The satellite could see the moon’s light signal better when the signal spot was in the night phase of the alternating 14 earth day cycle of moon’s day and moon’s night. Dooda and Loola too realized this as they could clearly see their light signal penetrating the moon’s surface when their city was in the night phase. As the days passed, the SETI-NASA team as well as Dooda and Loola preferred to engage in their signals exchange, during the night phase in their city. For Dooda it meant being at work for 14 continuous earth days.

  The SETI-NASA team realized that their decision on inclusion of the LASER equipment in the satellite “Hi” had given by far the highest return on investment as it proved to be “the vital unit” that really established the communication link with the source and confirmed with data that the signal originated from a source 30 ft. below the moon’s surface.

  The jubilant feeling the SETI-NASA team enjoyed a few months ago at establishing the communications link, had been gradually fading away and was on the verge of vanishing. The inability to develop even a very basic language to have a meaningful simple dialogue with the moon source was very frustrating to the SETI-NASA team members. It was felt that the time had come to take stock of the achievements so far and plan future strategies. At the back of their minds they were happy that the Phase 1 satellite program had exceeded its targets and in fact was a huge success though the very success was a cause for frustration due to the inability to expand the communications link that was established. Both “Hi!” and “Buddy” had fulfilled their purposes fully up to and beyond the expectations of all involved. It had covered the groundwork to prepare for Phase 2 of the project. Grateful thanks “Hi! and Buddy” was the appropriate quote of the day!

  It is time to implement Phase 2 and unravel the mystery of “the reply from the moon”.

 

/>   Phase 2 - Robotic approach ••• ••••

  The original plan for Phase 2 was to send a probe like the Mars Rover, to scout around the location of the signal source and make close-up examinations by utilizing remote sensors. The probe was to have a high powered drill which could drill to 30 feet below the moon’s surface coupled with ultra-sonic instruments to study the sub-surface condition of the moon. The SETI-NASA team was now in a position to review their plan to make the robotic probe to carry out the intended tasks. They also saw that their Phase 3 plan for a manned mission within a few years would be required to be moved on to the fast track. The implications of the exchanges that had taken place up to now very compellingly indicated a need to undertake such a mission.

  Could there be beings living under the outer surface of the moon? Or was the moon merely an alien base with only monitoring instruments? These were the two main alternatives amongst a host of questions that the SETI-NASA team had to ponder over.

  The interactive relationship that was established with the moon signal source gave an added impetus to expediting of Phase 2 of the project. Due to the diligence, dedication and commitment of the core group of scientists who designed the Mars probes, “Spirit” and “Opportunity” and then moved on to Phase 2 of the moon project, the design part of the works had already advanced ahead of schedule. The scientists visualized many exciting findings being made through the exploratory activities of the probe that they were putting together.

  The Phase 1 findings narrowed down the team’s focus to almost exclusively concentrate on the moon’s underground. The evidence of the moon signal source being 30 ft. below the surface and also the ‘reply’ light signal beamed from below ground level suggested the existence of a hollow sub-grade immediate above the signal source. Further investigation confirmed that the hollow in the area extend over a wide area. The surface or in effect the ‘roof’ thickness of the cavity ranged from 5ft to 25ft when measured around the immediate vicinity of the signal but exceeded even 50 feet at points at a considerable distance from the signal source spot. As an essential means to investigate this mystery, drilling into the cave and looking into and around the interior of the cavity with electronic eyes was the obvious choice. The SETI-NASA team knew that they would have to drill at least 5 ft to penetrate into the cave if they worked through the part where the roof of the cavity was thinnest. As a measure of prudence, the goal for drilling depth was made 20ft in order to be sure of full penetration should the drilling spot have adverse properties. On penetrating into the cave cavity it was planned to investigate the interior by use of remote sensing equipment, including various arrays of cameras such as infrared and thermal imaging devices. The SETI-NASA team was confident that the basic investigations would lead to a positive answer to the question of whether the source was manipulated by intelligent living beings of the moon, or whether it was some sort of instrument base, remotely controlled by intelligent aliens located elsewhere in the universe. Apart from catering to the basic requirements, the other features that were necessary to be incorporated into the Phase 2 scope of works were taken up for review in brain storming sessions.

  The SETI-NASA team knew they had to be cautious and ensure that any drilling and probing activities would not disturb the signal source. If there were living beings in the caves, intrusive action could easily upset them and drive them away thus jeopardizing all the progress achieved so far. Drilling could also lead to damage to the moon’s signal generating equipment. Because of this concern the very first part of the plan was to reconnoiter the area surrounding the signal spot and understand it fully before resorting to any drilling. Drilling at a predefined spot on the moon’s surface could be achieved by just landing a probe on the exact spot without having to have a rover in the project. The moon rover idea was pursued specifically to be able to support carrying out of investigations of the surrounding area before deciding on an exact location at which to commence drilling.

  If the SETI-NASA team eventually found living beings in the cave, how should the instruments interact with them? Should the SETI-NASA team indicate from which planet the instruments came? Should we prepare a memento like the gold plated disc that was placed in the Pioneer 10 space craft to be picked up by a discoverer? How could the instruments carried for investigational tasks be made alien-friendly? Would living beings encountering them react with hostility and destroy all of the invaluable instruments that sought to enter into the caves? If on the other hand the cave were an aliens’ signal base what would be the appropriate course of action to be followed by us? The SETI-NASA team assigned questions and aspects of this nature to special sub-teams to derive appropriate answers and prepare action guidelines.

  During the time that all these developments were taking place, several worldwide agencies were working on designing of lunar surface robots. This did not follow from the moon signal episode but resulted from the international competition promoted by the X-prize Foundation. The challenge set for the Google Lunar X-prize was development of a low cost method for robotic space exploration. To win $30 million in prize money, a robot had to be placed on the moon’s surface to explore up to a 1/3 mile radius and transmit videos back to earth. Carnegie Mellon University’s school of computer science was one of the agencies eyeing the X-prize. They already had a lunar rover called “Scarab” that they had designed by this time. Though it had drilling capabilities, it was almost a toy compared to the type of unit that would suit Phase 2 exploration works. The SETI-NASA team and their moon project were becoming very popular because of their openness and the interesting presentations on the progress achieved broadcast from time to time through the media. Most of the institutions doing research and development work on the X-prize competition extended their voluntary assistance to SETI-NASA teams whenever requested. Team members met these competitors on several occasions to share their novel ideas.

  To design a mechanism capable of drilling 20 ft. into the moon’s surface based on commands originated from earth was quite a big challenge. The difficulty was less related to the remoteness and more related to the many limitations applicable to drilling on the moon. Surface drilling on the moon was going to be very difficult whether percussion drilling or straight drilling was employed. As the moon had a low gravity equivalent to 1/6 of the earth’s, the drilling platform’s weight was much lower on the moon than it would have been on earth. But the ability to penetrate was dependent on the total downward force that the drill could exert. Every extra ounce of cargo increased project costs tremendously. As drilling through the lunar regolith was the all-important and essential task of the entire Phase 2 sector of the project, the drill had to be designed to meet the main criterion of having the highest possible reliability while keeping within strict mass, volume and power limits. The minimum diameter of drill hole that could permit the probes and accessories to be inserted was no less than 4 inches. This was another challenge as the drill would have to be equipped with a considerably high powered drill to be able to make a 4 inch diameter hole.

  The SETI-NASA team realized that the existing satellite “Hi!” was quite adequately equipped to cater to the new robotic probe’s navigation and operation needs. They were also planning to continue to use the satellite “GBU” as it was merely a transponder. Buddy was decommissioned from all activity, deactivated and made to crash on the near side of the moon adding more space junk on the moon surface. This reduced some of the routine duties of “Hi!” and “GBU”. Additional functional software programs were required for “Hi!” to work in conjunction with the robotic probe on tasks planned for Phase 2. Uploading these software and assigning the new tasks to “Hi!” was easy. However “Hi!” would not be relieved from its current duties and in fact would continue during the entire Phase 2 planned exploratory works to keep the present interaction intact and ongoing with the signal source. The SETI-NASA team thought that by doing so, they could ascertain and neutralize any negative consequences or disturbance caused by their dr
illing down the surface of the moon. However, the main thinking in continuing with “Hi!” was to be able to preserve the existing ‘dialogue’ with the signal source during the entirety of phase 2 activities.

  When the probe was finally designed it had the following features.

  * A “Lander”; with a bottom structure similar in shape to the Russian Luna 20 that landed on the moon, drilled into the lunar soil and brought back samples to earth.

  * The Lander had hydrazine propellant operated thrust rockets for rocket assisted landing and controlled hovering over the moon surface to carry out planned operations.

  * The drill rig was mounted on the Lander.

  * The drill was designed to be operated by nitrogen gas driven motors. Liquid nitrogen cylinders were packed into the base of the Lander. The added weight from the gas cylinders would help as added ballast for the rig for initial drilling stability.

  * The communications equipment necessary to relay commands to the rover and beam information back and forth from and to “Hi!” satellite that was linked to earth station through “GBU”.

  * A rover was mounted on the Lander. The rover could egress for field works and return to its original position on the Lander as commanded by ground control. The egress ramp was extendable as required and had automatic angle adjusters.

  * The rover was very similar to the Mars Rovers (“Spirit” and “Opportunity”) and had six wheels mounted on a rocker-bogie suspension system for negotiation on rough terrain.

  * The rover was powered by a radioisotope energy generator. The Lander had solar arrays as well as radioisotope thermoelectric generators for electric power.

  * The rover had a total of 8 cameras, mounted on one assembly, which could produce high definition pictures, 3D pictures, panoramic views, and infrared pictures. There was also other imaging equipment for thermo graphic imaging.

  * The telescopic rod of the drill rig was designed to carry cameras and other sensory instruments into the cave once access to the cavity was established. These were detachable attachments with wireless connection to the main console of the Lander. The telescopic rod protruding into the cave could be extended to 40ft and also rotated through 360o.

  * There were various other instruments on the Lander as well as on the rover that were required for supplementary functions.