The projects initial goal is to raise $100,000 for the installation of and operation of two cameras in a single observatory. Although this wont achieve full-sky coverage, it will cover a more limited portion of sky while proving the system can work. The projects fundraising goal is also expandable; with $510,000, Laser SETI can establish and run its first two fully equipped observatories.

The campaign is up and running now, with a month left for backers to contribute to this groundbreaking SETI project.

Following the projects initial deployment, the program aims to have at least six (and ideally 14) observatories in strategic locations to ensure no part of the sky is missed at any time due to factors such as weather. Just as important, they would overlap in such a way that they would co-observe events. This provides not only more statistical confidence in a single tiny flash, but physical confirmation as well, since the two sites would see the same point on the sky at different angles and observe a slight but measurable delay in the arrival times of the signal. This is very much like how the LIGO observatories produced compelling evidence of gravitational waves.

Why Laser SETI? Scanning the whole sky all the time is no simple task. Before now, SETI searches have generally been able to achieve one of those things, but not the other. Facilities can either cover large chunks of the sky, spending a short time (less than a minute) looking at each patch, or observe smaller portions of the sky continuously, sacrificing broader spatial coverage in the hopes of catching a signal from a specific direction.

SETI searches have also typically operated on a vital assumption: Any extraterrestrial civilization that wants to get our attention will be broadcasting some kind of signal continuously. All we have to do is reach the right point in the sky as we scan through space in our surveys, and the signal will be there.

But what if its not the case? According to engineer Eliot Gillum, a Laser SETI project scientist and director of the Optical SETI program, Whatever ET is doing, if its bright but intermittent, all previous and current searches very likely wont find it.

After all, why should aliens necessarily keep their signals powered up all the time, just so we can find them? Why should those signals repeat so we have a greater chance of hearing them? What if the signals theyre sending out arent actually meant to make contact with other worlds? Case in point: Despite the fact that humans have been broadcasting radio waves into space for a century, those signals arent specifically meant to reach other species. And although we have sent signals with such intent into space, theyve been very few, short, discrete messages not continuous ones, because those are expensive in both time and equipment.

But theres also another option. Projects like Breakthrough Starshot, which uses laser light as a form of propulsion, will send out brief, powerful flashes. Its purpose is to send a spacecraft to our nearest neighboring extrasolar planets, but the beam would be so bright it would be visible at much farther distances. Those laser flashes could serve as messengers of our presence to other civilizations. And if alien worlds are pursuing similar beamed energy propulsion technologies, their laser flashes might reach us. But signals like those pulses will be short, intermittent, and may not repeat for long stretches of time (if ever).

This is why Laser SETI is so vital. It can produce convincing evidence for pulses ranging from nanoseconds to minutes, and Gillum says it doesnt require an alien civilization to know were here or repeatedly try to contact us. Laser SETI will instead scan the entire sky continually so that when a signal reaches us, whether its intentionally been sent our way or passes Earth by pure chance, well receive it, and well know it for what it is: proof of life elsewhere in the universe.

You can visit the Laser SETI Indiegogo campaign page to find out more, including the nifty swag you could get if youre interested in contributing to the project.

Special thanks to Eliot Gillum for his contributions to this story.

Link:

Now is your chance to fund a groundbreaking SETI project - Astronomy Magazine