Crowd funded Exo planet hunter is the ONLY way to go !

In my opinion there are 2 major obstacles that go hand in hand:

1) the spectrum that passes via the atmosphere is just very very poor, we only get to see a tiny fraction of it. All the infrared/ultraviolet or any other EM signatures from Exo planets or ET engines/cloacking/coms would be missed by ground observatories.
2) Even if we had a space geo sync telescope/radio telescope for which the tax payers have paid for, THEN there's the problem with a retard in some office at one of of the alphabet agencies deciding that is allowed for the whole of mankind to actually see.

So we must get our own equipment via crowd funding into a geo sync orbit with no gov interference to the positioning and control of the platform so that we can freely observe space.
How much would it cost to put a mini hubble or similar radio telescope in a geo sync orbit ?
How about a crowd funded planet hunter in a geo sync orbit.
Outer space is where all the signals are cut off by the earth's atmosphere. Look at the EM spectrum cut off below :

[snipped]

This is the photo link
htt ps:/ /upload .wikimedia . org /wikipedia/commons/3 /34/ Atmospheric_electromagnetic_opacity . svg

originally posted by: Choice777
Crowd funded Exo planet hunter is the ONLY way to go !

No, no, no!

The only way to go is sort out this ball of dirt first before turning our backs and hurling money into a void that could better be used for good down here.

Easy to live a destraction, they take so little responsibility.

btw, your juvenille mobile phone swearing earns you no kudos in my books. Some of us are adults, please address us as adults. Thanks.

I like this idea, but I can't help but feel that:

1. The Cost would be prohibitive
   
2. Even if cost could be overcome, aforementioned alphabet agencies would sabotage the equipment during the launch stage
   

a reply to: Choice777

The thing that gets me is. To detect a planet it has got to cross the stars path in order to create a diming effect that can be recorded. That means the orbit of the planet has to be in the line with our instruments.

What if the orbit of the planet is off centre to the star and never crosses our field of view. How many other planets orbiting a sun never has the perfect orbit in order for us to detect it.

Maybe I'm just babbling.

originally posted by: Choice777
How much would it cost to put a mini hubble or similar radio telescope in a geo sync orbit ?
How about a crowd funded planet hunter in a geo sync orbit.

Probably less than homing the homeless in most if not all of whatever country you live in. Please see this with some perspective.

NASA's Shuttle Program Cost $209 Billion — Was it Worth It?

Reality eh? don't ya just hate it?

If you we're an adult you wouldn't be saying stupid things like those...sort out WHAT ? Go back to your cave, this here topic is for progress into contacting other races or at least finding signs of their presence...not fixing dead beat mentalities on this pos planet. You can not turn YOUR back and start fixing whatever you want..stop talking to yourself as ''we''.

Anyway, for those interested in the actual topic and crowd funding aspect and not trying to diverge from the topic with some insane hobo mindset..
The interesting thing like a white elephant in the room is this EM opacity graph.....basically from the ground we are missing 90% of it.
https :// upload. wikimedia. org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Atmospheric_electromagnetic_opacity. svg

If we only need a few million to put a small cubesat in orbit, then a larger sat with a unfoldable mirror or radio array could be doable for 10-20 mil.


Edit: As far as weight to launch cost , at 50k a kg then it's doable via crowd funding if we consider that today we cant even get a lousy 640*480 webcam feed without it being down for ''technical reasons'' when something shows up on it.
We cant get a real live feed thats not censored despite all the billions of tax money that was spent.

something like thi s?


You can use some ground based telescopes online
www.telescope.org...
mo-www.harvard.edu...


It's not just money, you need people who can operate the system

Space-based telescopes is the way to go. Let's petition to Elon Musk to launch a telescope or two into LEO or perhaps even the Langrangian points far away from Earth, to study the universe and to look for extraterrestrial life.

@intergalactic fire
Well the first link is kind of what i'm thinking but they've gone the route of making it for the wrong reasons and again they would have control over it...and look at some of the daft things they plan on spending the money on: digital selfies, 3d models, name etched on telescope, tickets, freebies, etc...
I'm talking about a telescope that would provide a video feed 99% of time with NO ''ooops technical issues'' or any kind of this magical bull# that happens exactly but i mean dead on spot exactly when some massive ''pixel compression artifact glare'' passes in front of the sun shade. Come on....a dedicated satellite with a main mirror to look for exo planets and a tiny secondary mirror of a lousy 1 or 2 mp to look at the sun with a sun shade in the center...or maybe a single zero g gas filled expanded 20m diam radio reflective collector antenna to scan for radio signals from the most hotly debated places liek Epsilon, tau ceti, Sirius...you know ...all the places where et stories are pointing towards.

a reply to: Choice777
You are correct and i'm with you on that one. Use for selfies? really? Where do they get these ideas?!

This was just an example to show it's indeed possible.

Another issue, there are too few people who want to exchange just money for possible knowledge.
In this world, everything that's created has to have some kind of profit linked to it. Otherwise it's not worth it.

Anyways, sign me up, I'm all for ideas and creations that weren't manifested by tptb.

I think SETI is really up to no good...first they spend how many decades wasting money, then they try and trick the generous people on crowd funding platforms to fund the magain...as if tax payers money wasn't enough...and guess what ? it's probably the same old dinosaurs at SETI running all the equipment and covering it all up.
www.wired.co.uk...

Surely there must be a way around this...like having nobody in charge of a on/off switch or frequency selector..it could all be done via a online voting system to switch the frequency or point the darn thing.

a reply to: nerbot

The only way to go is sort out this ball of dirt first before turning our backs and hurling money into a void that could better be used for good down here.

That line has been used for centuries.
You will never cure all the problems on Earth.

a reply to: Choice777

SETI isn't taxpayer funded...

originally posted by: Choice777
In my opinion there are 2 major obstacles that go hand in hand:

1) the spectrum that passes via the atmosphere is just very very poor, we only get to see a tiny fraction of it. All the infrared/ultraviolet or any other EM signatures from Exo planets or ET engines/cloacking/coms would be missed by ground observatories.

Actually the major part of the spectrum does in fact reach earth's surface, and, with the right technology is easy to detect, sample, and analyze...

So much so that there are systems all around the world doing it all the time...most are not government, but are not public either.

2) Even if we had a space geo sync telescope/radio telescope for which the tax payers have paid for, THEN there's the problem with a retard in some office at one of of the alphabet agencies deciding that is allowed for the whole of mankind to actually see.

You mean assets like Hubble, Kepler, New Horizons, and other spacecraft, some in local space, some "on mission" remotely (like Pluto, Mars, Saturn, etc.).

So we must get our own equipment via crowd funding into a geo sync orbit with no gov interference to the positioning and control of the platform so that we can freely observe space.
How much would it cost to put a mini hubble or similar radio telescope in a geo sync orbit ?
How about a crowd funded planet hunter in a geo sync orbit.
Outer space is where all the signals are cut off by the earth's atmosphere. Look at the EM spectrum cut off below :

Getting your own equipment...isn't as easy as you might think. I've been trying to build an "Exoplanet hunter"...doesn't seem to be much real interest! Most people seem to think it's a good idea, "what a wonderful project", but, when it comes time to help make it real...all ya get is "click"...move along to new address.

I'm not sure why this happens, but probably related to the idea that just some random person with an idea can't make such a sophisticated thing happen...reality is that a robot telescope is easy and simple for some.


The notion that this observatory "needs" to be in space is not true...most of the atmospheric distortions can be removed...with simple software...and of course, the equipment required for optical astronomy is rather different than the rest of the spectrum, but, optical does cover a whole lot of what is available for acquisition and analysis.

In my opinion what is needed is a network of small robotic optical telescopes around the world that are available to anyone...this of course means that they must be cheap and easy to build, and that is just a matter of engineering. The whole crowd funding thing is also good...IF the people build them, the data can become free to anyone who chooses to do the analytical work. This can open up the endeavor to those with the time and ideas...

originally posted by: EnigmaAgent
a reply to: Choice777

The thing that gets me is. To detect a planet it has got to cross the stars path in order to create a diming effect that can be recorded. That means the orbit of the planet has to be in the line with our instruments.

What if the orbit of the planet is off centre to the star and never crosses our field of view. How many other planets orbiting a sun never has the perfect orbit in order for us to detect it.

Maybe I'm just babbling.

There are three main techniques to detect exoplanets...

1. Transit method. About like you said, we wait for the planet to cross in front and then plot the "lightcurve"...This method can work for something as small as 0.001% of its parent star's size. So...most planets Earths size, or a bit smaller, crossing a star the size of Sol...this is the easiest..

2. Radial Velocity. When a planet orbits it parent it "pulls" on the star and causes a wobble...this resilts in very sall "red" and "blue" shifts to the stars "color". With a spectrograph this can be detected, and again the sensitivity is dependent on the telescope and it's CCD...so a color change of around 0.001%

3. Micro lensing. This is an effect where the planet causes a small "lensing" effect due t its gravity. This can be small to large. One of the "nice" aspects of this is that a "reading" of the exoplanet's atmosphere can also be obtained (via spectroscopy), and this can reveal a wealth of data about the planet.

All of these can be done from a small Earth-based telescope, and a little total cost.

originally posted by: samkent
a reply to: nerbot

The only way to go is sort out this ball of dirt first before turning our backs and hurling money into a void that could better be used for good down here.

That line has been used for centuries.
You will never cure all the problems on Earth.

Not only has that line been over used....

Modern time have proven it very false...there has been more benefit to the Human species, more good, more progress, etc. over the past 50 years than in the whole of Human history...all because of the space programs, and other "pushes" for technology.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
a reply to: Choice777

SETI isn't taxpayer funded...

Yes it was at various points in time and is even today on various sections of it.
Plenty of university involvement which means public money is at some point spend.
-Originally developed as a joint effort between the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory (RAL) at the University of California, Berkeley
-Nasa funded research into it,
- Ohio university radio telescope is the one that received the Wow signal,
-In 1978, the NASA SETI program had been heavily criticized by Senator William Proxmire, and funding for SETI research was removed from the NASA budget by Congress in 1981
-The SETI Institute collaborated with the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at University of California
- RODAY The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), formerly known as the One Hectare Telescope (1hT) is a radio telescope array dedicated to astronomical observations and a simultaneous Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
-Other astrobiology research at the SETI Institute may be funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, or other grants and donations.
-Funding for building additional antennas is currently being sought by the SETI Institute from various sources, including the United States Navy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Science Foundation (NSF) and private donors.

So it's basically a mash up of various sources so it's transparency is zero. Whatever they find is kept private and only given to the public on a need to know basis.

Even worse : SETI@home ("SETI at home") is an Internet-based public volunteer computing project employing the BOINC software platform, hosted by the Space Sciences Laboratory, at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.

SO what's you contribution to this topic ? Another ONE LINER ? And then you bugger off like some guru of the internets leaving behind '' ... '' , wow such a genius to grace us with your limitless lack of info except helping us learn the art of one liners.

originally posted by: tanka418

originally posted by: Choice777
In my opinion there are 2 major obstacles that go hand in hand:

1) the spectrum that passes via the atmosphere is just very very poor, we only get to see a tiny fraction of it. All the infrared/ultraviolet or any other EM signatures from Exo planets or ET engines/cloacking/coms would be missed by ground observatories.

Actually the major part of the spectrum does in fact reach earth's surface, and, with the right technology is easy to detect, sample, and analyze...
--------------

The notion that this observatory "needs" to be in space is not true...most of the atmospheric distortions can be removed...with simple software...and of course, the equipment required for optical astronomy is rather different than the rest of the spectrum, but, optical does cover a whole lot of what is available for acquisition and analysis.

In my opinion what is needed is a network of small robotic optical telescopes around the world that are available to anyone...this of course means that they must be cheap and easy to build, and that is just a matter of engineering. The whole crowd funding thing is also good...IF the people build them, the data can become free to anyone who chooses to do the analytical work. This can open up the endeavor to those with the time and ideas...

So you mean this is wrong ?
https :// upload. wikimedia. org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Atmospheric_electromagnetic_opacity. svg

Anyway ithink we need at least 1 small opticla telescope thats controled by the public. A newtwork is overkill in therms of funds...we;d be very lucky to have just one with full spectrum capablity then we coudl really see whats going on in space. The actual device itself isn't hard to build, i could do it, the hard part is launching it and positioning it into geo sync orbit.

a reply to: Choice777
A "full spectrum" capability is a pretty tall order. Not hard to build? Not sure about that. Proper radiation shielding and whatnot aside, the more stuff you put in it the harder it gets (power requirements, heat dissipation).

Question though, what would be the advantage of a geosynchronous orbit?

a reply to: Choice777

Great idea, at least until a white horse ten times the size
of our sun is spotted. And it's rider who's face shines brighter
than any star. See what happens to your crowd funded telescope
then?