Space — Is Anyone Out There?

Is anyone out there? It's a question that has intrigued humans for as long as they have realized the nature of the limitless collection dish on which they are such infinitesimal specks. And, in the next 30 to 35 years, according to the husband-and-wife astronomy team of Drs. Peter Wehinger and Susan Wyckoff of ASU's Department of Physics, we should know...and the strong possibility exists that the answer will be: yes. "We're sending radio signals out from Earth now that are going anywhere from 30 to 40 light years into space, which puts us in touch with a fair number of planets. And someone may be listening. We could well be getting a response," Dr. Wehinger says. It has been a hope that has alternately soared and plummeted as space exploration in the last 20 years has dashed one hope after another-Mars and Venus, the most likely, having been found to be planets of horrific environments. "There are no surprises in our own solar system," he adds. "All of the other planets are inhospitable." But what has kicked the controversy back into vigorous life was the discovery last year that the brightest star in the northern hemisphere, Vega-150 trillion miles away and 60 times as luminous as our lifegiving sun-is, indeed, as scientists have long assumed of all stars, the center of its own solar system and surrounded by planets of its own. It was a discovery made possible by the new orbital telescope, Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), bringing to the study of space a new sensitivity never before possible. While the planets circling Vega are unlikely to resolve the "is anyone out there?" question-Vega, itself, is less than a billion years old, versus 4.5 billion for our own sun, and life is unlikely to have yet developed-it opens up a whole new ball game. "In the next 30 to 35 years," Wehinger continues, "we'll have had long experience with a 100-inch telescope-as big as the one on Mount Wilson in Pasadena which will be launched about 200 miles into space by NASA in late 1986. We're now, from Earth, seeing stars, light sources, going back 5 to 10 billion years. With the new telescope, free of earth's turbulence, we'll have a factor of five to 10 times farther than we can see now. And, from there, we may be making our first contacts with other civilizations." Also aiding in the search: the development of new electronic detectors-Charge Couple Devices (CCDs)-using silicon chips that are far, far more sensitive to light The mind of man is capable of anythingbecause everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. Joseph Conrad

ASU

than film is and which record what they "see" on magnetic disks.

"Film," he adds, "is sensitive to about one percent of the light that hits it. The CCD is sensitive to about 80 percent, making it possible to record things not seen by the naked eye."

With telescopes whirling through space ...NASA's plans to fling unmanned missions to comets as well as planets beginning in the 1990s and even, as early as 1986, a mission to track Halley's comet... the heavens promise to have Saturday night traffic, continuously, over the next 30 to 35 years.

And, critical in the traffic pattern, according to Dr. Ronald Greeley of ASU's Department of Geology, are the space stations of the next three decadessome orbiting, some drifting in spaceand manned on a rotating basis, like today's far-flung oil rigs, by scientists and engineers.

"We've already, in 1984, had our last space probe launched from Earth. In the future-and the next one isn't until '86 when the Galileo Mission will put a probe in orbit around Jupiter for 20 months-all space exploration will be launched from the shuttle, well away from Earth. And the future space stations, of course, will simBut, once having established a space station with the shuttle serving as a peripatetic taxi service, what do you do with it?

"It's accepted," Dr. Greeley elaborates, "that there are any number of scientific experiments that really must be done in space-in a zero-gravity environment. Fundamental sorts of work which can only be done there, and then the results applied back here on Earth.

"Anyone who wears a digital watch today," he continues, "owes it to the earlier space missions because that's where the miniaturization necessary to do it had its roots as a matter of fact, the whole microchip industry has the same roots. It's difficult to know where the research conducted in space will lead in the next 30 to 35 years, but, using the last 20 years as an example, we can definitely point to our worldwide lead in electronics as a direct result of our space program." In addition to biological research to be conducted in space, according to Dr. Bruce Wagner, director of the ASU Center for Solid State Science, it is a critical environment for research into crystal growth for application to semiconductors.

"Here on Earth when you heat a crystal until it is liquid, there is no way to prevent some gravity separation," he says. "In space you won't have this phenomenon, known as convection currents, in the liquid. As a matter of fact, because there is no gravity, you can work on the liquid crystal without needing a container. And the ultimate crystal coming out of this will be closer to perfection and with far, far better electrical qualities.

until it is liquid, there is no way to prevent some gravity separation," he says. "In space you won't have this phenomenon, known as convection currents, in the liquid. As a matter of fact, because there is no gravity, you can work on the liquid crystal without needing a container. And the ultimate crystal coming out of this will be closer to perfection and with far, far better electrical qualities.

"As semiconductor devices get smaller and smaller," he continues, "there is a large increase in surface interface at the expense of an overall shrinking volume of material-which simply means that things that are on the surface become extremely important, and even a very tiny bit of impurity on the face can wreck the performance of an entire computer."

It is a theme elaborated on by Dr. John Crowley of ASU's Department of Physics, whose work in high resolution microscopy resulted, in 1971, in the first pictures showing the arrangement of atoms in a crystal."

In developing a better understanding of how semiconductors work over the next few years," Dr. Crowley says, "in addition to the fact that they are being made smaller and smaller, you have a situation where just a few atoms out of place can have a significant effect on how the semiconductor works. Now, of course, we can isolate and see individual atoms-and, perhaps, identify one or two in a clump of four or five. In the next 30 to 35 years, though, we'll be able to not only isolate and see them, but identify all of them as well, so we will be able to spot an imperfection in a manufactured product simply by noting that two or three of the atoms are in the wrong place."

Also rooted in space with better semiconductors and better silicon chips will be the genesis, Dr. Wagner feels, of the development of better ceramics-tough enough to be fashioned into engines.

"The goal here," he says, "isn't the lighter weight that would result from a ceramic engine, but the capacity to operate at much higher temperatures-and every time you are able to push the temperature up, the efficiency of the engine increases dramatically. With ceramic engines we should be able to operate at much higher temperatures than the 2200 to 2400 degrees Fahrenheit at which today's average commercial jet airliner operates, or the 2500 degrees at which military jets operate."

Is there anyone out there among our stars? In 30 to 35 years you'll need a Yellow Pages-type directory of the scientists, engineers, and technicians-many of them from ASU-who are, indeed, "out there."

The wave of the future is coming and there is no fighting it. Lindbergh