Dr Jill Tarter (Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI, SETI Institute, Mountain View, California)

The Allen Telescope Array: 42 Is More Than The Answer To 'Life, The Universe, And Everything' - Dr Jill Tarter Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

42 is also the answer to the question 'How many antennas are constructed?'
After more years of R&D and setting up production lines then we thought it
would take, the Allen Telescope Array will begin doing its first science
early in 2006. The pace of construction for the remaining 308 antennas
will be controlled by the rate at which funds are raised. A small team
can build an antenna in the construction tent and place it on a waiting
pedestal in just over a day. It's easy, once you know how!

The first science programs will be those for which sensitivity is not the
limiting factor, a five gigahertz sky survey (FiGSS) for transients, and a
SETI survey of the inner galactic plane. Pilot surveys will also be
conducted to learn how to conduct the commensal observing programs that
are enabled by the large field of view, more than a decade of frequency
coverage, and four independently tunable IF channels serving data to two
spectral imaging correlators and 16 dual-polarization, phased-array
beamformers.