http://www.nbcnews.com/mach/space/why-these-scientists-fear-contact-space-aliens-n717271Why These Scientists Fear Contact With Space Aliens
by REBECCA BOYLE
Image: An illustration of aliens.
An illustration of aliens. Science Picture Co. / Getty Images
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The more we learn about the cosmos, the more it seems possible that we are not alone. The entire galaxy is teeming with worlds, and we're getting better at listening — so the question, "Is there anybody out there?" is one we may be able to answer soon.
But do we really want to know? If aliens are indeed out there, would they be friendly explorers, or destroyers of worlds? This is a serious question no longer confined to science fiction, because a growing group of astronomers has taken it upon themselves to do more than just listen. Some are advocating for a beacon swept across the galaxy, letting E.T. know we're home, to see if anyone comes calling. Others argue we would be wise to keep Earth to ourselves.
Related: NASA's Bold Plan to Save Earth From Killer Asteroids
"There's a possibility that if we actively message, with the intention of getting the attention of an intelligent civilization, that the civilization we contact would not necessarily have our best interests in mind," says Lucianne Walkowicz, an astrophysicist at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. "On the other hand, there might be great benefits. It could be something that ends life on Earth, and it might be something that accelerates the ability to live quality lives on Earth. We have no way of knowing."
Like many other astronomers, Walkowicz isn't convinced one way or the other — but she said the global scientific community needs to talk about it.
Stephen Hawking
Internet investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner shows the Starchip, a microelectronic component spacecraft. The $100 million project is aimed at establishing the feasibility of sending a swarm of tiny spacecraft, each weighing far less than an ounce, to the Alpha Centauri star system. Bebeto Matthews / AP, file
That conversation is likely to heat up soon thanks to the Breakthrough Initiatives, a philanthropic organization dedicated to interstellar outreach that's funded by billionaire Russian tech mogul Yuri Milner. Its Breakthrough Message program would solicit ideas from around the world to compose a message to aliens and figure out how to send it. Outreach for the program may launch as soon as next year, according to Pete Worden, the Breakthrough Initiatives' director.
"We're well aware of the argument, 'Do you send things or not?' There's pretty vigorous opinion on both sides of our advisory panel," Worden says. "But it's a very useful exercise to start thinking about what to respond. What's the context? What best represents the people on Earth? This is an exercise for humanity, not necessarily just about what we would send." Members of the advisory panel have argued that a picture (and the thousand words it may be worth) would be the best message.
Next comes "more of a technical expertise question," Wordon says. "Given that you have an image or images, how do you best encrypt it so it can be received?"
Breakthrough Message will work on those details, including how to transmit the pictures, whether through radio or laser transmitters; how to send it with high fidelity, so it's not rendered unreadable because of interference from the interstellar medium; which wavelengths of light to use, or whether to spread a message across a wide spectrum; how many times to send it, and how often; and myriad other technical concerns.
Related: Space Mining: The Intergalactic Gold Rush Is On
The scientific community continues to debate these questions. For instance, Philip Lubin of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has published research describing a laser array that could conceivably broadcast a signal through the observable universe.
Breakthrough is also working on where to send such a message, Worden adds. The $100 million Breakthrough Listen project is searching for any evidence of life in nearby star systems, which includes exoplanets out to a few hundred light years away.
"If six months from now, we start to see some interesting signals, we'll probably accelerate the Message program," he says.
The fact that there have been no signals yet does pose a conundrum. In a galaxy chock full of worlds, why isn't Earth crawling with alien visitors? The silence amid the presence of such plentiful planets is called the Fermi Paradox, named for the physicist Enrico Fermi, who first asked "Where is everybody?" in 1950.
In the decades since, astronomers have come up with possible explanations ranging from sociology to biological complexity. Aliens might be afraid of us, or consider us unworthy of attention, for instance. Or it may be that aliens communicate in ways that we can't comprehend, so we're just not hearing them. Or maybe aliens lack communication capability of any kind. Of course there's also the possibility that there are no aliens.
Image: Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking announces the "Breakthrough Starshot" initiative in New York in 2016. Dennis Van Tine / Star Max/IPx via AP
But those questions don't address the larger one: Whether it's a good idea to find out. Some scientists, most notably Stephen Hawking, are convinced the answer is a firm "No."
"We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet," Hawking said in 2010. He has compared meeting aliens to Christopher Columbus meeting Native Americans: "That didn't turn out so well," he said.
Others have warned of catastrophic consequences ripped from the pages of science fiction: Marauding aliens that could follow our message like a homing beacon, and come here to exploit Earth's resources, exploit humans, or even to destroy all life as we know it.
"Any civilization detecting our presence is likely to be technologically very advanced, and may not be disposed to treat us nicely. At the very least, the idea seems morally questionable," physicist Mark Buchanan argued in the journal Nature Physics last fall.
Related: How Computers Are Learning to Predict the Future
Other astronomers think it's worth the risk — and they add, somewhat darkly, that it's too late anyway. We are a loud species, and our messages have been making their way through the cosmos since the dawn of radio.
"If we are in danger of an alien invasion, it's too late," wrote Douglas Vakoch, the director of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) International, in a rebuttal last fall in Nature Physics. Vakoch, the most prominent METI proponent, argues that if we don't tell anyone we're here, we could miss out on new technology that could help humanity, or even protect us from other, less friendly aliens.
“If we are in danger of an alien invasion, it’s too late.”
David Grinspoon, an author and astrobiologist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, says he first thought, "'Oh, come on, you've got to be kidding me.' It seems kind of absurd aliens are going to come invade us, steal our precious bodily fluids, breed us like cattle, 'To Serve Man,' " a reference to a 1962 episode of "The Twilight Zone" in which aliens hatch a plan to use humans as a food source.
Originally, Grinspoon thought there would be no harm in setting up a cosmic lighthouse. "But I've listened to the other side, and I think they have a point," he adds. "If you live in a jungle that might be full of hungry lions, do you jump down from your tree and go, 'Yoo-hoo?'"
Many have already tried, albeit some more seriously than others.
In 2008, NASA broadcast the Beatles tune "Across the Universe" toward Polaris, the North Star, commemorating the space agency's 50th birthday, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network, and the 40th anniversary of that song.
Later that year, a tech startup working with Ukraine's space agency beamed pictures and messages to the exoplanet Gliese 581 c. Other, sillier messages to the stars have included a Doritos commercial and a bunch of Craigslist ads.
Last October, the European Space Agency broadcast 3,775 text messages toward Polaris. It's not known to harbor any exoplanets, and even if it did, those messages would take some 425 years to arrive; yet the exercise, conceived by an artist, raised alarm among astronomers. Several prominent scientists, including Walkowicz, signed on to a statement guarding against any future METI efforts until some sort of international consortium could reach agreement.
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Is an Alien Megastructure Causing this Distant Star's Strange Behavior? 1:58
Even if we don't send a carefully crafted message, we're already reaching for the stars. The Voyager probe is beyond the solar system in interstellar space, speeding toward a star 17.6 light-years from Earth. Soon, if Milner has his way, we may be sending even more robotic emissaries.
Milner's $100 million Breakthrough Starshot aims to send a fleet of paper-thin space chips to the Alpha Centauri system within a generation's time. Just last fall, astronomers revealed that a potentially rocky, Earth-sized planet orbits Proxima Centauri, a small red dwarf star in that system and the nearest to our own, just four light years away. The chips would use a powerful laser to accelerate to near the speed of light, to cover the distance between the stars in just a few years. A team of scientists and engineers is working on how to build the chips and the laser, according to Worden.
"If we find something interesting, obviously we're going to get a lot more detail if we can visit, and fly by," he says. "Who knows what's possible in 50 years?"
But some time sooner than that, we will need to decide whether to say anything at all. Ultimately, those discussions are important for humanity, Worden, Walkowicz and Grinspoon all say.
"Maybe it's more important that we get our act together on Earth," Grinspoon says. "We are struggling to find a kind of global identity on this planet that will allow us to survive the problems we've created for ourselves. Why not treat this as something that allows us to practice that kind of thinking and action?"
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Some scientists want to beam signals from Earth to make contact with alien civilizations. Do you think that’s a good idea?
2:42 PM - 8 Feb 2017
Yes, and say hi for me.
Yikes! They might eat us.
Let scientists decide.
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TOPICS SPACE
FIRST PUBLISHED FEB 8 2017, 9:23 AM ET
NEXT STORY New 'Space Poop' System Could Fly on Orion Deep-Space Mission
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FEB 6 2017, 11:25 AM ET
New ‘Space Poop’ System Could Fly on Orion Deep-Space Mission
by ELIZABETH HOWELL, SPACE.COM
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Image: During the Gemini 4 mission on June 3, 1965, Ed White becomes the first American to conduct a spacewalk.
NASA will announce winners for its Space Poop Challenge Feb. 16. NASA
A new spacesuit system to flush away astronauts' poop will likely fly on the first crewed Orion spacecraft flight, NASA said in an interview with Space.com.
This means that eager innovators could see their waste collection system fly in space between 2021 and 2023 on "Exploration Mission 2," or EM-2, which could bring the astronauts out of low-Earth orbit for the first time in half a century.
NASA recently wrapped up an open "space poop challenge" for designs that improve upon the current spacesuit waste collection garment (sometimes referred to as a diaper). Winners will be announced Feb. 16.
Related: How to Pee in Space (and What to Do If the Toilet Breaks)
Winning designs will be able to flush away poop, urine and menstrual fluid for up to six days without the astronaut needing to use his or her hands. The substances have to be moved away in microgravity (where everything floats, even the gross stuff). Not only that, the new system has to have a design that works for any gender.
"The final waste management garment that is created won't be used nominally, but only in certain emergency situations that require spending long durations in a pressurized suit," Kristyn Johnson, one of the principal investigators for the study, told Space.com in an email. "For shorter durations, during launch and entry, the crew will plan to use an adult diaper as it fits our needs and is something we've used in the past."
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NASA Unveiled the New Spacesuit for Starliner Astronauts 1:04
NASA currently uses the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) for spacewalks on the International Space Station. This spacesuit type was first used in 1981 for the space shuttle program and, among other things, includes a diaper-like waste collection garment so that both males and females can relieve themselves while still inside. The EMU is designed for microgravity work, so NASA is also working on spacesuits that would be better suited for work on the surface of Mars.
"No major design changes have been made to the EMU waste collection garment over the years, as it still fulfils all the necessary requirements," Johnson said.
"We're looking for a solution that will be included on the vehicle for upcoming manned Orion missions," she added. "EM-2 will be the first flight of a long duration waste management device. There is a possibility that it could be a part of a future Mars trip timeline, but we're not focused on that aspect right now."
Astronaut isolation?
While NASA says isolating sick astronauts isn't part of the space poop challenge, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum curator Cathy Lewis pointed out the new waste collection system could be good for that, too.
During the Gemini program of the 1960s, which tested out key technologies used for the Apollo moon landings between 1969 and 1972, there was a project to determine how to treat astronauts who become ill while wearing spacesuits. This included using an "injection patch" in some of the Gemini suit types for astronauts to receive medications by needle without opening the suit, she told Space.com.
Related: Evolution of the Spacesuit in Pictures
"Going from the injection patch to long term waste recovery is the next step," Lewis said. She added that the Apollo spacesuits had a built-in urine collection device that was hands-free, but it wouldn't work today as the system was designed only for male anatomy. (The first American female astronaut, Sally Ride, flew in space during the shuttle program in 1983.)
"The other limitation," she added, "is they are breathing pure oxygen, so they can't live in a spacesuit longer than 14 days. It's an absolute physiological maximum."
Lewis pointed out that bowel movements in space tend to be messy, even when not wearing a spacesuit. Astronauts are on a constant "low-producing" diet to keep poop to a minimum. Up until the end of the Apollo program, they dealt with feces using a plastic bag that attached to their rear ends. The bags were then stowed for the remainder of the mission.
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Here's Why SpaceX's Recent Launch was a Big Deal 1:29
On the space station today, however, astronauts don't need to go through that process; they instead use suction-operated toilets that don't require gravity to function.
Johnson said that after the contest's winners are announced, there will be a lengthy suit system design review where the agency tests and develops different options, then makes a final decision about which system to fly. As usual, NASA is also hoping to apply some of the technology to earthbound endeavors.
"We're happy to see all of the interest in this challenge," Johnson said. The challenge has been covered in more than 150 media outlets worldwide, according to the challenge website.
"It does have a lot of applicability to patients that may be on extended bed rest or those having to deal with incontinence," she added. "Being able to prevent skin breakdown, reduce odor, and fecal matter containment are just aspects of the challenge that we'd love to get input on. We're more than excited to hear people's concepts.
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