Gonzaga Debate Institute 2011 Mercury Scholars seti aff
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- Colonization Adv. Extension – SETI Key
Colonization AdvantageSETI key to colonization Tough, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, ’00 (Allen, Foundation for the Future, 2000, “When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-Information Contact”, www.futurefoundation.org/documents/hum_pro_wrk1.pdf , p. 10, 21 July 2011) SW There are strong justifications for continuing, indeed accelerating, the search. Professional astronomers have, in essence, a commission to keep an eye on the universe. Even as astronomers are obliged to inventory stars and the rest of the physical universe, they must now join with a variety of other disciplines to survey the biological universe (Dick, 1996). Their responsibilities include looking for evidence of cosmic life in all of its forms, ranging from fossilized single- celled organisms through technologically advanced civilizations. During the next millennium we may not only establish a permanent human presence throughout our solar system, but also begin interstellar migration. As we prepare to move beyond our solar system over the next few centuries, it will be essential to understand the nature and distribution of life within our part of the galactic neighborhood. Depending on what we find, our discoveries could be crucial for averting disasters ranging from backcontamination and disease through conflict with extraterrestrial spacefarers. The sheer discovery of any form of life would have profound effects on philosophy, science, and religion. The ability to communicate freely with a technologically and perhaps spiritually advanced civilization would intensify and augment those effects, altering our culture in both straightforward and subtle ways. Only colonization can avoid inevitable extinction Baum, and scholar at Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions 10 (Seth D., Ph.D in Geography from Pennsylvania State University and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University, “Cost–Benefit Analysis Of Space Exploration: Some Ethical Considerations”, Space Policy Volume 25, Issue 2, May, pg 75-80, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265964609000198) Another non-market benefit of space exploration is reduction in the risk of the extinction of humanity and other Earth-originating life. Without space colonization, the survival of humanity and other Earth-originating life will become extremely difficult – perhaps impossible – over the very long term. This is because the Sun, like all stars, changes in its composition and radiative output over time. The Sun is gradually converting hydrogen into helium, thereby getting warmer. In some 500 million to one billion years, this warming is projected to render Earth uninhabitable to life as we know it [25] and [26]. Humanity, if it still exists on Earth then, could conceivably have developed technology to survive on Earth despite these radical conditions. Such technology may descend from present proposals to “geoengineer” the planet in response to anthropogenic climate change [27] and [28].2 However, later – around seven billion years later – the Sun will lose mass that spreads into Earth's orbit, causing Earth to slow, be pulled into the Sun, and evaporate. The only way life could survive on Earth would be if, by sheer coincidence (the odds are on the order of one in 105 to one in 106 [29]), the planet happened to be pulled out of the Solar System by a star system that was passing by. This process might enable life to survive on Earth much longer, although the chances of this are quite remote. While space colonization would provide a hedge against these very long-term astronomical threats, it would also provide a hedge against the more immediate threats that face humanity and other species. Such threats include nuclear warfare, pandemics, anthropogenic climate change, and disruptive technology [30]. Because these threats would generally only affect life on Earth and not life elsewhere, self-sufficient space colonies would survive these catastrophes, enabling life to persist in the universe. For this reason, space colonization has been advocated as a means of ensuring long-term human survival [32] and [33]. Space exploration projects can help increase the probability of long-term human survival in other ways as well: technology developed for space exploration is central to proposals to avoid threats from large comet and asteroid impacts [34] and [35]. However, given the goal of increasing the probability of long-term human survival by a certain amount, there may be more cost-effective options than space colonization (with costs defined in terms of money, effort, or related measures). More cost-effective options may include isolated refuges on Earth to help humans survive a catastrophe [36] and materials to assist survivors, such as a how-to manual for civilization [37] or a seed bank [38]. Further analysis is necessary to determine the most cost-effective means of increasing the probability of long-term human survival. Colonization Adv. Extension – SETI KeyNew planetary findings can be detected from SETI exploration Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, 2001 (Jill, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 39, EBSCO, “SETI”,) PG Because life as we know it is a planetary phenomenon, the search for extrasolar planets, a better understanding of how the Earth and our own solar system formed, and whether our system is typical are all relevant to the question of life elsewhere in the universe. Therefore, efforts are aimed not only at detecting planets (particularly terrestrial planets) close to home so we can probe them for potential biomarkers, but also at making a census of planets and solar systems associated with large populations of stars. Given sufficient angular resolution and methods for dealing with the extreme contrast ratio of stellar light to reflected planetary light in the visible or infrared— adaptive optics, speckles, and nulling interferometers—any planets around the nearest stars may be directly imaged. Other methods of detection are indirect. It is possible to measure the reflex motion of the star about the planetary system’s center of mass owing to the gravitational tug of its orbiting planets. One can also measure the diminution of stellar luminosity as a planet transits, or the magnification of the light of a distant star by a properly aligned planet (sitting near the Einstein ring at a distance RE from the foreground parent star), creating a short-lived gravitational microlensing event. Radio telescopes can be used to find “Earth-like” planets Doyle, SETI Institute Principal Investigator 05 (Laurance ,The SETI Institute, “Detecting Other Worlds VIII: Radio Detection” ,5-2, http://www.seti.org/page.aspx?pid=798 ,6-21-11,GJV) We have discussed to date seven methods for detecting extrasolar planets in this series. During that time another two dozen extrasolar giant planets have been discovered, and the Kepler Mission, which will detect Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars, has been accepted by NASA as a Discovery Program. Within the next decade, therefore, we should have an idea if other "Earths" exist. Could there be a more exciting time than the beginning of such a Renaissance in our perspective of our place in the universe? This is the final article in the Detecting Other Worlds series. Today we will discuss the detection of extrasolar planets using radio telescopes. Jupiter, for example, puts out radio signals due to its huge magnetic field. An extremely simplified model of magnetic fields requires two components: a metallic core and movement. Jupiters hydrogen core is metal-like and the planet itself rotates about twice as fast as the Earth, giving it a magnetic field that can, for example, deliver 5 million amps of electric current to its nearest large moon, Io. It is interesting that, at a radio frequency of about 10 Megahertz, energetic particles in Jupiters magnetosphere can outshine the quiet (i.e. starspot inactive) Sun! Thus the possibilities of imaging a star with a Jupiter-like planet might not be that difficult even though their brightness ratios are significantly different. (See the Rayleigh criterion discussion in my essay on Direct Imaging.) In the infrared, Jupiter is, of course, a billion times fainter than the Sun. So how might one go about detecting "Jupiters" around other stars by their radio emissions? Several authors have suggested that an array of about 100 eight-meter antennas - in particular, millimeter-wave telescopes - located in the very dry east Antarctic Plateau could detect "Jupiters" at a wavelength of about 1 millimeter (300 Gigahertz frequency), and at a distance of about 4 parsecs (about 13 light years) in a matter of days. Unlike the radio velocity method, the farther from their parent star the "Jupiters" are, the more easily detected (resolved) they would be. The detection of such "Jupiters" would be interesting since such a large mass in another solar system may be needed to clear it of comets (see my essay on Circumstellar Habitable Zones). For example, if Jupiter were not in our Solar System, we would have a large cometary impact on Earth every few ten-thousand years, as opposed to every tens-of-millions of years. As far as detecting evidence of exobiology, radio is a very good candidate. Of the various methods (weve talked about ozone detection, albedo changes due to forests, and so on), the most unequivocal for the remote detection of exobiology remains the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) method. The main endeavor, of course, is to detect narrow-band radio signals from another civilization. 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