For 60 years, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been scanning our universal horizons for signs of intelligent life, listening and waiting for a signal to come bouncing back to Earth. But now, beginning in just four days time, a new strategy is being added into the mix – Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI).
The METI concept involves a more active approach in that instead of waiting for a signal to reach us, a message will be sent out from Earth into outer space, in the hope that it will be picked up by any intelligent alien race that is out there.
The first long-duration METI project will be launched on 17th June by Lone Signal, a crowd-funded project set up by a group of businessmen and entrepreneurs utilizing the Jamesburg Earth Station radio telescope in Carmel Valley, California, which was constructed in 1968 to support the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.