The goal of Project Phoenix is simple: to find evidence of intelligence elsewhere in the universe.

In pursuit of this goal, Project Phoenix will make an unprecedented systematic search for radio signals from the neighborhoods of approximately 1,000 nearby, Sun-like stars. Because the project will use the largest antennas in the world, and because the receivers will be unequaled in terms of frequency coverage and signal-analyzing ability, this search will be far and away the most comprehensive ever undertaken.

Thanks to its long history of cooperation with NASA, the SETI Institute is able to capitalize on a $58 million government investment representing decades of work by scientists and engineers. NASA had completed less than a year of a planned ten-year SETI experiment when Congress, under strong pressure for deficit reduction, terminated the observations. Because the equipment and procedures were still in a ramp-up phase, not even one-thousandth of the intended search had been conducted. It was as if the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria had all been called back and mothballed within moments of pulling away from the docks.

NASA has made this sophisticated equipment available to the SETI Institute, whose scientists and engineers were directly involved in its development. By building upon the existing equipment and the core technical staff at the Institute, Project Phoenix was able to hit the ground running.

Initial Phase: November 1993 - June 1995

The first tasks for the project were: (1) to make ready for use the instrumentation from the terminated NASA program, and (2) to spend 5 months conducting observations of the southern sky -- invisible from the Northern Hemisphere -- using the Parkes 210-foot diameter radio telescope in Australia.

This effort was characterized by three principal requirements:

• Finish doubling the existing dual polarization digital receiver, or spectrometer, so that the total number of simultaneously-observable frequency channels was 57 million. The spectrometer includes on-board, dedicated computers capable of automatically recognizing several signal types including continuous, pulsed, constant frequency, or drifting. (Doubling the spectrometer saves money by halving the search time.)
• Construct confirmatory hardware that can be used at a second, smaller antenna to determine if a signal found by the main SETI antenna is "real", or merely noise from nearby terrestrial sources. NASA's observations at Arecibo showed that this additional equipment is necessary to reliably and efficiently pick out ETI signals from a thicket of man-made interference.
• Make modifications to the two Australian antennas and amplifiers necessary for a SETI search. The principal requirements here are the ability to cover a wide frequency band and to do so with as little amplifier noise as practicable. The intended frequency coverage of Project Phoenix is in the quietest part of the microwave window, 1.2 to 3.0 GHz.

The initial observations by Project Phoenix took place in the first half of 1995 in New South Wales, where all targeted stars readily visible only from the Southern Hemisphere were observed. In total, approximately 200 Sun-like stars were scrutinized during this first run.

The Parkes 64-m Antenna

These observations were the first to utilize real time confirmation with an independent signal processing system and antenna. The Mopra 22 meter antenna, about 200 km north of Parkes, checked on any candidate signals detected at Parkes with a "Follow Up Detection Device" (FUDD). Using the reported signal characteristics from Parkes, the FUDD at Mopra formed a matched filter for the signal. This compensates for the lower sensitivity of the smaller telescope.

The Mopra 22-m Antenna

For the Rest of the Decade

Since the conclusion of the Australian observations in June 1995, the Phoenix receiving equipment has returned to California. It is now undergoing upgrades that will improve performance and increase system reliability, and eventually allow automatic observing with little or no operator assistance.

In early September, 1996, the observing system will move to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia. There it will undergo tests and begin observations with the 140' Telescope. Use of the telescope will be shared with other radio astronomers, so SETI observations will be conducted in short blocks of time ranging from a few hours to a few days at a time.

In early 1998, the system will be moved to the world's largest antenna, the 1,000 foot diameter Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. This antenna is now undergoing a major upgrade, giving greater sensitivity and allowing easier coverage of broad regions of the radio spectrum. Project Phoenix will take advantage of large blocks of observing time already granted to Institute scientists and extending to the end of the millennium. A smaller northern telescope will also be modified to co-observe with Arecibo, and provide the necessary confirmation capability.

The Arecibo 305-m Antenna

As the project proceeds, instrumentation, data handling and observing procedures will be steadily improved.

These observations, spanning more than five years and nearly 1,000 target stars, represent the core program of Project Phoenix, and will require sustained funding from private sources.

More information about Project Phoenix may be obtained from:
phoenix_info@seti-inst.edu

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