SETI: On the telescope and on the drawing board

Abstract

On Columbus Day 1992, NASA will initiate the observational phase of its SETI Microwave Observing Project that will continue to the end of the century. Paul Horowitz and the Planetary Society will soon be operating META SETI in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Smaller scale projects at the Nancay Observatory in France, the Ohio State University Radio Observatory in the US, the Algonquin Observatory in Canada, the Parkes Observatory in Australia and an observational strategy being employed at optical and radio wavelengths in the USSR round out the list of near-term SETI observing programs for this generation. This paper discusses these searches as well as the strategies and technologies that have been suggested for the next generation of searching.