David G. Messerschmitt (KK6KFQ)

Radio Communication at Interstellar Distances

David G. Messerschmitt (University of Michigan MS '68; PhD ’72) is an Emeritus Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at U-C, Berkeley, where he also served as Department Chair. He is a renowned researcher in the field of telecommunications, and author of several textbooks in the areas of networking, digital communications, and software. He is an IEEE Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Messerschmitt received the College of Engineering Alumni Society Merit Award for EECS in 1994, and has served on the EECS National Advisory Committee. Messerschmitt received the EECS Alumni Merit Award in 1994. [EECS News 2009]

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Based on recent progress in locating exoplanets outside our solar system, it is estimated that about 20% of those stars similar to our sun harbor planets in the habitable zone, meaning they could conceivably harbor Earth-like life. That adds up to an estimated 20 billion such planets in the Milky Way galaxy, and it is possible that a small fraction of those (but still an impressive number) harbor intelligent civilizations possessing advanced radio technology. It is appropriate to begin pondering how we might communicate information by radio with any extraterrestrial civilizations that might exist out there, and also with spacecraft (called starships) that we might launch toward nearby stars. In this talk we discuss the major technical obstacles to such radio communication, such as great distances, the cosmic microwave background, an ionized interstellar medium, and (for starships) relativistic speeds. We will also predict the character of digital modes appropriate for interstellar communication. 

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