Mixed Signals: Communication with the Alien in Cold War Radio Astronomy

This dissertation examines the development of radio astronomy and the search for and communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI) from the 1950s through to the early 1980s, with the aim of understanding how these fields reflected the tensions, successes, and anxieties of Cold War science. In the mid-20th century, some radio astronomers in the US and USSR believed CETI would bring about global unity by reminding humans we are one species in a vast, possibly populated cosmos. Using a combination of oral history and archival research, this dissertation demonstrates that the belief in CETI’s peace making possibilities encouraged scientific internationalism, helped spark anti-nuclear activist movements, prompted successful scientific exchanges between nations locked in the Cold War, and contributed to the development of breakthrough scientific techniques still utilized today. Radio astronomy infrastructures also enabled those successes; the tools and techniques utilized by radio astronomers required the use of telescopes scattered around the world, demanding global cooperation and communication to achieve the best possible scientific results. Yet radio astronomy and CETI also benefited from the military and imperialism. The technical requirements of radio telescopes necessitated the construction of government-funded facilities in remote places, and developing remote sites nearly always required dealing with vulnerable populations and, often, colonized land. Therefore, while US and Soviet astronomers were preoccupied with fighting political barriers that impeded their freedom to conduct scientific research, they were simultaneously treading upon the rights and desires of the communities where their instruments were deployed. Furthermore, CETI radio astronomers became adept at developing tools and techniques to identify intelligent extraterrestrial signals from space. That focus made the field significant for the intelligence community, which used CETI’s signals-intelligence techniques to improve space listening capabilities. This dissertation ultimately argues that radio astronomy and CETI are particularly valuable disciplines through which to analyse many of the major characteristics of Cold War science and geopolitics, because their infrastructure, instruments, and ideologies reveal the dualities and contradictions of the era by promoting communication and internationalism while simultaneously depending on the military, espionage, and imperial hegemony

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Charbonneau, Rebecca

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Staley, Richard

• cold war
• history of science
• history of technology
• radio astronomy
• history
• Carl Sagan
• CETI
• SETI
• technosignatures
• I.S. Shklovsky
• Shklovskii
• Frank Drake
• Extraterrestrial
• Soviet Union
• USSR
• Nikolai Kardashev
• Global Cold War

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/7806d822-002f-4e8b-9e0b-23647d3caae9/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.76362

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/328916