A Day in the Life of Alien Hunters at the Allen Telescope Array "ATA"

A Day in the Life of Alien Hunters at the Allen Telescope Array "ATA"

The Alan telescope is the only array built from the ground up to search for alien intelligence. His nephew is between the northern California mountains and miles of farmland. Four researchers live full-time at the ATA. Conducting Add science in the middle of nowhere. What's it like to live there? And what's the typical day? That's what I'm going to find out. Hey, this is Margaret Reeb, I'm a senior Manager at the study institute and I am on my way to the Allen telescope array. I am in the nearest town which is about 30 minutes away. I just stocked up on groceries and I'm going to head to the telescope so I'll catch you there. The APA is situated at the Hack Creek Radio Laughing National Park. It consists of 42 radio dishes arranged over 1 km of land. Fetty science focuses on listening to radio waves because they are a great way to send information over large distances. And they pass through the dust and gas of space at the speed of light. Using multiple dishes rather than a single large telescope allows scientists to observe more than one area of the sky and listen to different radio frequencies simultaneously. Thanks to a generous donation from Franklin Antonio the antennas are now being upgraded to cover 1000 To 15 thousand megahertz with improved sensitivity and reliability. I arrived late one evening and early November to meet the researchers who call the ATA home. Doctor Alexander Polock is the science and engineering operations manager at the EPA. Sarah Schultz is Alex's recent Research assistant who works on APA hardware. Doctor Yal Fara is a postdoc researcher and resident astronomer at the ATA. Is a wild research assistant. He works on software in data feeds. It's dark outside right now. Otherwise, I'd give you a tour but I'm about to Meet Alex and the rest of the crew to have some ramen. It took about an hour to get our food order in because we are out in the middle of nowhere but that's gonna make it all the more delicious. Over ramen, a disgust, and anomaly in the erase bean pattern and what could be the cause? The team has been working hard ever since to upgrade The antennas and data feeds. After dinner, everyone tucked in for bed. It's coffee time. 738 in the morning. And it's still pretty dark outside. But I will report back later. The sun has just come up over the worrying about that mountain bearers last night but I think we're okay since the sun is up and I thought I'd give you just a brief tour of some of the living quarters here on the island. So, let's take a look. This is the hat Telescope and anybody who comes out who's a study institute employee for a visit gives us a beautiful house. And we can pan over here. There's a beautiful yard to the laughing house. And this is where I'm Alex Polack, one of the full-time scientists here at the ATA live. There are three other full-time scientists who call the telescope home and they live in dormitories down the street. I am all dressed. I've had my coffee and now I'm ready to make the short drive from the Guesthouse to the main building where a lot of the science happens. The team has a full day ahead. First, on deck, Alex and Sarah will repair apart in a QE. Over the past couple of days, the team has noticed temperature spikes inside the antenna. Which means a part is starting to fail. And they need to replace it before it damages the dish. So, let's go on inside. This is the main office building. The scientists who work on-site and live on site. Have their offices here. I find everyone, even the caretakers in the observatory room. This room has live feeds of data from the dishes as well as desks for the researchers. Once we've had a chat, Alex and Sarah head to the cleanroom. A shed in the middle of the array where they repair equipment and store materials. We needed to pick up parts in order to do the repair on two E. And we got to say hello to a pair of mule deers along the way. So what are you guys up to? So we monitor all of the data on the beach. Sorry. Called the details to feed. And one of the feeds showed that the diaphragm comes which is that one Which keeps the feet cooler and then we have to do more maintenance and damage cost While everything is running open house socially. Oh my gosh. How often do you have to open-heart surgery on tennis So we're approaching the surgery patient it's an two E and it's pointing down now because as whales said it's not currently being used for the survey as much as they can while the antennas are still running this mission cheers as little Little downtime for the dishes as possible. Alex lovingly calls this open-heart surgery. Before we open the antenna, Alex presses a button to ensure it doesn't move while we're working on it. Then, he opens a hat on the bottom and Sarah climbs inside to open the box holding the machinery. The red item Alex was pointing out is a vacuum pump that needs replacing. He and Sarah also need to replace a tiny piece on the circuit board. The whole process takes about 30 minutes, not counting the time. It took us tools together or head back into the observatory room so Alex can check the feeds to see if they're repairing what's successful. It's the moment of truth. Alexand if you command the antenna and after a moment things are looking good. The readings are now normal. And this one The team will continue to monitor the temperature in this antenna to ensure everything is running smoothly. But it looks like the open-heart surgery was a success. While I've been with Alex and Sarah. While Pranav has been working on some of the code. Remember the anomaly in the bean patterns that they were talking about over ramen last night. But I am just typical when YL and Pranav were looking into that issue they found a whole different challenge but more than last time to keep it doesn't make sense. Capture it. Just yeah. Just look at it. Hey, I want to find the best way to take a quick snapshot of incoming data, specifically the spectrum the antennas are observing in the sky. I don't know if the boards are right. This idea wasn't fact stupid. So far it looks okay. Okay. I'm gonna do maybe a few more. Okay. Alright. Sure. So I was well, right? No, I'm that just tells how bad the storm is in breaking up. So I knew the old me knew that there was a problem but I never went back to the code to double-check that it was sold Anyway the solution was found most important we'll find out after a day of antenna repairs and code challenges the team heads to Alex's house for dinner and a Ward Game. Since this team is working in such a remote area, they spend a lot of time together and often have meals and play games in the evening. It is Sunday morning. It's a beautiful day here in Hat Creek and I am headed home. So, thank you to all of the science. Let me shadow them during their important work and cook them dinner at the thank you and thank you for tuning in and learning more about the ATA and what goes on behind the scenes. Please share and Thank you for reading.