Gearheads:
I want to write an SF story where a private company leasing time on a radio telescope receives a large file from space which is, essentially, a pdf (or other book format). It would be about 800,000 pages of text and diagrams.
My question is how this could happen. Forgetting the speed of light and when the message was sent:
1. Can a private company lease time on a radio telescope?
2. Can they do it in such a way that only they receive the information?
3. What would the actual recording sound like? I assume it would be a very fast modulation between two pitches to represent 1's and 0's.
4. How would the radio astronomers be able to decode it to realize it was a file they could just open with current technology?
5. How long would such a process take?
6. Is there any way the radio signal downloads such that it resides in the computer memory as an actual file?
Much of this may be caught up with how the internet is perceived by personal satellite dishes now. Certainly, if my satellite provider is also my internet provider, I'm getting some sort of signal that my dish is reading as hypertext and showing me on my screen. I can also receive an email with an attached executable or readable file in one form or another which the computer detects and opens with the right player.
As such, would it just be easier if they received an email overnight?
I'd like some drama in the realization that they just got a damn book from space with enough actual science that I don't sound like an idiot.
My own research in the area has been frustrating in that it is either aimed way above my head or not aimed at all. For instance, I've been trying to book time on various radio telescopes around the world and they don't seem to be upfront about how to do that.
Thanks for any science you can science for me.
I want to write an SF story where a private company leasing time on a radio telescope receives a large file from space which is, essentially, a pdf (or other book format). It would be about 800,000 pages of text and diagrams.
My question is how this could happen. Forgetting the speed of light and when the message was sent:
1. Can a private company lease time on a radio telescope?
2. Can they do it in such a way that only they receive the information?
3. What would the actual recording sound like? I assume it would be a very fast modulation between two pitches to represent 1's and 0's.
4. How would the radio astronomers be able to decode it to realize it was a file they could just open with current technology?
5. How long would such a process take?
6. Is there any way the radio signal downloads such that it resides in the computer memory as an actual file?
Much of this may be caught up with how the internet is perceived by personal satellite dishes now. Certainly, if my satellite provider is also my internet provider, I'm getting some sort of signal that my dish is reading as hypertext and showing me on my screen. I can also receive an email with an attached executable or readable file in one form or another which the computer detects and opens with the right player.
As such, would it just be easier if they received an email overnight?
I'd like some drama in the realization that they just got a damn book from space with enough actual science that I don't sound like an idiot.
My own research in the area has been frustrating in that it is either aimed way above my head or not aimed at all. For instance, I've been trying to book time on various radio telescopes around the world and they don't seem to be upfront about how to do that.
Thanks for any science you can science for me.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2lMTnVx
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