Big Picture Science for 10/22/12 - Space Archaeology

Big Picture Science - Space Archaeology

Indiana Jones meets Star Trek in the field of space archaeology. Satellites scan ancient ruins so that scientists can map them without disturbing one grain of sand. Discover how some archaeologists forsake their spades and brushes in favor of examining historic sites from hundreds of miles high.

Also, if you were to hunt for alien artifacts – what would you look for? Why ET might choose to send snail mail rather than a radio signal.

Plus, the culture of the hardware we send into space, and roaming the Earth, the moon, and Mars the Google way.

Guests:

• Alice Gorman – Archaeologist at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
• Christopher Rose – Associate Director at the Wireless Information and Network Laboratory (Winlab) and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, New Jersey
• Robin Hanson – Economist at George Mason University, Virginia
• Tiffany Montague – Engineer, and Intergalactic Federation King Almighty, Commander of the Universe, at Google, Inc.
• Compton Tucker – Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Space_Archaeology

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.