Project Argus: Pursuing Amateur All-Sky SETI

Abstract

Project Argus, a global effort of the non-profit SETI League, Inc., seeks to achieve continuous microwave monitoring of all four pi steradians of space, in real time. Initially, Project Argus was planned as the most ambitious SETI project ever undertaken without benefit of government support, ultimately to involve 5000 small radio telescopes worldwide, built, maintained and operated by private individuals (primarily radio amateurs and microwave experimenters), coordinated so as to miss no likely candidate signals, and providing independent verification of any interesting signals detected. Though prototype stations went into operation in 1996, andsecondgeneration stations by 2000, full sky coverage is yet to be achieved.