Lunar opportunities for SETI

Abstract

A radio telescope placed in lunar orbit, or on the surface of the Moon's farside, could be of great value to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The advantage of such a telescope is that it would be shielded by the body of the Moon from terrestrial sources of radio frequency interference. While RFI can be identified and ignored by other radio astronomers, the possible spectral similarity between human and alien-generated radio emission makes the abundance of artificial radio emission on and around the Earth a significant complicating factor for SETI. A Moon-based telescope would avoid this problem. In this paper, we review existing literature on Moon-based radio astronomy, discuss the benefits of lunar SETI, contrast possible surface- and orbit-based telescope designs, and argue that such initiatives are feasible, both technically and financially, within the next decade.