If extra-terrestrials exist, let\u2019s hope they like poetry because an old radio telescope that once served NASA at Orroral Valley tracking station may soon transmit prose to the universe \u2013 and dance.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what happens when an arts faculty rescues a multi-million-dollar science project that\u2019s sat dormant at the University of Canberra since physics ceased being taught in 2008.<\/p>\n
The 10-metre dish has literally been swinging in the wind for 18 years until an unlikely rescuer \u2013 UC\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Design \u2013 added an artistic touch to science.<\/p>\n
Associate professor Alison Wain readily admits she\u2019s not an astrophysicist but after three years of restoring the US-manufactured dish, she hopes to see roboticists program it to \u201cdance\u201d, and artists to use it to beam radio poetry into space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started thinking that if it isn\u2019t being used, can we use it for some more arty things?\u201d Professor Wain said. \u201cCan we project art on it and the more I dug, I realised yes we can do those things but we could also bring it back online as an instrument that is bringing observations in from the stars.\u201d<\/p>\n
This sleeping satellite dish has witnessed a lot since it was installed at Orroral Valley in the late \u201880s, but probably nothing as alien as poetry in motion.<\/p>\n
The reason it landed on the northern edge of UC\u2019s campus is because when Orroral Valley closed in the \u201890s, UC and the Federal Department of Communications purchased the dish for $750,000. (Today, it\u2019s estimated the dish would cost $10 million to install so it\u2019s a bargain in today\u2019s money.)<\/p>\n
When physics ceased being taught at UC, the dish sat silently on a hill for almost two decades, now opposite UC hospital like a patient in a waiting room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re aiming for is to get reception so we\u2019re able to receive signals from satellites and from heavenly bodies,\u201d Professor Wain said. \u201cAfter we\u2019ve got that in place, we\u2019d like to get a transmission capability and then we could literally beam poetry to the stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have this nice vision that maybe people could send their Valentine\u2019s messages out to the stars but that begs a really interesting question: If there are any other life forms out there, how would you make that poetry intelligible to them? What language would you use? That might not be a human language but it might be Morse Code.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, arts meets science and collaborators include UC\u2019s Arts and Design Faculty and former staff from Tidbinbilla and Molonglo Observatories.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want it to have both STEM [Science Technology Engineering Math) plus the arts,\u201d Professor Wain said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents get shuffled into either arts or STEM at school so I\u2019d really like to get primary school children before they\u2019ve gone through that separation thinking, \u2018Oh I could do creative things with this,\u2019 or \u2018I could do science with this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The four-tonne dish is affectionately called \u201cUC10\u201d and its atomic clock has sprung back to life.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, its azimuth motor still works and there\u2019s little corrosion. The 60cm-thick concrete pad under the pedestal is still stable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will need to have a test sequence to see if it\u2019s moving in the right ways and responding correctly to the instructions we program,\u201d Professor Wain said. \u201cWe could program a sequence of moves that take advantage of all movement angles and move to some music, or perhaps poetry text. Rather than do something a little bit dull, I\u2019d like it to do a little dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which dance?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n