Due to Corona, the inaugural lecture of Hon.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Nöldeke is now available in advance on YouTube.
Title: Space communications for a changing world
Geostationary communication satellites have been instrumental in connecting the world since the 1960s. Constellations of low-orbiting satellites such as IRIDIUM allow global connections even from remote areas where no terrestrial infrastructure exists. Broadband connections from Earth observation satellites to the ground sharpen the view of our planet, whose surface is changing at an accelerating pace; forest areas are being cleared, polar ice is receding. Also since the 1960s, interplanetary space probes have enriched our knowledge of our own planetary system. Radio signals transmitted over radio links have shown that our cosmic neighbors Venus and Mars are uninhabitable desert planets, but also that liquid water exists in unlikely places far out in the solar system. If life or even technologically advanced so-called radio civilizations exist on extrasolar planets in our cosmic neighborhood, radio communications are the only plausible way to make contact. The author outlines how these connections are established and what the content of a possible message could be.