Tiny antennas to communicate with deep space
Lou Scheffer thinks those tiny antennas in your Bluetooth headset can soon compete with $100 million radio telescopes. Ok, not individually, but in a giant phased array consisting of millions of small consumer-grade antennas. Thousands of 25 x 25-cm "tiles" each hosting a grid of printed antennas on a circuit board could be glued down to a concrete slab and then connected to a central computer which would "aim" the beam of radiation — giant moving dish not required. A 500,000-tile grid would cost less than 20% of traditional deep-space transmitters yet have twice the power. Sure, it might work, but just remember…this is the same guy who authored a paper titled "Aliens can watch I Love Lucy."
