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Colombano, S. P.

Publications and source records attributed to Colombano, S. P..

New Assumptions to Guide SETI Research

The recent Kepler discoveries of Earth-like planets offer the opportunity to focus our attention on detecting signs of life and technology in specific planetary systems, but I feel we need to become more flexible in our assumptions. The reason is that, while it is still reasonable and conservative to assume that life is most likely to have originated in conditions similar to ours, the vast time differences in potential evolutions render the likelihood of "matching" technologies very slim. In light of these challenges I propose a more "aggressive" approach to future SETI exploration in directions that until now have received little consideration.

Colombano, S. P.

Control problems in Autonomous Life Support Systems

Autonomous Life Support Systems (ALSS) are envisioned for long range permanence in space. ALSS would require little or no input of matter for extended periods of time. The design of such a system involves an understanding of both ecological principles and control theory of nonlinear, ill-defined systems. A distinction is drawn between ecosystem survival strategies and the aims of control theory. Experimental work is under way to help combine the two approaches.

Colombano, S. P.