Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 11 - Humanity's attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence via radio waves is discussed. The first serious effort in this field was initiated by Dr. Frank Drake, who led a project to direct a large radio-telescope on the star Tau Ceti. His goal was to "tune in" to radio communications made by aliens. This effort did not succeed, as his instruments were not strong enough for a star so far away, but nonetheless similar projects are continuing using better instruments and pointing at closer stars. Von Däniken is hopeful some communication might yet be had. Von Däniken also suggests projects to undertake to make Earth more noticeable to extraterrestrials, such as emitting laser beams or severely altering a large portion of Earth geography in order to draw a picture to be seen from space, like...