The first contact — Faultline

The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space on April 12, 1961

“Every day we all see Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is said to have been stranded.” American astronomer Carl Sagan was impressed by the picturesque and symbolic location of the extraordinary conference around 35 kilometers from Yerevan in the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory. There, on the edge of the Soviet Empire, in September 1971, an illustrious group - alongside Sagan, Frank Drake and three Nobel Prize winners took part - discussed worlds outside our solar system and asked whether there could be extraterrestrial life and, if so, whether the extraterrestrials could be reached with radio waves.

It was a different time in many ways. In the middle of the Cold War, the propaganda battle between the superpowers and their allies raged. The belief in progress remained unbroken before and behind the Iron Curtain. Space with its infinite expanses was tempting; its conquest was intended to prove the superiority of one's own system in the competition between the two systems. In addition to victorious Olympians, astronauts and cosmonauts became key players in the contest of ideologies. The Soviet Union presented the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik in 1957 and Yuri Gagarin's first orbit of the Earth in 1961, and the USA followed suit with the moon landing in 1969. In the middle of this bipolar world, researchers from both sides met at 1,490 meters above sea level, where the sky seemed within reach.

Armenia was a Soviet republic and destined to be the SU's main astronomy and space exploration region, along with Kazakhstan. Controlled from Moscow, military tasks were carried out in the periphery, but above all space was observed using the most modern means of the time.

Above the observatory, which with its conference halls, hotels and parks offered all the prerequisites for such a high-profile meeting, is the associated Aragaz Space Center. However, its high alpine location right on the mountain peak made it unsuitable for an international conference. The center was founded in 1943 during the Second World War to research cosmic radiation at around 3,200 meters above sea level. The first impulses for this came from the University of Leningrad, and later the research was integrated into the Yerevan Physical Institute. What is striking is the Orgow radio telescope, which was built from the 1970s onwards and was repeatedly rebuilt, expanded and finally decommissioned. The mirror bowl, which once bundled signals from space, lies like a metal bowl in the barren landscape. The sounding research station, however, will continue to operate. From there, scientists monitor space weather as well as solar and thunderstorm radiation.

The Bjurakan Astrophysical Observatory, founded in 1946, is located on the edge of a village a few kilometers from Orgow. The building complex is crowned by the typical domes, which can be opened for telescopic use. During the Cold War, 40 percent of activity in Byurakan was military in nature. Relevant scientific discoveries have been made from the observatory, which is now operated by the Armenian Academy of Sciences, for example stars and star clusters have been documented. Records of this research became a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Science was of great political importance in Armenia. It was an instrument in the hands of the Soviet central power, but from an Armenian perspective it was also seen as a means of representing its own interests vis-à-vis the power center in Moscow. This particularly affected the official recognition of the Armenian genocide by the Turks in 1915.

The meeting in the Byurakan Observatory was part of the international Seti research (search for extraterrestrial intelligence), i.e. the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. After early individual ventures, from the 1960s onwards, people specifically listened to the sky for radio signals and filtered out anything that could be of extraterrestrially intelligent origin. Initially the venture was called Ceti, where the C stands for communication. But after they were unable to establish initial contact with E.T., Alf and Co., they became more modest and first discussed whether intelligent extraterrestrial life could be discovered.

According to the Bible, Noah's Ark is said to have stranded on Mount Ararat, ensuring humanity's survival during the Flood. That’s what makes this place special – for science as well as for literature and art (see also the interview on the Stellar Frequencies cultural project in this issue). From here, people look into space to search for extraterrestrial civilizations. Most people cannot imagine any other intelligence than being similar to ourselves. It must be understandable to us, otherwise we would not be able to understand it as such.

What happens when space creatures are made aware of Earth and its creatures was not discussed at the 1971 conference. There were lectures about the structure of alien solar systems and the existence of aliens themselves. Then it was about the technical possibilities of interstellar communication. In addition to astronomers and radiophysicists, geneticists, biologists, chemists, archaeologists, linguists and historians were also involved. It was about tones and frequencies, but also about which universal signs humanity could use to make itself understood in space - inner-earthly communication via the cosmic detour.

In terms of scientific history, the conference lasting several days is considered a milestone - also because Soviet and US scientists were able to exchange ideas relatively freely there.

The meeting in Byurakan was initiated by the US astronomer Sagan and the SU astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashov. In terms of scientific history, the conference lasting several days is considered a milestone - also because Soviet and US scientists were able to exchange ideas relatively freely there. With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the bloc conflict intensified again and scientific exchange also thinned out again.

In Byurakan, however, researchers from both sides of the Iron Curtain were able to exchange and discuss their results directly for the first time. It was spectacular, not least because it involved very sensitive data. Ultimately, such signals could also be used to control satellites or intercontinental ballistic missiles. So secret material came to the Seti conference table. This was, of course, left out of the conference proceedings, which were published in English and Russian.

The Soviet astronomer Iossif Shklovsky remarked before the conference that he assessed the chances of extraterrestrial communication as low, since communication between the countries of the blocs was not working. In this respect, the meeting was perceived as groundbreaking. The researchers even planned to create a joint observation station in the Israeli-Egyptian borderland. It was hoped that the search for extraterrestrials would turn all people into “Earthlings” and level out national differences. This was even linked to plans for nuclear disarmament: atomic bombs could safely detonate in space and send out messages like cosmic lightning. American-Soviet relations loosened so much around the conference that an astronaut and a cosmonaut shook hands in orbit during the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.

By the way, Sagan did not believe that aliens would save the Earth or that humans would be released from responsibility for the world. But perhaps, he later wrote in an essay, looking into space would make people aware of dangers that affected them all together. He cited the risks of fossil fuels as an example. Today, the partly abandoned facilities bear witness to the transience in the face of the stars: the universe has remained silent, even 55 years after the meeting in the Soviet periphery. Now the facilities attract lost place backpackers from all over the world.