Aleksandr Leonidovich Zaitsev (russian: Александр Леонидович Зайцев; 19 May 1945 – 29 November 2021) was a Russian and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

radio engineer and astronomer from

Fryazino Fryazino ( rus, Фрязино, p=ˈfrʲæzʲɪnə) is a scientific town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Lyuboseyevka River, a tributary of the Vorya, northeast of the city of Moscow. Population: Fryazino is a center of excellence fo ...

. He worked on

radar astronomy Radar astronomy is a technique of observing nearby astronomical objects by reflecting radio waves or microwaves off target objects and analyzing their reflections. Radar astronomy differs from ''radio astronomy'' in that the latter is a passive o ...

devices, near-Earth asteroid

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

research, and

SETI The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other p ...

Education

Zaitsev received his M.Sc. degree in

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

engineering from the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Mining University in 1967 and his Ph.D. (1981) and his postdoctoral lecture qualification (1997) in

from the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics,

Russian Academy of Science The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

. He was a member of the Space Guard Foundation, the SETI League, and

The European Radio Astronomy Club The European Radio Astronomy club (ERAC) is Europe's only group coordinating the work of radio astronomers to jointly use radio waves to study the universe at radio wavelengths. It was founded in 1995 by Peter Wright, who had the idea of writi ...

(E.R.A.C.).

Career

Zaitsev was the chief scientist at the

's Institute of

Radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

Engineering and

Electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

. He headed the group transmitting Team Encounter's

interstellar messages This is a list of interstellar radio messages (IRMs) transmitted from Earth. Classification of interstellar radio messages There are twelve realized IRM projects: * The Morse Message (1962) * Arecibo message (1974), one transmission to Messier ...

using the

Yevpatoria Yevpatoria ( uk, Євпаторія, Yevpatoriia; russian: Евпатория, Yevpatoriya; crh, , , gr, Ευπατορία) is a city of regional significance in Western Crimea, north of Kalamita Bay. Yevpatoria serves as the administrative ...

(Evpatoria) Deep Space Center (EDSC). Zaitsev was also serving as the SETI League's Regional Coordinator for Russia.SETI League: http://www.setileague.org Zaitsev's career has focused on three main topics: the theory, the design and implementation of

devices used in the study of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

, and

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

; near-Earth asteroid

research; and interstellar radio messaging, his later field of research. He retired in 2013. Zaitsev observed the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

4179 Toutatis in December 1992 using the 70-m Yevpatorian Planetary Radar in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

(

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

), as a sounding

signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

, and the 100-m

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

Effelsberg The Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope is a radio telescope in the Ahr Hills (part of the Eifel) in Bad Münstereifel, Germany. For 29 years the Effelsberg Radio Telescope was the largest fully steerable radio telescope on Earth, surpassing the ...

, Germany, as a receiver of the

's radar echo. In June 1995, Zaitsev was responsible for initiating the world's first intercontinental

experiment; the radar groups participating in this experiment were led by

Steven Ostro Steven Jeffrey Ostro (March 9, 1946 – December 15, 2008) was an American scientist specializing in radar astronomy. He worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ostro led radar observations of numerous asteroids, as well as the moons of Jupiter ...

at JPL, Zaitsev in Yevpatoria, and Yasuhiro Koyama in Kashima,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Ostro's group transmitted and received using the Goldstone site of the

Deep Space Network The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide Telecommunications network, network of American spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that suppo ...

, while Zaitsev received using the Yevpatoria site and Koyama's group received at Kashima. The target asteroid,

6489 Golevka 6489 Golevka is an Apollo, Mars-crosser, and Alinda asteroid discovered in 1991 by Eleanor F. Helin. Its name has a complicated origin. In 1995, Golevka was studied simultaneously by three radar observatories across the world: Goldstone in Ca ...

, was later named for the participating observatories (GOL-EV-KA or GOLdstone-EVpatoria-KAshima). Zaitsev has also conducted work on using

to determine the composition of

asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

and planetary bodies. Zaitsev supervised the

transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission *** ...

of the 1999 and 2003

Cosmic Call Cosmic commonly refers to: * The cosmos, a concept of the universe Cosmic may also refer to: Media * ''Cosmic'' (album), an album by Bazzi * Afro/Cosmic music * "Cosmic", a song by Kylie Minogue from the album '' X'' * CosM.i.C, a member of ...

s from Yevpatoria Planetary

Radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

(EPR). Under his leadership, a youth group in

composed and broadcast a '

Teen Age Message The Teen Age Message (TAM) was a series of interstellar radio transmissions sent from the Yevpatoria Planetary Radar to six solar-type stars during August–September 2001. The structure of the TAM was suggested by Alexander Zaitsev, Chief Sci ...

to ETI'. Zaitsev proposed three-section structure of interstellar radio messages, coined the acronym METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and the phrase 'SETI paradox', which refers to an apparent "paradox" where two distant civilizations capable of interstellar communication will always remain silent unless one of them contacts the other first, resulting in a deadlock of silence. In 2005, in article
The Drake Equation: Adding a METI Factor
he suggested that a high technology is not enough for establishing contact with Aliens because appropriate behavior directed to practical realization of sending signals is necessary too. In 2006–2011, Zaitsev was one of the contributors to the *

ARTE Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

's German-French TV documentation "Die Außerirdischen" ("Calling All Aliens") by Christian Schidlowski; * Russian documentary "Overcome the Great Silence" by Vladislav Sidorov, * Dutch documentary "Calling E.T." by Prosper de Roos, * Dutch documentary "Alien Bits" by Prosper de Roos. Zaitsev died on 29 November 2021.

Awards

* 1985,

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

in Science. * 1989, the ''Koroliov Medal of the Soviet Space Federation''. * In 1995, 6075 Zajtsev, an

in the outer regions of the

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

, was named in his honour by the discovering astronomer,

Nikolai Chernykh Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh (russian: Никола́й Степа́нович Черны́х) (6 October 1931 – 25 May 2004Казакова, Р.К. Памяти Николая Степановича Черных'. Труды Государст ...

, following a suggestion by the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy. * 1997, the ''Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Russian Space Federation''. * 2003, Ukrainian jubilee medal ''2500th Anniversary of Evpatoria''.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zaitsev, Aleksandr 1945 births 2021 deaths Russian astronomers Soviet astronomers Search for extraterrestrial intelligence Interstellar messages People associated with radar People from Shchyolkovsky District