Opportunistic Science
After array construction, a few science goals that were not explicitly designed have been mentioned.
For a very different science goal, the Allen Telescope Array has offered to provide the downlink for any contestants in the Google Lunar X Prize. This is practical since the array, with no modifications, covers the main space communications bands (S-band and X-band). A telemetry decoder would be the only needed addition.
Also, the ATA was mentioned as a candidate for searching for a new type of radio transient. It is an excellent choice for this because of a large field of view and wide instantaneous bandwidth. Following this suggestion, an instrument was custom-built for the ATA to search for bright radio transients, and observations were carried out between February and April 2008.
Read more about this topic: Allen Telescope Array
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“For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible. Our science has always desired to monitor, measure, abstract, and castrate meaning, forgetting that life is full of noise and that death alone is silent: work noise, noise of man, and noise of beast. Noise bought, sold, or prohibited. Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise.”
—Jacques Attali (b. 1943)