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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“Thinking is seeing.... Every human science is based on deduction, which is a slow process of seeing by which we work up from the effect to the cause; or, in a wider sense, all poetry like every work of art proceeds from a swift vision of things.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)