HENRY STARLING, CHRONOWERX,
S.E.T.I. LAB & RAIN ROBINSON

Griffith Observatory looking across the Lawn, past the Astronomers Monument on the left, toward the main entrance, source GO

Paris and Tuvok outside Griffith Observatory, with Rain Robinson exiting the building, [Future's End]

Griffith Observatory and Planetarium is situated in Griffith Park with a view of the famous Hollywood sign. The Observatory has been a major Los Angeles landmark since 1935, and sits on the southern slope of Mount Hollywood, where it commands a stunning view of the Los Angeles basin below. The Observatory is closed to the public for renovation for a period and should re-open, with new exhibits, in 2006 no earlier than July. The following information is about the Observatory before that time, including 1996 when Rain Robinson worked there and met Paris and Tuvok there.

The Griffith Observatory is the result of a bequest left in the will of Griffith J. Griffith to the City of Los Angeles. The facility was dedicated on 14th May 1935 and was the third U.S. planetarium.

location of Los Angeles (edged in red) in the United States of America Map 1: Los Angeles showing the location of Griffith Park and the Observatory, source Multimap Map 3: close-up road map showing the location of the Observatory, source Multimap

Rich and famous computer mogul Henry Starling (pictured) appears to be a philanthropist when he funds a laboratory at Griffith Observatory as a contribution to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (S.E.T.I.), but his motive is in fact one of pure self-interest. For he instructs an astronomer, whose name is Rain Robinson (pictured), who works in the laboratory, to look out for a particular gamma emission frequency profile with instructions to inform him immediately should she ever detect it. He knows, but she does not know and is not told, that such gamma emissions are the tell-tale signs for him that visitors from the 29th century have arrived in order to reclaim the timeship Aeon which he has stolen. He has been expecting such a visit since he salvaged the crashed timeship in 1967 in the High Sierras, California. All his remarkable computer breakthroughs are due to his crude understanding of future technology, but have been more than sufficient to win him vast wealth along with fame and influence.

Map 2: close-up, source Multimap Map 4: places in Griffith Park, source GO Map 5: Los Angeles: places in [Future's End]

S.E.T.I. is a massive scientific research programme which utilises powerful radio telescopes set up to detect radio signals from any extrasolar civilisations. A key concept in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence is a mathematical concept known as the Drake Equation, formulated by Earth astronomer Dr Frank Drake. The Drake Equation is the 20th century Earth scientific concept for estimating the number of technologically sophisticated civilisations in the galaxy, postulated some 100 years before the occurrence of first contact with Vulcan explorers in 2063. The Drake Equation was based on estimates of the total number of stars in the galaxy, the fraction of those stars that had planetary systems, the fraction of those planets that could support life, and so on. Based on this persuasive equation, a number of wealthy individuals such as Henry Starling and Bill Gates (a lesser-known and less successful computer mogul than Starling, and who is not mentioned in [Future's End]) have funded S.E.T.I. research. A copy of the Drake Equation is posted on the wall of the S.E.T.I. laboratory.

part of the S.E.T.I. that Rain Robinson works in, TOSTFF scans, I do not think these shots occur in the aired episode of [Future's End]

Rain's computer displays the gamma emissions frequency profile that is of particular interest to Henry Starling triangulating the emissions source source detected at co-ordinates 345, 88, 774

In August 1996, shortly after the discovery of water on Mars leading to speculation whether there was once life on Mars, Rain Robinson does detect gamma emissions with the particular frequency profile he gave her. She detects the gamma emissions in orbit 20,000 kilometres above the Earth (personally I believe she means miles not kilometres), which are not traceable by the normal search parameters, and she accordingly telephones the project's funder, Starling. But although she wants to contact NASA with the important news, he orders her to continue tracking it and not to take any action while he investigates, even though he has no intention of doing so in the way that she or anyone else would expect. He jokes with her whether E.T. likes Chateu Coeur and says he will put a bottle of that champagne on ice. This may be a deliberate reference by the scriptwriters to the fact that S.E.T.I. researchers keep a bottle of champagne on ice, just in case, whenever they make a specific pass with their radio telescopes. However, Rain disregards his strong advice or instructions and transmits the S.E.T.I. message toward the UFO (unidentified flying object) which she believes to be of extrasolar origin. Voyager receives it but when Ensign Kaplan asks Ensign Kim, who is in command, whether she should reply he tells her: "Absolutely not." The S.E.T.I. greeting is a communications protocol developed by 20th century Earth astronomers for the purpose of signalling to an extra-terrestrial intelligence. It is intended to be intelligible by any technologically sophisticated civilisation, and conveys information about Earth's position in the galaxy, information about life on Earth, and greetings in many different Earth languages. The S.E.T.I. greeting transmitted by Rain Robinson was loosely based on messages that NASA sent into interstellar space aboard its Pioneer and Voyager space probes. Those S.E.T.I. greetings, in the form of a plaque on Pioneer 10 and 11, and a record on Voyager 1 and 2, were designed by astronomers Carl Sagan and Frank Drake (see above re the Drake Equation) and others. A replica of the Pioneer 10 plaque is among the wall decorations in Rain Robinson's laboratory. The Pioneer 10 plaque and the Pioneer spacecraft itself are both seen and destroyed in [Star Trek V: The Final Frontier].

above 6 pictures: Rain instructs her computer to transmit the S.E.T.I. greeting (via satellite "dish A-1"), and the greeting as displayed on Voyager's Bridge's viewscreen, [Future's End]. The greeting is in many Earth languages, and includes a diagram of the DNA molecule and information in binary code.