Cork antenna could be used to search for alien life

The National Space Centre (NSC) is hoping to reactivate one of the largest antennae in the world, with the possibility it could be used to search for extraterrestrial life.

The NSC has also announced it’s hoping to win a number of contracts for the transmission of information which will allow it to increase its workforce from 14 to 65 in the next three years.

A message is being beamed around the world for potential partners to help reactivate the 32m-wide dish at NSC’s Elfordstown Earthstation, near Midleton, Co Cork. The dish, which weighs 220 tonnes and would cost about €10m to construct today, was built in 1984 to transmit transatlantic telephone calls from Europe to the US.