Surface Technosignatures: Searching for Signs of Artificial Patterning on Extraterrestrial Terrain

Since its establishment, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has focused mainly on radio emissions as technosignatures. The Surface Technosignatures: Searching for Signs of Artificial Patterning on Extraterrestrial Terrain project takes a different approach. It foregrounds other types of technology indicators and proposes a new search method to detect them.

 

The project looks at how human societies have used techniques and tools to alter their environments. These activities leave permanent traces—such as bridges, roads, mining strips, and agricultural terraces—which show patterns that are unmistakably artificial. Our planet's surface serves as a physical record of human intentionality and technological prowess (Baláe and Erickson, 2006). We intend to use this record to propel our search for artificial patterns elsewhere.

 

Some authors have suggested that a technological species might have evolved in our Solar System before humans (Schmidt and Frank, 2019; Wright, 2017). Therefore, it is worth exploring the possibility that other terrestrial bodies in the Solar System may be inscribed with non-random patterns akin to those found on Earth. Most surfaces of Solar System bodies have not been examined at a sufficient resolution to rule out the presence of extraterrestrial artifacts or artificial structures.

 

Selected for the second phase of the Fundraiser 2025/26 at the SETI Institute, the project proposes training an algorithm with non-random, human-made patterns from Earth to detect similar patterning elsewhere. The model will optically scan extraterrestrial terrain through high-resolution imagery of the Moon and Mars, made available by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). We will develop a machine learning-based anomaly detection model trained on all natural geology using a variational autoencoder (VAE). The VAE would flag features that it cannot reconstruct as natural features, which will then be reviewed by a panel of experts and citizen scientists. With this project, we seek to broaden the SETI mission by including surface technosignatures in its scope and enhance the search by incorporating AI models.