The U.S. government technical report is a primary means by which the results of federally funded research and development (R & D) are transferred to the U.S. aerospace industry. However, little is known about this information product in terms of its actual use, importance, and value in the transfer of federally funded R & D. Little is also known about the intermediary-based system that is used to transfer the results of federally funded R & D to the U.S. aerospace industry. To help establish a body of knowledge, the U.S. government technical report is being investigated as part of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. In this report, we summarize the literature on technical reports, present a model that depicts the transfer of federally funded aerospace R & D via the U.S. government technical report, and present the results of research that investigated aerospace knowledge diffusion 'vis-a-vis' the technical communication practices of U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists who were members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Addressing a field that has been dominated by astronomers, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists, the contributors to this collection raise questions that may have been overlooked by physical scientists about the ease of establishing meaningful communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence. These scholars are grappling with some of the enormous challenges that will face humanity if an information-rich signal emanating from another world is detected. By drawing on issues at the core of contemporary archaeology and anthropology, we can be much better prepared for contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, should that day ever come.