Nikolai Kardashev


Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev was a Soviet and Russian astrophysicist, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and the deputy director of the Astro Space Center of PN Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Early Life

  1. Born in Moscow to a family of professional revolutionaries involved with the Bolshevik Party.
  2. # Father's Name: Semen Karlovich Brike
  3. # Mother's Name: Nina Nikolaevna Kardasheva
  4. His father was a prominent member of the party and his mother later joined as well before the 1917 October Revolution.
  5. In 1937 and 1938, both of his parents were arrested. His father was ultimately shot and his mother was forced into labor camps and would not be released for many years.
  6. Due to his parents’ absence, he was sent to an orphanage where he then was taken by his mother’s sister after a great deal of effort.
  7. His aunt then died during WWII when he was 16 years old and he then had to live on his own in a large communal flat.
  8. His mother was released in 1956, at which point Nikolai had completed university.
  9. His interest in astronomy began while in 5th grade where he would attend a hobby group at the Moscow Planetarium.

    Education

  10. Moscow State. University - Astronomy division of the Mechanics and Mathematics Department
  11. Here he focus his studies/interests in radio astronomy. A field which was new and constantly developing.

Career

  1. Joined the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1967.
  2. Became deputy director of IKI in 1977.
  3. During the dissolution of the USSR, Nikolai became the director of the Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute.
  4. In 1978, Nikolai started a project called the Space VLBI mission RadioAstron. This mission covered more than 30 years and was finally launched in 2011.
  5. # The RadioAstron mission has become one of the highlights of modern observational astrophysics.

    Organizations & His Role in Them{{Cite web|url=https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/3990/|title=International Astronomical Union IAU|website=www.iau.org|access-date=2020-04-28}}{{Cite web|url=http://meti.org/en/blog/nikolai-kardashev-1932-2019|title=Nikolai Kardashev, 1932-2019 METI International|website=meti.org|access-date=2020-04-28}}

  6. International Astronomical Union:
  7. # Vice-President of Executive Committee
  8. # Vice-President of Commission 51 Bio-Astronomy
  9. # Organizing Committee Member of Commission 40 Radio Astronomy
  10. # Member of Division B Facilities, Technologies and Data Science
  11. # Member of Division F Planetary Systems and Astrobiology
  12. # Member of Commission 40 Radio Astronomy
  13. # Member of Commission 51 Bio-Astronomy
  14. # Member of Division III Planetary Systems Sciences
  15. # Member of Division X Radio Astronomy
  16. # Member of Special Nominating Committee
  17. USSR Academy of Sciences, Division of General Physics and Astronomy:
  18. # Corresponding member
  19. # Full Member
  20. # Served as chair of the Russian Academy of Sciences Council on Astronomy
  21. Committee on Space Research
  22. # Vice President of the Committee for Space Research from 1982-1986.

    Scientific Career

  23. Discoveries
  24. # Kardashev scale - 1964
  25. # VLBI - Very Long Baseline Interferometry
  26. ## This replaced conventional radio transmission lines with magnetic tape recordings. Demonstrated in 1967
  27. Awards and Honors
  28. # 1988 - Shared the USSR's State Prize for the discovery of Radio Recombination Lines.
  29. # In 2012, Nikolai received the Grote Reber Gold Medal for innovative lifetime contributions to radio astronomy.
  30. Published Works
  31. # 1963 - "Candidate of Science" dissertation, later promoted to higher level of doctoral thesis.
  32. # 1964 - “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations”
  33. ## Presented the classification of civilizations based on their level of power consumption spanning 20 orders of magnitude. Became known as Kardashev Scale.

    Film Career

  34. His first connection with the film industry was in 1981. He was asked to be a consultant on the set of Petyla Oriona a Russian tv series documentary.
  35. Played himself in a tv show episode on the documentary series "Spaces Deepest Secrets" in 2018.
  36. Played himself in a tv show episode on the documentary series "Horizon" in 2018.

Extraterrestrial Research

  1. May have predicted the existence of pulsars before they were officially discovered.
  2. ‘Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations'

Death

  1. Passed away on August 3rd 2019 at the age of 87.

    Publications

*