The Ozma Project, from the US Navy. And prior to the SETI project, began in 1960 at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. The aim of the experiment was to look for signs of life in distant solar systems through interstellar radio waves.(Extraterrestrial) A group of historians from the blog “Letters of Note” discovered a telegram sent in 1924 by naval operations chief Edward W. Eberle instructing the US Navy to listen to radio broadcasts from the planet Mars.(Extraterrestrial) The telegram reads as follows:

“THE NAVY WANTS TO COOPERATE WITH ASTRONOMERS WHO BELIEVE MARS MAY BE ABLE TO ATTEMPT RADIO WAVE COMMUNICATION WITH THIS PLANET WHILE THEY SEEM TO BE ALMOST TOGETHER. FOR THIS PURPOSE ALL COASTAL RADIO STATIONS WILL ESPECIALLY NOTICE AND REPORT ON ANY UNUSUAL ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA AND WILL COVER AS MANY BROAD FREQUENCY BANDS AS POSSIBLE FROM 2400 AUGUST 21 TO 2400 ON AUGUST 24 WITHOUT INTERFERING WITH TRAFFIC.”

During the three-day period, during which Mars was in opposition to the Earth, nothing more than static was detected by the radio stations of the Navy.(Extraterrestrial)