Zaitsev was the chief scientist at the
Russian Academy of Science's Institute of
Radio Engineering and
Electronics. He headed the group transmitting Team Encounter's
interstellar messages using the
Yevpatoria (Evpatoria) Deep Space Center (EDSC). Zaitsev was also serving as the
SETI League's Regional Coordinator for Russia. Zaitsev's career has focused on three main topics: the theory, the design and implementation of
radar devices used in the study of
Venus,
Mars, and
Mercury;
near-Earth asteroid radar research; and
interstellar radio messaging, his later field of research. He retired in 2013. Zaitsev observed the
asteroid 4179 Toutatis in December 1992 using the 70-m
Yevpatorian Planetary Radar in
Crimea (
Ukraine), as a sounding
signal transmitter, and the 100-m
radio telescope in
Effelsberg, Germany, as a receiver of the
asteroid's
radar echo. In June 1995, Zaitsev was responsible for initiating the world's first intercontinental
radar astronomy experiment; the radar groups participating in this experiment were led by
Steven Ostro at
JPL, Zaitsev in Yevpatoria, and
Yasuhiro Koyama in Kashima,
Japan. Ostro's group transmitted and received using the
Goldstone site of the
Deep Space Network, while Zaitsev received using the Yevpatoria site and Koyama's group received at
Kashima. The target asteroid,
6489 Golevka, was later named for the participating observatories (
GOL-EV-KA or
GOLdstone-
EVpatoria-
KAshima). Zaitsev has also conducted work on using
radar to determine the composition of
asteroids and planetary bodies. Zaitsev supervised the
transmission of the 1999 and 2003
Cosmic Calls from Yevpatoria Planetary
Radar (EPR). Under his leadership, a youth group in
Moscow composed and broadcast a '
Teen Age Message to ETI'. Zaitsev proposed three-section structure of interstellar radio messages, coined the acronym
METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and the phrase 'SETI paradox', which refers to an apparent "paradox" where two distant civilizations capable of interstellar communication will always remain silent unless one of them contacts the other first, resulting in a deadlock of silence. In 2005, in article "The Drake Equation: Adding a METI Factor" he suggested that a high technology is not enough for establishing contact with Aliens because appropriate behavior directed to practical realization of sending signals is necessary too. In 2006–2011, Zaitsev was one of the contributors to the •
ARTE's German-French TV documentation "Die Außerirdischen" ("Calling All Aliens") by Christian Schidlowski; • Russian documentary "Overcome the Great Silence" by Vladislav Sidorov, • Dutch documentary "Calling E.T." by Prosper de Roos, • Dutch documentary "Alien Bits" by Prosper de Roos. Zaitsev died on 29 November 2021. == Awards ==