Drake did no such thing. The Drake equation was not designed to give us an answer as to the number of civilisations out there, but to show us which questions n

Drake did no such thing. The Drake equation was not designed to give us an answer as to the number of civilisations out there, but to show us which questions needed to be answered to help us identify candidate search locations. As an example, the Kepler mission is a direct result of the Drake equation, designed to resolve the first two parameters - fp and ne.