Scientific American - Budget crunch mothballs telescopes built to search for alien signalsThe hunt for extraterrestrial life just lost one of its best tools. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a field of radio dishes in rural northern California built to seek out transmissions from distant alien civilizations, has been shuttered, at least temporarily, as its operators scramble to find a way to continue to fund it.
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"NSF University Radio Observatory funding for HCRO has been reduced to approximately one-tenth of its former sum," Pierson wrote. "This is compounded by growing State of California budget shortfalls that have severely reduced the amount of state funds available to the Radio Astronomy Lab." ATA operations cost about $1.5 million per year, Pierson said, and the SETI science campaign at ATA costs another $1 million annually.
So what do you guys think about shuttering SETI temporarily, perhaps even permanently, due to budget cuts on the state and federal levels? Personally, I think those radio telescopes could be put to far better use, and that the whole SETI endeavor has been a quaint and thought-provoking waste of money. Still, I know the project has embedded itself in the national and world consciousness thanks to movies like Contact & Independence Day, and it's shuttering may upset quite a few people.
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