SurfaceUnits
04-27-11, 07:29 PM
Shrinking Funds Pull Plug on Alien Search Devices
In the mountains of Northern California, a field of radio dishes that look like giant dinner plates waited for years for the first call from intelligent life among the stars.
But they\'re not listening anymore.
Cash-strapped governments, it seems, can no longer pay the interstellar phone bill.
Astronomers at the SETI Institute said a steep drop in state and federal funds has forced the shutdown of the Allen Telescope Array, a powerful tool in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, an effort scientists refer to as SETI.
SETI Institute chief executive Tom Pierson said in an email to donors last week that the University of California, Berkeley, has run out of money for day-to-day operation of the dishes.
\"Unfortunately, today\'s government budgetary environment is very difficult, and new solutions must be found,\" Pierson wrote.
The $50 million array was built by SETI and UC Berkeley with the help of a $30 million donation from Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen. Operating the dishes cost about $1.5 million a year, mostly to pay for the staff of eight to 10 researchers and technicians to operate the facility.
An additional $1 million a year was needed to collect and sift the data from the dishes.
The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the billionaire\'s philanthropic venture, had no immediate plans to provide more funding to the facility, said David Postman, a foundation spokesman.
Published April 27, 2011 | Associated Press
In the mountains of Northern California, a field of radio dishes that look like giant dinner plates waited for years for the first call from intelligent life among the stars.
But they\'re not listening anymore.
Cash-strapped governments, it seems, can no longer pay the interstellar phone bill.
Astronomers at the SETI Institute said a steep drop in state and federal funds has forced the shutdown of the Allen Telescope Array, a powerful tool in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, an effort scientists refer to as SETI.
SETI Institute chief executive Tom Pierson said in an email to donors last week that the University of California, Berkeley, has run out of money for day-to-day operation of the dishes.
\"Unfortunately, today\'s government budgetary environment is very difficult, and new solutions must be found,\" Pierson wrote.
The $50 million array was built by SETI and UC Berkeley with the help of a $30 million donation from Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen. Operating the dishes cost about $1.5 million a year, mostly to pay for the staff of eight to 10 researchers and technicians to operate the facility.
An additional $1 million a year was needed to collect and sift the data from the dishes.
The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the billionaire\'s philanthropic venture, had no immediate plans to provide more funding to the facility, said David Postman, a foundation spokesman.
Published April 27, 2011 | Associated Press