Headlines about alien-seeking telescopes may have given the wrong impression
What’s being widely reported today as SETI hanging up the phone on as-yet-unidentified ETs looks from here to be somewhat less than a lot of headlines would lead the casual reader to believe.
- “SETI shelves search for intelligent life” – Washington Post.
- “Budget Cuts Shutdown SETI’s Alien-Seeking Telescopes” – NPR.
- “Alien search telescope is shelved” – BBC.
- “SETI Search Halted as Allen Telescope Array Lacks Funding” — eWeek.
And, in fact, the SETI Institute did announce in an April 22 letter to supporters that it has placed its Allen Telescope Array (ATA) into “hibernation mode, pending future funding or some alternative solution,” citing drastically reduced financial support from the state of California and the federal government.
From the penultimate paragraph of that letter:
We are preparing a coordinated campaign to ask for help, and you will be hearing more from us about this. The bottom line is that it takes approximately $1.5M/year to operate the ATA, and at least an additional $1M/year to cover the cost of our SETI science efforts. Thus, right now, we are trying to raise $5M to cover a two-year search of the Kepler Worlds by Jill Tarter and her team. Assuming funding can be acquired, we plan to spend the next two years listening to the 1,235 exoplanet candidates that the Kepler mission announced in February. This fabulous opportunity represents a fundamental shift to be able to point our instruments at known planetary systems, rather than at stars that might or might not host planets.
In other words, the letter announcing that the telescopes were being put away was also a letter alerting supporters to the fact that their support is about to be solicited once again.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that SETI’s budget problems aren’t real or that they are being exaggerated.
I’m only saying that the fundraising campaign will be easier with the consequences of failure already on display.
And one other thought: If this is what’s necessary these days to fund scientific endeavors as famous as SETI, one can only imagine the difficulties being encountered by researchers doing less sexy work.
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