Since 1960, scientists here in the United States and elsewhere has been combing the skies, trying to find out if we’re alone in the universe. The project has been called SETI or the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and since 2008 one of the major components of the project has been the Allan Telescope Array (ATA) in northern California.
The ATA is an array of 42 telescopes, trained on the sky, scanning for radio waves from beyond our solar system. SETI has had its fair share of funding ups and downs with NASA pulling funding for the project in the 90’s and UC Berkley cutting back on the project in the last couple of years. But in April of 2011 things were looking bad for SETI and the ATA. Lack of funding had led the SETI Institute to put the Allan Telescope Array into “hibernation.” The telescopes were put safe mode and all the scientists left the lab. If E.T did send us a radio signal, no one was there to pick it up. But you can’t keep a good project down for long! SETI scientists started looking for alternative sources of income. They found some in the form of donors and government contractors and in December the array was back in business.
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But for how long? SETI received a couple hundred thousand dollars in donations, enough the run the project for a couple months at most. What will they do when the money runs out? And, in a time of unprecedented financial strife, is the search for extraterrestrial life a valid form of scientific exploration?
Guest:
Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute