SETI shutdown

[N1RR]

I just read an AP report that SETI and the Allen Telescope Array are shutting down due to budgetary changes.

[NW9R]

Government has money for just about everything else...hate to hear this...just when an alien attack force is just about to enter our scanner's ability to detect them...

Missed it by this much!

[W0VYE]

We can spend $2 billion a week in a no-win war, but $5 million over 2 years for actual research? Nope.

SETI may never detect another civilization. It's always been a long shot for many reasons. But suddenly we have known locations for over 1,200 planets, many of which could be earth-like. The odds of finding anything are still very slim, but this is the dumbest time ever to shut it down. It's just like the lottery: The odds against you are huge, but you can't win if you don't play and the cost of a ticket is trivial. It's tragic that the Allen Array is just going to bake in the sun and corrode along with so much of this country's infrastucture.

[KD8GFC]

We can spend $2 billion a week in a no-win war, but $5 million over 2 years for actual research? Nope.

SETI may never detect another civilization. It's always been a long shot for many reasons. But suddenly we have known locations for over 1,200 planets, many of which could be earth-like. The odds of finding anything are still very slim, but this is the dumbest time ever to shut it down. It's just like the lottery: The odds against you are huge, but you can't win if you don't play and the cost of a ticket is trivial. It's tragic that the Allen Array is just going to bake in the sun and corrode along with so much of this country's infrastucture.

Just what you said sums it up..

[KC0YEJ]

Offer to buy it and turn the antennas into a ham's dream array?

Brian

[K4ZOT]

It's all part of dumbing-down society. Our current government doesn't support real science anymore - let the Chinese do it. Look what the Dems did to NASA. No more shuttle - no nothing. Now that's a real waste of science and our best technology. A real shame.

Glenn

[WW3QB]

It's all part of dumbing-down society. Our current government doesn't support real science anymore - let the Chinese do it. Look what the Dems did to NASA. No more shuttle - no nothing. Now that's a real waste of science and our best technology. A real shame.

Glenn

The truth is that President Bush cancelled the shuttle program in 2004.

Sadly, the space shuttle never achieved its goal (and justification) to provide routine, low cost, and almost monthly access to space.

NASA is facing deep cuts, but that is in an atmosphere to make deep cuts in all government programs.

Edit: Latest NASA budget numbers are a multi-year freeze.

[W0VYE]

It's all part of dumbing-down society. Our current government doesn't support real science anymore - let the Chinese do it. Look what the Dems did to NASA. No more shuttle - no nothing. Now that's a real waste of science and our best technology. A real shame.

Glenn

Agree, Glenn. I can't remember the details, but I think something very similar happened with a high-energy particle accelerator that was planned for...Texas? The Europeans stepped up and built the Large Hadron Collider. Seems to me it's always been cool to be ignorant in America, and that attitude isn't changing. Many presidents have given lip service to science, technology, and research, and the payoffs for those things are all around us. But Congress always seems to put the money elsewhere, unless of course it's technology with direct, obvious military applications. Ignorant sound bites about "hunting Martians" get reported, but not the rational arguments on the other side. And we've learned a great deal about going into space. But two generations worth of engineering experience is now largely going down the toilet. It's pathetic.

[W0LPQ]

Another one already started...

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...-Antenna-Array

[W5TTW]

Those of us that have seen things with our own eyes don't need SETI to tell us that we're not alone.