SETI Running Out of Money 312
New submitter opusman writes "According to an Australian space analyst, SETI is running out of money. Despite needing only $2 million a year, a relatively small amount in space industry terms, they are facing a financial crisis. From the article: 'Getting on board a spacecraft is tricky. There are few places for professional astronauts. Even when Richard Branson and a group of other visionaries makes space tourism more affordable, it will still cost huge sums to fly. But getting a foothold in the greatest quest of all can be done for just a few tens of donated dollars. Which is why it beggars belief that the SETI quest is on its knees.'"
I Want to Believe. (not) (Score:4, Insightful)
Like Fox Mulder I became cynical. He and I no longer believe in alien visitors. So no more donations.
Deceive
Inveigle
Obfuscate
BELIEVE THE LIE
Not now (Score:5, Insightful)
It's quite sad that this happens now, when with the recent discoveries in exoplanets SETI could have actual targets for the first time instead of trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Pointless (Score:3, Insightful)
Most people believe SETI to be pointless at this stage. We have a better grasp of the probabilities involved, and the odds are very high that SETI will never find anything, even if there are 100 other equivalent civilizations to ours within 100 light years.
Tough times (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm a supporter of SETI in principle, though I can't say I've ever supported it materially (other than a brief run at SETI@home when I was in university). Unfortunately I think it's simply a matter of priorities during economic downturn.
Up here in Canada, we have a program that also costs $2 million a year - the Experimental Lakes Area research station - and it's getting its funding cut [www.cbc.ca] by the federal government. It's upsetting to me, as I see valid science being disregarded in the name of fiscal responsibility.
That aside, the SETI program is likely to run, in one form or another, for the entirety of human existence. It may get shut down periodically, but this is not a question that's going to go away. Ever. Perhaps when our collective economies rejig themselves to be less focused on growth and more on sustainability, we can find room for a relatively cheap, pure science initiative. Until then, either donate directly to those initiatives you find appealing, or take whatever action you can at the ballot box. Or both, if you're feeling less apathetic than most of us!
Re:That's sad. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd much rather fund nasa (Score:4, Insightful)
The seti project was always a bit silly.
Re:"Beggars Belief"? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can put my hard-earned money towards:
a) Fusion research, which might work in 30 years, or
b) SETI, which will NEVER find ET.
Guess where I'm putting my money.
Re:"Beggars Belief"? (Score:2, Insightful)
And since Nixon declared a war on cancer, we haven't cured all cancer yet either. Think of the Cathedrals - built over generations as monuments to nonsense. Can't we take a long term view for a project that actually has a chance to help us become part of a larger community?
Re:Pointless (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah... I actually feel embarrased now that back in the late 90s, I actualy signed up for and used SETI@Home for a brief period of time. As the years have gone by, the service has just begun to seem like more and more of a joke. I don't even remember what year it was I came to the conclusion that it *was* pretty much a joke... maybe 2004-2008? Of course, I haven't touched SETI@Home since the late 90s, though, but the more I hear about it the worse it sounds. Over the years, I have also gone from wondering "does any other intelligent lifeform exist" to a more skeptical viewpoint, that it's all bullshit and made up by morons who have nothing better to do that spout bullshit.
Good riddance SETI.
Re:I Want to Believe. (not) (Score:5, Insightful)
> gigahertz and terahertz frequencies
Or something else entirely. Look at our own communications, which are rapidly switching to all-digital. Unless you know how the digital is encoded/modulated/carried, all you're going to hear is random noise. And who says aliens use anything like we do?
I postulate that a technical civilization would only stick with radio for approximately 100-200 years before moving to something better -- and something that we probably don't even know how to listen to. When measured against just the age of our local group, that's very narrow odds.
Be better to spend the money actually GOING to the stars than just listening to them, in my opinion. :)
Re:I Want to Believe. (not) (Score:5, Insightful)
The question is this: is it worthwhile spending 2 million per year listening for radio signals from other stars. I think it is, as 2 million is such an insignificant amount of money in terms of humanity's resources. We probably spend that each day on cocktail umbrellas.
Re:Make Paul Allen fund it (Score:4, Insightful)
Make someone else do it. Always the solution, eh?
Few have the resources to donate $2M to a project, so pretty much any solution anyone comes up with on here is going to rely on other people for the bulk of the funding.
However, Paul Allen's net worth is $14B. So, comparing him to an above average person with a $500K net worth, if Paul Allen donated $2M to the cause, it would be equivalent to the $500K net worth guy donating $71.
If someone told me that I could fund the project for a year by kicking in $75, I'd do it. If they told me that me and 26,000 of my friends had to come up with $75 each, well, I'd be a less likely to donate.
Re:I Want to Believe. (not) (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless you know how the digital is encoded/modulated/carried, all you're going to hear is random noise. And who says aliens use anything like we do?
you miss the point entirely.
it's not that we expect to overhear their personal or broadcast communications so much, but rather it's about listening for "hello, here we are" broadcasts or even directed transmissions. we can now locate habitable planets. such messages obviously wouldn't be encrypted, and would necessarily be something very simple that would have a high chance of being understood by completely alien species with different thought patterns, senses, and levels of technology.
for inspiration, check out the pioneer plaque,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque [wikipedia.org]
that attempts to describe our location in the galaxy. or, the voyager golden record,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record [wikipedia.org]
showing mathematical and physical quantities, the solar system and its planets, DNA, and human anatomy and reproduction.
Re:Make Paul Allen fund it (Score:2, Insightful)
If somebody told me I could fund the project for a year by kicking in $75, I'd ask: "And what's the benefit of funding this project?"
Unfortunately, SETI doesn't have a compelling answer for that: "We might, someday, find evidence of possible intelligent alien life, maybe. If we're lucky. And we happen to have our stuff pointed the right way at exactly the right time. But chances are we won't find anything."
If Paul Allen's going to donate $2m dollars, I'd much rather see him donate the money to solving real problems here on earth - fund a cancer researcher, or a renewable energy researcher, or an environmental researcher. Actual research into real problems, here and now = investment. Throwing money at a program that has to get stupidly lucky to produce any results whatsoever = gambling.
There's a difference, and you should learn it.
Re:I Want to Believe. (not) (Score:4, Insightful)
Be better to spend the money actually GOING to the stars than just listening to them, in my opinion. :)
The Mars rovers including all mission extensions have cost almost a billion dollars and lasted less than ten years, so say $100 million/year. Shutting down SETI would then give you 2% of a Mars rover, want to make a guess at how infinitesimally small it'd be of an interstellar space ship? Not that we have the foggiest idea on how to build one... Space is absurdly big, Voyager 1 is 35 years out but less than 1/1000th of the way to the nearest star. Unless somebody is about to invent the warp drive, the only realistic chance of discovering alien life in the next 100 years - possibly next 1000 years - is to build huge, huge optical and radio telescopes, find earth-like exoplanets and ping them.
Re:That's sad. (Score:5, Insightful)
Citation please- gravity is limited by C the same as light is, as far as I'm aware. C is the universal speed limit for all types of matter and information, not just light. Yes, the Earth is attracted to the Sun by gravity as it was 8 minutes ago. This does not cause Earth to fly off into space- for Earth's purposes, there has always been a Sun 8 minutes ago around which to orbit.
Faster than light communication is as firmly in the realm of sci-fi/fantasy as is faster than light travel, I'm afraid. Until someone comes up with a sensible theory for another method of communication, we might as well pin our hopes on the EM spectrum.