Seti fans: Allen Telescope Array is back!

[Philippart]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/237550/seti_to_turn_telescopes_back_on_in_coming_days.html

The array was shut down in April due to lack of funding. But in June the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute said that if it could raise US$200,000 from the public by August it would be able to turn the array back on. It reached that goal some time in the past few days, said Karen Randall, director of special projects at the institute.

 

[petrusbroder]

Great news! Thanks for the info! 🙂

 

[geecee]

Good news.

Whenever people talk about searching the sky, I always think about that scene in Armageddon where Billy Bob Thornton's character is being asked by the President why they didn't see a giant meteor coming towards Earth, and he replies:

Well, our object collison budget's a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and begging your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky.

😀

 

[bryanW1995]

This is not to be confused with seti@home. Seti@home and the SETI institute have a sort-of rivalry, with the SETI institute getting most of the money and seti@home doing most of the actual, you know, searching for aliens. The allen telescope array has a lot of long-term potential, but there are only so many $millions per year that private fundraising can garner to search for aliens. Using it to search for NEO's, however, could potentially fund the less politically acceptable/much more fun projects like looking for ET.

 

[Assimilator1]

Good to hear it's back up & running 🙂

Thx Tom

 

[Wiz]

The big news over the past couple days is that Jodie Foster donated.
In case someone doesn't know, she starred in the movie Contact.
That was the big Hollywood story where aliens finally contact us and get us to build a machine to go and meet them, Jodie's character is the 'astronaut' who is chosen to represent Earth and humankind. Far out wacky stuff but entertaining.
Her character has to find funding when SETI is about to be scrapped due to lack of money.
Fitting that Jodie gives back a bit of what SETI has given her.
The story was based on Carl Sagan's writing.

Favorite line: "If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space"

 

[Assimilator1]

Yea I saw that film, didn't contact go badly? Can't remember properly.......

 

[Wiz]

Depends on your definition of "badly".
The aliens didn't come and demolish us to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

They had more of a "you're young, don't call us we'll call you" vibe.

 

[bryanW1995]

That's a relief, those vogons are pretty ornery you know.

 

[Assimilator1]

lol

 

[Wiz]

As though on queue - my clients are sitting here finished with all their work and can't upload results or get new work...

Must be ALIENS!!!