Restore NASA's SETI program
In 1992, the U.S. government funded an operational SETI program, in the form of the NASA "Microwave Observing Program (MOP)". After some time, MOP eventually drew the attention of the U.S. Congress, where the program was strongly ridiculed, and was canceled a year after its start.
Since then, SETI research has been based in private funding, non-profit organizations and donations from individuals and corporations.
The great popularity of the SETI@home program showed that people are willing to contribute with the resources they have available to this cause. Over 5 million computer users in more than 200 countries have signed up for SETI@home and have collectively contributed over 19 billion hours of computer processing time. Now even Arecibo, world's biggest radiotelescope, used in SETI and other scientific research, is in danger of being closed due to budget cuts.
US Government should restore support to this project, which, if successful, will be the greatest discovery in human history.
waldir
shared this idea
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jps
commented
I would much rather have the Terrestrial Planet Finder Interferometer ( http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF-I/tpf-I_index.cfm ) back on the front burner than a SETI revival; the former will provide better targeting than the later can achieve with isotropic listening.
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bmarko
commented
Hear hear...