SETI Institute suspends work at ATA

Message boards : SETI@home Science : SETI Institute suspends work at ATA

Author	Message
Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 431 Credit: 172,285 RAC: 108	Message 1100714 - Posted: 26 Apr 2011, 2:42:43 UTC
	The SETI Institute has reportedly suspended its work at the Allen Telescope Array, due to funding problems. This apparently occurred on April 15th. They hope to find new funding and resume work. I look at the ATA webcams daily. I can confirm that an unusual number of cars were visible in the main lab parking lot on the 15th (11 cars instead of the usual 1 to 3). Further, the dishes that can be seen from the two still-working webcams have not moved since that date. The dishes were frequently re-aimed before this date. Link to article breaking this story today: http://news.discovery.com/space/search-for-et-suspended.html
	ID: 1100714 ·

Jason Safoutin Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 8 Sep 05 Posts: 1386 Credit: 200,389 RAC: 0	Message 1100717 - Posted: 26 Apr 2011, 2:53:17 UTC - in response to Message 1100714. Last modified: 26 Apr 2011, 3:02:56 UTC
	Sad news. Hopefully this will not effect them using the VLA (Very Large Array) in New Mexico. This bring back an important point with Arecibo; it also nearly lost its operational funding a few years ago, but thankfully and hopefully it received the funding it needs. I assume it did otherwise I don't think we would be crunching WUs right now. Here is a link to an article i wrote a few years ago about the possibility of Arecibo closing if it did lose its funding: Searching for asteroids, extraterrestrial life a little more rocky: Budget cuts threaten to close Arecibo, world's largest radio telescope It really is a shame that we have to see these great science organizations lose their funding. For the most part, we can thank the US congress for diverting funds to other science projects, and political earmarks being canceled or also diverted. In some cases earmarks just don't make it to the projects they are assigned to because of errors on paperwork. Really does disappoint me. EDIT: Well I thought the SETI Institute used the VLA for their search for ET...apparently, according to Wikipedia, I was wrong and it is not used for SETI at all. ____________ "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3
	ID: 1100717 ·

Odysseus Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 26 Jul 99 Posts: 1786 Credit: 3,765,674 RAC: 490	Message 1100718 - Posted: 26 Apr 2011, 2:55:25 UTC - in response to Message 1100714.
	See Eric’s Q&A posting, in the Staff Blog forum, about the ATA’s “hibernation”. ____________
	ID: 1100718 ·

Johnney Guinness Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 11 Sep 06 Posts: 2946 Credit: 2,306,100 RAC: 24	Message 1100770 - Posted: 26 Apr 2011, 5:43:27 UTC Last modified: 26 Apr 2011, 5:45:51 UTC
	Ahhhh.....I suspect they will be back in action in a short while. I suspect they are just trying to get some attention so they can raise funding. They will get it too! If that ATA telescope never looked for aliens, its still a very valuable tool for any astronomer! Loads of people will want a peice of the action. ____________
	ID: 1100770 ·

tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 2949 Credit: 266,077 RAC: 247	Message 1100779 - Posted: 26 Apr 2011, 6:53:38 UTC Last modified: 26 Apr 2011, 6:54:52 UTC
	This is from www.setiquest.org: ATA Tullio ____________
	ID: 1100779 ·

Dirk Villarreal Wittich Send message Joined: 25 Apr 00 Posts: 2098 Credit: 363,794 RAC: 72	Message 1100901 - Posted: 27 Apr 2011, 0:30:49 UTC Last modified: 27 Apr 2011, 0:33:16 UTC
	Here is the German version of this news..... Basically it says that California is bankrupt.... The USA has no more money available for the aliens. The financial crisis hitting California has now officially huge/cosmic size. SETI-Projekt eingestellt USA haben für Außerirdische kein Geld mehr Die Finanzkrise des Kalifornien hat nun offiziell kosmische Ausmaße: Aus Geldnot muss der US-Staat die Mittel für das Suchprogramm nach außerirdischen Lebensformen stoppen. Mehr hier-->welt.de ____________
	ID: 1100901 ·

skildude Send message Joined: 4 Oct 00 Posts: 8970 Credit: 37,790,948 RAC: 42,906	Message 1101038 - Posted: 27 Apr 2011, 15:51:04 UTC - in response to Message 1100901.
	And they just ahd to use teh S@H screensaver. Perhaps one of our German crunchers could explain that the S@H project is alive and we and the Seti project is a private seti project not funded by the state of California ____________ Proud member of TSWB. End terrorism by building a school
	ID: 1101038 ·

Blurf Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 2 Sep 06 Posts: 6458 Credit: 5,734,751 RAC: 2,814	Message 1101134 - Posted: 27 Apr 2011, 21:03:14 UTC
	Wonder how long before the end of work hits crunchers. ____________
	ID: 1101134 ·

Jason Safoutin Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 8 Sep 05 Posts: 1386 Credit: 200,389 RAC: 0	Message 1101135 - Posted: 27 Apr 2011, 21:05:40 UTC - in response to Message 1101134. Last modified: 27 Apr 2011, 21:07:13 UTC
	Wonder how long before the end of work hits crunchers. This has nothing to do with SETI@home and does not effect the project. See the thread here. ____________ "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3
	ID: 1101135 ·

Dirk Villarreal Wittich Send message Joined: 25 Apr 00 Posts: 2098 Credit: 363,794 RAC: 72	Message 1101321 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 9:26:19 UTC - in response to Message 1101038.
	And they just ahd to use teh S@H screensaver. Perhaps one of our German crunchers could explain that the S@H project is alive and we and the Seti project is a private seti project not funded by the state of California I wrote an extensive post as an answer to the german newspaper article, explaining what seti@home is and how it has to cope and solve budget bottlenecks in order to keep the work going. The comment was censored and erased within minutes. I know that my German is not perfect but it was definetively not so bad. ____________
	ID: 1101321 ·

tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 2949 Credit: 266,077 RAC: 247	Message 1101328 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 9:57:29 UTC
	Journalists the world over cannot grasp the difference between SETI@home and the SETI Institute. We should not worry about them. Non ti curar di lor ma guarda e passa (Dante). Tullio ____________
	ID: 1101328 ·

Jason Safoutin Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 8 Sep 05 Posts: 1386 Credit: 200,389 RAC: 0	Message 1101329 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 9:59:29 UTC - in response to Message 1101328.
	Journalists the world over cannot grasp the difference between SETI@home and the SETI Institute. We should not worry about them. Non ti curar di lor ma guarda e passa (Dante). Tullio We DO need to worry about misinformation and false reports. Because of all those misleading articles, the project could lose a lot of crunchers. Reporting false information is unacceptable and irresponsible. ____________ "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3
	ID: 1101329 ·

tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 2949 Credit: 266,077 RAC: 247	Message 1101334 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 10:42:54 UTC - in response to Message 1101329.
	The only newspaper I know admitting its errors is the New York Times. All others simple ignore any correction sent to them. Tullio ____________
	ID: 1101334 ·

Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 12012 Credit: 19,604,376 RAC: 43,449	Message 1101369 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 14:34:47 UTC - in response to Message 1101329.
	I don't think we'll lose as many crunchers as you're implying. Anyone who belongs to the project will likely come to the website to find additional information, and they'll see Eric's correction on the front page. Others will just leave their computers crunching SETI until the data runs out... then when the data doesn't run out, they might get the idea that it's not going away (yet).
	ID: 1101369 ·

Message boards : SETI@home Science : SETI Institute suspends work at ATA