Mountain View’s SETI Institute Suspends Search For Alien Life [View All]

[onehandle]

Source: CBS

The SETI Institute in Mountain View has suffered a major financial setback – specifically, facing a $5 million gap in funding for day to day operations – and as a result, is shutting down its deep space listening program.

That means SETI – the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence – will mothball its array of radio telescopes, dealing a massive blow to the search for life on other planets.

“It’s challenging,” conceded SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson. “We’re motivated to fix it just as we were in the 1990s when the NASA SETI program went away and I believe we can do so.”

Indeed, NASA had provided the financial backing for some early SETI projects, but that funding dried up under Congressional scrutiny, with some lawmakers criticizing the “chase” for Martians and flying saucers.

Read more: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/04/26/mountain-views-seti-institute-suspends-search-for-alien-life/

---

The war on science continues.