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SETI ATA Shutdown: Who Will Listen for UFOs?

by Jordan Yerman | April 26, 2011 at 12:18 pm

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SETI ATA Telescope Array Shut Down Due to Lack of Funding

SETI's Allen Telescope Array has been taken offline. The ATA, set up at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory near Mt. Lassen in California, is a series of 42 dishes used for radio astronomy. In popular culture, this is how SETI listens for alien transmissions, though there is more to the ATA's work than just that.

SETI has resorted to asking for public donations so that, should aliens come calling, someone will be around to listen.

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The shutdown of the ATA does not spell the end of SETI, though, as initiatives like setiQuest are still active.

As for the ATA array, it is in "hibernation mode", which means that the system is shut down but not dismantled, and SETI is also pursuing funding through a proposed partnership with the US Air Force.

[...]funding for SETI has long been a headache for E.T.-seekers. NASA bankrolled some early projects, but in 1994, Sen. Richard Bryan of Nevada convinced Congress that it wasn't worth the cost, calling it the "Great Martian Chase" and complaining that not a single flying saucer had applied for FAA approval.

However, successful private funding came from donors such as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, allowing SETI to raise $50 million to build the 42 dishes.