Update: It worked! Thanks to the crowdfunding site SETIstars.org, the necessary $200,000 has been raised to get the Allan Telescope Array back online over the next few months. SETIstars.org will stay up to help contribute to ongoing costs of running the array. More details in this Nature Blog story >>
[From August 2, 2011, 5:21pm] The next phase of setiQuest, the result of Jill Tarter’s 2009 TED Prize wish, will be unveiled in 2012. It will allow anyone, anywhere to contribute to the search for signals of intelligent life in the universe. But in the meantime, tough economic times have forced a major extraterrestrial data collector to lie dormant.
In April 2011, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) was placed into a state of hibernation due to a funding shortfall. Today, the ATA’s 42 radio telescopes are on stand-by, unable to scan the sky; the array can no longer hunt for evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations and insight into the nature of our cosmic origin.
To get the ATA back online, the SETI Institute is making an appeal to the power of human collaboration. Last month, the crowdfunding site SETIstars launched to recognize and rally support from the community to help fund the SETI Institute’s operations and that of the Allen Telescope Array.
The first fundraising goal is $200,000, and with four days to go, they’re almost there. If you’d like to help get the array searching again, learn more >>
– Casson Rosenblatt
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