Subscribe by EmailHat Creek Radio Observatory about to start
June 2, 2008 by Mark O'Neill | 11 commentsBy Mark O’Neill
In what is being touted as a “new switchboard for aliens“, the 42 telescope dishes at Hat Creek Radio Observatory will soon kick into action.
When the full 350 telescope dish display is finished in a few years time – initially funded by $30 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen – it will be the biggest extra-terrestrial search station ever in the world.
But problems are already cropping up. Allen’s $30 million is already gone and they need a further $40 million to finish the rest of the dishes. So they are having to resort to tacky “Adopt a Scientist” schemes to raise the extra money as the government isn’t going to rush in and write them a check.
It’s a sad day when science and exploration gets pushed to the back of the line in favour of billions getting pumped into pointless wars in the Middle East.
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Right. And like spending $70 billion isn’t a sad day when we have problems in our own country that we can’t solve. Instead we use that money to go on a extra-terrestrial treasure hunt.
My mistake. $70 million (not billion).
I would like to second that motion. 30 Million bucks could have feed a lot of starving folks instead of searching for something that does not exist
I was only making the point that science, exploration and discovery were better returns for your money than senseless war and destruction in the Middle East. That was all.
Its a sad day when scientists continue to invest in stupid research like the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Quit believing in fairy tales and move on to important stuff.
I guess that makes you a fairy tale.
Maybe, just maybe, no one thinks spending an EXTRA $40 million to listen for a signal from someone with who we can’t communicate, anyway, even if we did find them. It irritates me to no end to see pointless political commentary in articles that have nothing to do with politics in the first place. Maybe Paul Allen and any other potential investor should be required to spend their private money on things only approved by Mark O’Neil.
The sad day is when when jerks like you think you know how others should spend their money. Maybe YOU should finance the project with your funds. In fact, let’s pass a law to mandate it.
Finance the project with MY funds? Oh sure, I think I have a spare $40 million lying around here someplace…I think I saw my cleaning lady dusting the banknotes the other day….ah here we go!
Sorry if articles like these irritate you but all I’m doing is what you’re doing – expressing an opinion. Get over it Steve.
Oh guys, common,
All that Mark said was that investing in science and research was always better than in wars…
It is a possibility that alien life does not exists, and yes, maybe money trown at this should have been sent to third-world countries instead.. but we’re talking about private funds here..
I have to agree that the government should not finance a project like this. Let this guy find private investors if he wants to finish his observatory
It may be Paul Allens private money, but the employees (about 8 people) are all State of California employees. Bankrupt Calif is paying for all of the employees, and there retirements, and their health benefits. Calif also pays the rent, the electric bill (and it isn’t small), road maintenance, etc. Besides that, there are another dozen people in Berkeley who work for this setup doing research and development; all state of Calif employees. Remember this the next time Arnold wants to raise taxes. The search for litte green men goes on!!!!!!
I have to agree with Kiltak on this one; all Mark was saying is science > war, which is something I can’t disagree with.
Political commentaries like that can surely bring up some heated discussions, hehe