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SETI Gains Respect, NASA Funding

Posted by simoniker on from the more-cash-out-there dept.

securitas writes "After having its funding cut off by Congress a decade ago, the SETI program has just received a NASA five-year grant (Google link) to participate as a lead team in the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which investigates the origin and future of life in the universe. For more information, see the Astrobiology Institute's announcement and the NASA press release."

5 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Its nice... by soliaus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...to see that the government is dishing out some money for the advancement of programs which were at one time considered to be fantasy or science fiction. Personally, I hope to see more funding in these areas.

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    Speaking at Defcon 12 - Credit Card Networks Revisted: Pen
  2. Re:Waste of money by SifuDave54 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    why don't we just stop putting money into the arts too? according to you, we can't afford such frivolous things such as curiosity and expression and searching for meaning.

  3. Re:Chance or Design? by DarenN · · Score: 5, Insightful
    There's soooo many holes in that that I wasn't sure where to start. Incidentally IANAC (I am not a creationist)

    If there is no evolution, then there is no chance that life would exist anywhere else in the universe because it would have had to have been Created only here

    That makes no sense. The basis of most religions is that their god is omnipotent and ominescent, so why can't they have created multiple intelligent lifeforms. For that matter, the power of the god can explain evolution, too (how could such a finely balanced lattice have occured without something guiding it's creation)

    The New Testament of the Bible (in which most Creationists readily and eagerly believe) repeatedly claims that there is only one Son of God and that only through Him is salvation possible.

    He was human incarnate, not human. Why couldn't he have been "Ugly bug-eyed monster from Proxima Centauri incarnate" or "Betazed incarnate"?

    You can be absolutely certain that if intelligent life were discovered tomorrow, on Earth or anywhere else the scriptures of most of the major religions would prove flexible enough to accomodate it.


    And to bring this back on topic, it's good to see the funding, but I wonder is it because SETI is starting to get data that interests NASA for some reason (like the readings from Proxima Centauri mentioned in another post).

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    Rational thought is the only true freedom
  4. Re:NASA funded? by psavo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I didn't know NASA had enough money to donate, with all the cutbacks and whatnot.

    Sounds more like outsourcing facilities to more competent business?

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    fucktard is a tenderhearted description
  5. Funding? What funding? by nicodemus05 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    We are funding a fictitious war over 100 million.

    There was a headlining story on the NYT yesterday:

    Gen. Tommy R. Franks said today that violence and uncertainty in Iraq made it unlikely that troop levels would be reduced "for the foreseeable future," and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld nearly doubled the estimated military costs there to $3.9 billion a month.

    My math might be worse than Dubya's, but I figure it at about $130 million A DAY.

    While it's great that we're "funding" SETI, perhaps some of the money we're pouring into Iraq would be better spent on science. Mars, anyone? Zubrin's plan calls for $30 billion for a long term program, just over 7 months worth of war. Which would you prefer, nonexistant WMDs or a manned landing on the Red Planet?

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