SETI on the Upswing

True, I did just post about SETI a few months ago, but I feel like there are a few reasons a new entry is deserved.

First, and perhaps foremost, it's the Halloween season (my second favorite holiday). And the alien horror/sci-fi genre is also one of my favorites. Secondly, there has been an unexpected amount of recent traction for a research area that has been mostly ignored by mainstream science.

For example, there is the recent confirmation that flowing water still exists on Mars. Evidence suggests that Mars is home to brine flows during certain times of the year. While the source of the brine is to be determined, it definitely increases the likelihood of life, whether in the past or present.

Also, China-which for so long was an afterthought in astronomy-has been stepping up its space science game. As its completion becomes more imminent, China has been increasing the publicity of its Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). Once online in 2016, it will be the largest radio telescope on Earth and will be able to look billions of light years into the universe. It will be 1,640 feet wide and will cost the Chinese $110 million.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is a new wave of research and discovery that is facilitated by the $100 million endowment from Yuri Milner (read about it in June's blog entry). According to Dr. Andrew Siemion, SETI research was seen as a waste of government money and has been out left out of NASA budgets since 1991. However Siemion was recently invited to testify before Congress about the value of SETI research. An influx of taxpayer dollars for SETI isn't expected, but lawmakers are at least paying attention to the gains made in the private sector.

Siemion notes that significant private investment could alter the SETI research economy. Bright students aren't likely to enter a field where there is no funding or career paths. But collaborative efforts by financers and visionaries, say an Elon Musk-type, could be the key to developing more serious SETI efforts. Musk himself has said he wants to know if we are alone or not, and a private team of researchers working for a modern space organization won't be bound by politics. Siemion expects Milner at some point will invest in SpaceX or another private space organization.

Indeed, the immediate future of SETI seems to rely on private companies. While NASA and other government-funded space research must answer to talking heads, it will be up to entrepreneurs and technologists to ask more open-ended questions and find creative answers. And for SETI, that really couldn't be more optimal.