Seti alienated by funders

The future of one of the major strands of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (Seti) project looks bleak.

The Seti League, which consists of an international alliance of amateur and professional radioastronomers, radio amateurs, microwave experimenters and digital signal processing enthusiasts has only enough funding left to last one more year.

Dr Paul Shuch, executive director of the Seti League, told vnunet.com that while all three strands of the Seti project had been undergoing a rough year, the Seti League was the worst off.

"It's been a disastrous year for all academic research since 11 September. But it is important to remember that Seti is a science and not a single organisation.

"Unlike the two other major strands of Seti - the Seti@home and the Seti Institute - the Seti League doesn't have the high profile funding from major companies. This year, the Seti League has lost 90 per cent of its funding and has enough money to stay afloat for one more year," Shuch said.

The Seti League was founded in 1994 in response to the US congress terminating all Nasa Seti funding in October 1993. When this happened, Seti split into allied but totally separate organisations, each carrying out tasks originally run by the Nasa-funded body.

The Seti Institute adopted the 'life is common and close by' outlook. The specifically targeted project carefully scans stars similar to our own sun with a high degree of sensitivity. It is funded by companies such as Hewlett Packard and buys time on the major telescopes to look at stars within the range of about 100 light years away.

"Meanwhile, the Seti League has taken the 'life is rare and probably much farther away' outlook. Its Project Argus all-sky survey searches in all directions of the sky for evidence of powerful beacons," said Shuch

The Seti League is a membership-supported, non-profit educational and scientific organisation with about 1,200 members around the world. Membership fees are $50 annually. It can survive on this and other funding as it only costs about $180,000 a year to keep going.

This is because the Seti League uses nearly 100 privately built radio telescopes so its overheads are low. However, the dramatic loss of non membership-based funding means Shuch has had to slash budgets where he can. But there is little he can cut back on.

"We are having to stop sending out the newsletter. This isn't a problem for someone with good internet connections as you can get the information online, but our friends in the Third World have a problem with email and getting online. We are also going to have to have a members-only section for the latest news," he said.

The Seti League plays an important role in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. If we ever find it, there is no way of knowing if it will be thanks to the Seti Institute, the Seti League or the other allied organisations.