The Cost of SETI (Warning: Big-ass graphic)

[LongTomH]

No one can accuse Phil Plait, of Bad Astronomy fame, of being a shrinking violet; he speaks his mind, and he's not afraid to kick ass and take names when needed. He's still furious over the shutdown of the Allen Telescope Array by the beancounters. His latest post: The Cost of SETI contains some valuable information, including this graphic on the cost of SETI vs the other things we spend money on, like Tomahawk cruise missiles, predator drones, Trident SLBM's, etc. Each little symbol represents the cost of one Allen Array radio telescope dish:



Phil's post links to some of his previous posts on like Neil Tyson on exploring space.

That post contains quotes from Dr. Tyson and some of the incredibly ignorant comments posted on the Parade website following Tyson's article. Phil then replies:

This person has it precisely wrong. We didn’t hope to find a help for cancer using astronomical imaging techniques. It just happened; a happy outcome. In fact, astronomical and medical imaging techniques are very similar; so similar that years ago I considered switching fields, knowing that my imaging knowledge would transfer easily. But anyway, this misses the point: we don’t fund these avenues because of serendipitous results; we fund them because it’s the right thing to do. Knowledge always benefits us. Always.

If you are laughing or ruefully shaking your head at the woeful pig-headery displayed by those three people, then consider this: those are real people with real (if utterly wrong) opinions. They are your co-workers, your neighbors, maybe even your relatives. Most people have no clue why we fund space exploration; in fairness most people probably don’t have an opinion about it. But I bet most people also think it’s very expensive (every single time something goes wrong with a NASA mission, the first thing reporters comment on is how much it cost, but they never seem to compare it to, say, the cost of a bridge in Alaska that goes nowhere.

This is why we need to speak up. People don’t get it. If you hear someone making these arguments, send them to Neil’s article, and tell them not to skim it, but to actually read it. Maybe we can get a few people at least to understand the real issues.

Phil's right, we need to at least try to educate our fellow citizens on the value of space exploration and SETI, starting with some of our fellow DU'ers. Sorry about that last comment; but, it's true.