The National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center is a space research facility, funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by Cornell University and located six miles from Arecibo, Puerto Rico. It houses a 305 meter radio telescope dish, the world’s largest single radio dish, and it operates 24-hours a day. The center opened in 1960 and has been a valuable source of scientific data for longer than I’ve been alive. It is in danger of losing funds. As we recently saw, the combined voices of Americans committed to a strong, healthy research program in the United States can make a difference. It was only the day before many people were laid off at Fermilab, that the President signed funding of $60M to keep the laboratory going another year. The basic sciences, and basic research are under attack in our country, and it is this very research that will expand our knowledge and capabilities and next generation of technology. If we do not safeguard basic R&D, and if our government decides to only fund “sure things” with commercial or military pay-offs, we will become a second rate scientific force, and this will lead to our nation being less capable of maintaining a leadership status in the coming decades when technology will advance so very rapidly.

We must show that we care more about the search for knowledge and truth than we care about baseball and NASCAR. I don’t mean to offend anyone’s sensibilities here, but you need to wake up if you think our standard of living and our position in the world can be maintained if we let the next scientific revolution pass us by. We were fortunate to be at the forefront of the computer revolution, but when it comes to genetics, robotics, nanotechnology and other leading areas of scientific research, you either decide to pony up and lead or you follow behind. Basic physics research is fundemental to our understanding of nature, and we should all be excited that Fermilab won’t have to severely cut back on staff and projects. We must not let that victory keep us from seeing that other basic research facilities still have great value and must not be squandered or allowed to waste away. The Arecibo telescope is a good example of one such facility. The public recognized the importance of saving the Hubble Space Telescope, and extending its mission. Likewise, we must recognize this terrestrial telescope still has a lot to offer. From a personal perspective, this has been one of the main telescopes used in the SETI project, to search for civilizations beyond Earth. Finding life beyond our fragile blue globe might just be one thing that would unite our fractured planet into a global community where we can recognize what we have in common more than fighting over our differences. Let your representative know that you don’t want to see it die.

Arecibo Observatory, the world’s largest radio telescope and the source for the SETI@home data that your computer analyzes, faces massive budget cuts that will END its ability to continue the search for life beyond Earth. The decision to ensure full funding currently rests upon votes in Congress on Senate Bill S. 2862 and House Resolution H.R. 3737. These bills desperately need more support.

Please take a moment to help us SAVE ARECIBO.

Clicking the link below will direct you to a web page that allows you to print out letters prepared for your Senators and Congressional Representative urging them to support Arecibo. Printing and mailing the letters is really easy, too! You will also have the chance to add a few personal thoughts, if you wish, to let your Senators and Representative know why this funding is important to you! And if you’re really feeling passionate about saving Arecibo, please use these letters as the basis for letters you write yourself, urging your congressmen and women to vote to save Arecibo.

Because our representatives in Congress rarely give much attention to all the email they receive, printing out and MAILING these letters via standard U.S. Postal mail remains our best option for contacting them and our best hope for saving Arecibo (The second best option is to call your representatives). Your 42 cent stamps on these letters could help us get the millions of dollars
needed to save Arecibo.

Our search cannot continue without the necessary support. Your work, as SETI@home participants, represents an indispensable resource for conducting the search. Now, we need your help to ensure that our other most valuable resource – our eyes and ears to the cosmos – can continue to probe the universe as we seek to answer the question: Is there anybody out there?

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/arecibo_letter.php

Thank you for your help,
The SETI@home Team

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