A proposed bill in Congress seeks millions of dollars that could be used in the search for alien life.
Introduced in the House, the legislation recommends setting aside $10 million for both fiscal 2018 and 2019 for NASA to partner with private sector and philanthropic organizations “to search for technosignatures, such as radio transmissions, in order to meet the NASA objective to search for life’s origin, evolution, distribution, and future in the universe.”
If passed and signed into law, the bill could could pave the way to NASA resuming funding dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life for the first time in 25 years. In the early 1990s, the funding effort was diffused by Nevada Sen. Richard Bryan over frustration with a lack of results.
Over the intervening years, NASA has contributed to the search for alien life in other ways, for instance finding planets believed to have the right conditions to support life.
Researchers with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said worked with them to work on the bill’s language about funding for the space search. When pressed for a statement by the Atlantic to confirm he was the author of the measure, Smith’s office only issued a general statement on astrobiology: “It’s clear that the scientific community and the public is very interested in this research.”
Jill Tarter, who is former director of SETI research, warned this new legislation does not guarantee funding for the SETI Institute. She was part of the effort in 1992 that involved radio telescopes in Puerto Rico and California tuning into the stars.
“This is an authorization bill, not an appropriations bill,” Tarter told Fast Company. “Even if it passes, the appropriators may not provide any SETI funding in their bill. But if they do, that would be a very big deal.”
