The alien-hunters at the SETI Institute have managed to convince enough people to fund their mission to contact extraterrestrials that the organisation will be able to get its telescopes back online.
Budget cuts shuttered the Allen Telescope Array in northern California in April 2011, after funding from the National Science Foundation and the Californian government dried up. Other telescopes are capable of searching for alien life, but this was the only array dedicated almost wholly to the task.
In June 2011, the institute launched a fund-raising drive centred around a website called SETIstars, with the aim of collecting $200,000 in 40 days. That goal has now been achieved, with 5 days to go, meaning that the telescopes can be revived to resume scanning the skies for intelligent life.
However, it's not the end of the fight. The telescope needs $2.5 million per year to keep it running, so it's looking into other sources of funding. Those sources could include a collaboration with the US Air Force to use it to monitor space junk, but the agency is hoping that individuals around the world donating small amounts of money could fund the project entirely.
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