By Megan Gannon
www.space.com
8-31-12
The cash-strapped SETI Institute is set to get money from a new start-up firm to aid in its search for alien life.
The start-up company, called Uwingu, recently launched with an aim to fill gaps in space research funding. The firm announced Wednesday (Aug. 29) that its first bundle of available cash will go to the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute's Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a set of 42 radio dishes in Northern California designed to pick up extraterrestrial signals.
"We don't have to wait to begin helping space research until we launch our first product, we're starting now!" Uwingu CEO Alan Stern said in a statement. "SETI is one of the noblest and most important space research enterprises," added Stern, a planetary scientist and the former associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. . . .