NASA asks for funds to seek out ET

May 9, 1996
Web posted at: 12:25 a.m. EDT

From Correspondent John Holliman

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For as long as humans have known there were other planets, humans have been searching for extraterrestrial beings. The findings have ranged from strange to serious, from the computer-enhanced face on Mars to California astronomers' recent discovery of a distant planet just the right distance from its sun to support human life.

Daniel Goldin, the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), wants to build space telescopes to pursue the search for life on other planets. He has proposed what he calls the "Origins Project," which would unearth the mysteries of how we got here and whether anybody else is out there.

The project would not be NASA's first foray into extraterrestrial investigation. For years, NASA funded a radio telescope project called SETI, for "Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence." When NASA funding was taken away, SETI went private. It is still sending "phone home" messages into space today.

NASA insiders say the "Origins Project" is Goldin's favorite. "For thousands of years, human beings have looked up at the sky, and wondered, 'Is there another planet like Earth out there?' 'Is life unique to Earth and only Earth?' It just gets to the basic heart and soul of life," Goldin said.

"We're out to really get the pictures, and not just for public interest," said Ed Weiler, the project director for Origins. "There's an additional scientific value. If you have the ability to take a picture of a planet, you also have the ability, eventually, to analyze that planet in detail, and actually understand what that planet's made out of, what's in the atmosphere, is it possible that life could exist there," he said.

Goldin acknowledges that finding extraterrestrial beings would revive flagging public interest in the space program. He said of his pet project, "It causes me to get up earlier in the morning, and go to sleep later at night. It causes me to be full of hope and optimism about the kind of findings we're going to make. It drives me."

The telescopes would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, rather than billions, to build and launch. But congressional critics say the Clinton administration has not asked for one penny in its new budget on the project. Other critics say that finding extraterrestrials is the last thing on earth NASA should be doing.

Related sites:

• NASA
• The Origins Program fact sheet
• The SETI Institute
• National Space Science Data Center's "Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Face on Mars"

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