(Jason H.) wrote in message . com...

Perhaps Dr. Backus might make a final post,...
....snip...

and here it is

Beginnings and Endings and … - by Dr. Peter Backus, Observing
Programs Manager (Dec. 15, 2003)

http://www.seti.org/ao_11_03/index.php?id=48

"...Some metrics: over the years, we’ve spent about 2,400 hours,
or 100 days, using Arecibo to search for signs of communications
technology from hundreds of nearby stars. So far, no luck. Perhaps
when we return in February for the last run of Project Phoenix,
we’ll find the right star and frequency. I remind myself each
visit that we are barely scratching the surface here; the numbers of
stars and hours we’ve logged are small by astronomical scales."

So does this cover all of the goals of the original NASA High
Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS)? I wonder what the original
pre-congressional cut projected budget was versus what was actually
spent (kinda tend to think it was much much cheaper without a
government bureaucracy, but also slower without the money.) Also,
even though I (and perhaps others) was bitter about the congressional
cuts, they seem to have been fortuitous in retrospect, leading to the
SETI Institute's many life-science investigations, and causing Phoenix
and ATA to rise from HRMS's ashes (perhaps a confirmation of what
Henry Ford once said "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again
more intelligently.").

Regards, Jason H.

_______________________

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a
certain amount of scratching for what it gets. - Henry Ford