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In what would make for a decent episode of The X-Files, the Chinese government is forcing more than 9,000 residents from their homes in order to better search for alien life in the cosmos.
Li Yuecheng, a senior Communist party official in Guizhou, said the relocations, from an area within a 5km radius of the project, would help “create a sound electromagnetic wave environment”.
Last year Shi Zhicheng, a Chinese astronomer, told the South China Morning Post that the telescope represented a giant leap in the hunt for alien life. “If intelligent aliens exist, the messages that they produced or left behind, if they are being transmitted through space, can be detected and received by Fast,” Shi said.
Massive relocation projects have long been a Communist party speciality. Millions of Chinese citizens have been displaced in recent decades to make way for hydro-electric dams and other infrastructure projects or as part of “poverty alleviation” schemes. Those forced from their homes often complain of poor compensation.
Each of the involved residents will get 12,000 yuan (1,838 U.S. dollars)subsidy from the provincial reservoir and eco-migration bureau, and each involved ethnic minority household with housing difficulties will get 10,000 yuan subsidy from the provincial ethnic and religious committee.
"With a larger signal receiving area and more flexibility, FAST will be able to scan two times more sky area than Arecibo, with three to five times higher sensitivity," Li said.
FAST was first proposed in 1993 by Chinese astronomers, as one of several competing concepts for the international Square Kilometer Array project-a project by astronomers worldwide to build the next generation radio observatory.
1.2 billion yuan ($1,839,720)
originally posted by: heffo7
I'm looking at where this thing is being built and wondering why it's set back in obviously rocky terrain.
Wouldn't the rocks around it potentially interfere with the signal reception if it's that sensitive?
The radio telescope here in Australia at Parkes is way apart from anything and set up high from the ground, and it doesn't have a bad track record.
Make too much noise in the woods and you move from being hunter to being hunted.
originally posted by: Urantia1111
a reply to: eisegesis
Why is a Chinese-made radio telescope in China using an English acronym?
And what makes anyone think aliens use radio?
originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
a reply to: Misterlondon
Oh I don't know, I'd like to see them clean up their air, so the people can breathe. That might be a good place to invest money. You know in the cities they haven't been able to see the stars at night in years because the air is so full of smoke and pollution?
Now THAT is what they need to be raising hell about. Maybe that's why they are looking for aliens. They are hoping they can find someone to tell them how to be able to manufacture all their junk and breathe at the same time.
The real money to be made in China in the next few years is in Oxygen tanks.
*a little editorial comment not directed to you personally Mr. L.