SETI needs about $5 million over the next two years to reopen a telescope facility. That's more than five times the amount of money raised by the largest Kickstarter project to date. Dean McBeth, a digital strategist at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, kindled the idea with a tweet yesterday: "SETI suspended for no $. Can we ask alien life to micro-fund on Kickstarter?" he asked. Twitter users from Minneapolis to Italy proposed the same thing. "Very sad to learn SETI is closing. They should do a Kickstarter to get their $5 mill. I'm serious," tweeted Londoner Tom Critchlow.

Betabeat reached out to Kickstarter to ask if they were in communication with the alien life-seeking institute, but a representative did not immediately respond for comment. We'll update if they do.

KickstartSETI.com is still available!