Well… this is rather absurd ‘research’. The money could be better spent for practical science.
The reaction to this isn’t much different at slashdot.org, definitely not an anti-science place.

science.slashdot.org

The reason I call this an absurd waste of money is that research grants/dollars are a very right finite resource. Given unlimited funds and scientists, I would have no problems with this, but that is not our reality.
The money and time that went towards paying for this could have gone towards something more useful like asteroid tracking.

We would be completely at the mercy of any interstellar travel capable civilization. It is entirely pointless to wonder about their motives or results, and we’d be completely powerless to do anything about them.

This really is ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin’ territory.