After the end of the Pentagon contract, the group of top secret scientists pledges to continue: NPR

Updated at 5:30 pm ET

A secret group of scientists who advise the government on everything from spy satellites to nuclear weapons, seeks to find a sponsor after the Pentagon abruptly ended its contract last month.

The group, known as Jasons, will run out of money at the end of April. The Department of Defense says the group's advice is no longer needed, but independent experts say it has never been so relevant and fear that it will throw a valuable resource.

Russell Hemley, the Jason leader, said other government agencies still wanted advice, and the Jasons were determined to give it.

On Thursday late, it appeared that another government agency might be willing to take over the group. The National Nuclear Security Administration of the Ministry of Energy issued an invitation to bid in which it announced its intention to take over the contract for the group. This could happen in a few months and we do not see how the company Miter, which manages the Jasons, would finance the group in the meantime.

There are about 60 Jason members. By day, they are ordinary academics, working in colleges, universities and the private sector. But every summer, they get together to study tough problems for the military, intelligence agencies and other areas of government.

The group's name, like the band itself, is shrouded in mystery, though it is believed to be a reference to the mythical Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece.

"The idea of ​​reducing the kind of advice provided by the Jasons is not good for the Department of Defense," says Steven Aftergood at the Federation of American Scientists, an independent monitoring group. "This is not good for the nation."

"We are very independent, we have this diversity of talents and we often bring perspectives and solutions to very different, very original problems," said Hemley, a physicist and chemist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Hemley is one of the few members to publicly identify as part of the group. He says the Jasons do not look like anything else. Academics at the top of their respective fields, with security clearances that allow them to work on any issues.

The origins of the group date back to the beginning of the Cold War.

"They just formed themselves in 1960," says Ann Finkbeiner, who wrote The Jasons: the secret history of the post-war science elite. It started when a group of physicists got funding from the Pentagon to spend the summer learning the problems that the Defense Ministry faces in its fight against the Soviet Union. These obstinate researchers were determined to advise the government. They then studied everything from anti-submarine warfare to missile defense.

"Their most famous study has probably been to try to stop the infiltration of North Vietnam into the south," said Finkbeiner.

The problem was that North Vietnamese troops and supplies were hard to find under the thick canopy of the jungle. Jasons' solution was to develop a remote sensor system that could be dropped into the jungle and provide information about the enemy. The program, like many things about Vietnam, was controversial and did not work perfectly. But he laid the groundwork for modern electronic warfare, in which the sensors provide the troops with detailed information about the battlefield, Finkbeiner said.

Hemley says that in recent years, Jason has expanded their fields of study. They have tried to help the Ministry of Agriculture to develop better ways to use the data to understand agricultural production, for example. And they advised the Census Bureau on how to streamline its operations.

Hemley and others were surprised when, at the end of March, the Pentagon abruptly announced the end of its main contract with the Jasons. The contract, awarded by the Miter Corporation, is the vehicle that allows Jason to work with other parts of the government as well. Without this, the group has no way of getting the multi-million dollar funds it needs to operate each year.

"The ministry remains committed to seeking independent technical advice and advice," said Pentagon spokeswoman Heather Babb. But Steven Aftergood sees another reason for the end of the relationship. He says the Jasons are a blunt group. If they think that an idea is stupid or will not work, they are not afraid to say it.

"They offered the opposite of cheerleader," he says. "And the DoD decided that they might not want to pay for it anymore."

Aftergood says it's a real mistake to cut ties with Jason now. The Pentagon embarks on ambitious research on artificial intelligence, quantum computing and advanced hypersonic missiles. Jason has expertise on these topics and will likely be helpful.

For the moment, says Hemley, the group is eager to continue its research and "works closely with our sponsors to make this happen."

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the country's nuclear weapons, would suit the group perfectly. He has solicited numerous Jason studies on the nuclear stock over the years.

At a congressional hearing earlier this month, NNSA Director Lisa Gordon-Hagerty expressed her support for the Jason: "I can tell you that they are rich and historic" , she said, "and that their technical expertise is solid."