[meteorite-list] Field Of Astrobiology Gains Legitimacy, Catches On

From: Starbits_at_aol.com <Starbits_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:11 2004
Message-ID: <b8.16a04c8d.284e90f4_at_aol.com>

< I was really serious about the questions I posed yesterday (Below). My comments were not simply sarcastic rhetorical questions. I really am curious
 if anyone knows what the answers are? ...Does NASA and the NSF publish such data?

<...And I guess while we are on the topic, does anyone know how much a year does get spent on all the different areas of Meteorite Research? $100,000,000? $250,000,000? More?>

The NASA budget proposal for 2002 gives the following numbers for the research program.

                        FY2000 FY2001 Fy2002
research & analysis 239,450 244,661 246,200
data analysis 291,100 310,504 319,200

The numbers are in thousands ie 239,450 is $239 million. The data analysis is primarily looking at data coming back from space probes etc and likely not related to meteorite research.

   The research and analysis numbers include things like the search for planets around other stars, Near Earth Orbit search for asteroids, and the Astrobioliogy institute. These were mentioned as achievements for 2000.

   There was no mention of meteorites in the very general budget overview I looked at, which I do not find surprising. Only about 25% of the research proposals actually get funded by NASA. I would expect a proposal to research hydrocarbon formation in the early solar system would be more likely to be funded than a proposal to analyze meteorites for hydrocarbons even though the basic research would be similiar. The point being that it would be very difficult to give a number that is "meteorite research". The NASA numbers at any rate would appear to me to be much, much lower than those you proposed. Whether the worldwide research would approach those numbers is anyone's guess.

Eric Olson
http://www.star-bits.com
   
   

   
Received on Tue 05 Jun 2001 03:45:55 PM PDT