[meteorite-list] ASU suspends public meteorite identification program

From: Richard Kowalski <damoclid_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 13:37:14 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <932207.5712.qm_at_web113613.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

Eric,

I'm not sure if you've "run the numbers" on what such a service would cost, but lets talk a few numbers, that I admit are essentially pulled out of thin air.

Salary for a full time researcher, with no benefits, $35000 per year (and that's on the low side)
Lab, minimum cost of $1000 per month, just for the space, with no equipment.
Lab costs, minimum of $100 per hour.
Lab equipment, I won't even make a guess at this, but minimum, would be many 10s of thousands of dollars for a properly equipped lab.


So, say the researcher can spend 5 full hours each day actually examining & studying the specimens. The rest of the day is spent doing other related tasks. That means 25 hours per week or 1250 hours per year (only two weeks vacation per year)

Using the three numbers I cite $35,000 + $12,000 + 125,000 means that at a minimum a facility would need to charge at least $137.60 per hour just to break even on these costs. Of course many institutions charge overhead of as much as 50% so now that hourly cost is double.

If you provide the researcher with any benefits at all and you have to equip the lab with even a high quality polarizing microscope, your hourly costs go up in proportion to how much equipment is in the lab and how rapidly those costs can be depreciated. Need another employee that deals with administration? Well your hourly fees have to go up again.

Agreed that if you offer a service that at has a minimum fee of $300 just to open the package and let you know you have a meteor-wrong, most of these submissions will vanish. However, how many people would be willing to spend the $300 base fee to be told by an expert, in effect "certify" the rock they know is a meteorite in fact a meteorite? How many of those would then pay the many hundred or thousands of dollars more for this commercial company to classify the meteorite? Few to none I suspect.

As I said I'm pulling these numbers out of thin air, but I'd guess that those of you getting meteorites classified, if you are paying under several hundred dollars per hour in fees to get it done, are getting an incredible bargain. This is often because the costs are passed on to the taxpayer that funds your institution of choice.

I doubt any of the meteoriticists doing this at an institution have figured out a per hour or per classification cost, but my guess is that my estimate is well below actual costs.

--
Richard Kowalski
Full Moon Photography
IMCA #1081
--- On Wed, 9/8/10, Meteorites USA <eric at meteoritesusa.com> wrote:
> From: Meteorites USA <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] ASU suspends public meteorite identification program
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 11:40 AM
> I would think a "paid" meteorite
> identification service might alleviate some of the burden of
> abuse. This would have a screening effect on those that
> would normally be adamant that their Earth rock is a
> meteorite even in the presence of evidence it's not. People
> that won't take no for an answer probably wouldn't?
> spend money to have it examined professionally in the first
> place. Supplement your time with a small fee. This will weed
> out those in denial.
> 
> Eric
> 
> 
> On 9/8/2010 11:26 AM, Adam Hupe wrote:
> > Yes, it was just a matter of time.? You can only
> tie up your resources looking
> > at so many meteorite wrongs before it interferes with
> budget and time
> > management.? I no longer look at
> solicited/suspected meteorites from unknown
> > parties for the same reasons. Most think their finds
> are going to make them the
> > latest millionaires and do not want to hear the
> truth.? Dreams are free unless
> > you are the one characterizing the object. Some get
> very angry when you tell
> > them what they have is not a meteorite and they are
> not that easy to find
> > regardless of what they saw on TV or read on some
> website. You can only be
> > abused so many times before the process becomes less
> enjoyable.
> > 
> > 
> > Here is to finding real meteorites!
> > 
> > Adam
> > ______________________________________________
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Received on Wed 08 Sep 2010 04:37:14 PM PDT