[meteorite-list] NASA could sell...

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:18:48 -0400
Message-ID: <8CE025DC61CCF2A-1044-2A2AD_at_webmail-m163.sysops.aol.com>

Steve S wrote:

"I have dreamt of this for years. Just a dream... But you never know...
...
and for them, their trust will increase as the voids left from these
sales fill
with new specimens from asteroids, Mars and the moon when funded
missions return
with new samples."

Hi Steve - A very beautiful dream ... but I just had a nightmare. When
have you ever known any government to make a profit off any of its
endeavors? Is the model to be the selling off energy credits back to
the grid? (If so we could all trade RECs with the government). The only
place the proceeds would go short-term would be to maintain a larger
staff to maintain the program itself if I understand how government
works, then the lawsuits, then avoid cutbacks at JSC, other NASA places
like it (of course vesting more individual into it that abhor the idea
of losing the treasures which keeping in the storage helps keep their
job, or so they mistakenly believe until the funds get cut anyway ... ).

But then, the general government fund registers and instead of the
politician on the white horse riding in and saving us, one comes in in
the cash-hungry shadows with with stealth-refined radar as soon as the
first decimal over six-figures comes in - and would raid the earning to
pay off the foreign debt and in the process cutting the programs that
were half way along and depended on it, cause the new director of NASA
to resign and everyone to go into private industry, frustrating the
dickens out of all the scientists and international partners and
turning us all into cynics ;-)

Wouldn't it be a whole lot simpler for a private company to mount one
time Lunar expedition in which all these potential buyers could even be
shareholders if you like, vs. expecting a utopian government?

Kindest wishes
Doug


-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Schoner <schoner at mybluelight.com>
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Sun, Jun 26, 2011 4:48 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] NASA could sell...


Right, And I am serious about it.

Everything, meteorites included. NASA keeps up to half the stock for
science
and releases the rest through a public GSA auction.

And to prove provenance of the specimens encapsulate them with a
statement of
what the sample is, its weight, origin, NASA logo and s/n. There should
be a
fine print statement on the back of that encapsulated label warning
that if
capsule is broken the sample then loses its provenance, and thus its
intrinsic
value, and that NASA will not confirm the identity of broken lucite
encapsulated
specimens.

These NASA presentation capsules can be patterned after those that were
previously made and distributed to other Nations or institutions, or
made from a
different design.

I have dreamt of this for years. Just a dream... But you never know...
Maybe
some Senator or Congressman will see the merit of releasing some, up to
half the
stock to the General Public, ostensibly to fund NASA. And maybe some of
those
protecting this so called "National Treasure" at JSC will see merit in
it too.
And for them, their trust will increase as the voids left from these
sales fill
with new specimens from asteroids, Mars and the moon when funded
missions return
with new samples.

We all have to let go in life. We leave everything behind, and move on.
Our
Government should realise this as well. Those rocks in the course of
human
history will be dispersed, one way or another, it will happen.

Why not let it happen now a bit at a time... When those with the
resources can
plunk down millions for a piece of moon rock from each of the Apollo
Missions,
rare meteorites included, so that exploration can continue and humanity
as a
whole can move on.

Not all will be able to afford what could be offered, but those that
can will
and maybe plunk down more than most would ever pay for such
encapsulated
specimens.

I saw Apollo 11 live in 1969 awed to be alive to see it. The moon for
me
changed in one day, for Man had finally set his footprint there. And
ever since
I have waited to see our steps on the moon again and by now mars...

"We Came In Peace For All Mankind" was the statement on Eagle's plaque
that Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left on the Moon...

It is past the time to let go of a portion of what they and the other
Apollo
astronauts brought back so that these funds will help to extend that
message
again to the moon and beyond.

Steve Schoner
Founding Member Emeritus IMCA #4470
www.petroslides.com

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Michael Gilmer <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
To: Steve Schoner <schoner at mybluelight.com>
Cc: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] NASA could sell...
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:22:45 -0400

Hi Steve and List,

That is the best idea I have heard in a long time! And, it would
completely vindicate Nininger!

Put me down for a micro speck of ALH84001!

Best regards,

MikeG

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On 6/26/11, Steve Schoner <schoner at mybluelight.com> wrote:
> Here is an idea that has been bandied about...
>
> NASA complains about lack of funds for further exploration.
>
> But they sit on a 856 lbs of Apollo moon samples valued at 50K to 5 
million
> per/gram.
>
> And there are many pieces that have been studied and no longer of 
scientific
> use.
>
> Put them up in a legitimate government auction of public property.
>
> In fact they could cut in half every specimen that have at hand 
sitting in
> their vaults and maybe even fund another manned mission to the moon 
or even
> to Mars.
>
> And all the while they waste tax-payer money chasing down holders of
> inconsequential milligrams of lunar dust on swatches of tape.
>
> Steve Schoner
> IMCA #4470
>
> P.S. I open this with the exercise of figuring out what 400 lbs of 
Apollo
> rocks, soil and dust might bring on the open market, either by set 
price as
> currently established on the open market for the very few Apollo 
samples in
> public domain, or as might be realised in an open Government sponsored
> auction.
>
> Should be interesting to see what the results might be.
>
> ____________________________________________________________
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Received on Sun 26 Jun 2011 05:18:48 PM PDT