Salty Sea Covered Part of Mars: 'Excellent' Site to Search for Past Life

Space.com ^ | 3/23/04 | Robert Roy Britt

[from occupied ga]

Columbus was privately funded, and so was Costeau for the most part.

I'm sure you remember the story that the king wouldn't give Columbus any mosey from the public treasury so queen Isabella had to hock her private jewels to pay him.

[CharacterCounts]

Are you aware that the Smithsonian was bankrolling some big time honcho who was crashing aeroplanes into the Potomac at the same time that the Wright brothers were developing their airplane?

I think you have unintentionally made a good argument against government funding of space exploration.

[ASA Vet]

Also the early fire companies would fight each other to get first water on a fire.
Payment and honor went to that first company.

In the wooden water main days they had to dig a hole then cut a hole in the main.
When finished they put in a wooden plug.
That's the source of the term "fire plug" being used for a hydrant.

The fire company had some real big guys who when an alarm was sounded
would race ahead to a water main location protect it from other incoming fire companies.
These gentlemen were called "plug uglies."

I doubt if we'll have to fight with any "plug uglies" for the water on Mars.

[capitan_refugio]

My point was about the quest for exploration and making new discoveries.

The story about pawning the royal jewelery is a fairy tale. Isabella of Castile and Aragon was more than just the spouse of the King, she was a co-regent, having brought her own kingdom into the union. Ferdinand and Isabella established a commission to review Columbus' proposals. At the time (1486-1492), F&I were focused on removing the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.

Columbus made exorbitant demands of the rulers and they basically told him to "get lost." However, Royal advisors convinced the rulers that there was a strong profit motive to establish trade routes to the "Indies". Columbus was recalled and he was knighted, given an admiralty, made a hereditary viceroy. Columbus has also acquired a well-connect partner, Martin Alanzo Pinzon. The first Columbus expedition was both privately and publically funded, and for Spain, resulted in a position as one of the world's great powers.

[from occupied ga]

If new discoveries are worth making then there will be plenty of private money for the task. In fact there is usually private money available in varying degrees for nearly everything.

Take the Hubble vs the Keck. The Keck observatory is turning out results at least as good as the Hubble, and at less than 2% of the Hubble cost (Privately funded too). Remember the screw up in the Hubble optics (taxpayer funded?)

[capitan_refugio]

"If new discoveries are worth making then there will be plenty of private money for the task. In fact there is usually private money available in varying degrees for nearly everything."

It is all a matter of scale. If something is in one's individual or corporate interest, funding will be available privately (venture capital) at that level. When something is of national interest or importance, then the capital to support it should, necessarily, be on a national (public) level.

If your private money model had been solely in effect in the 1950's, it is quite likely many tens of thousands more people would have been crippled or killed by polio. Jonas Slak was working for the Virus Research Labratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Albert Sabin was the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospitial Research Foundation. Both were supported, to a great extent, by public grants and stipends.

These scientists also worked cooperatively with researchers in other countries (such as Mexico, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union) to find the cure for polio. Had these people worked independently, funded only by such monies made available by drug companies or private donations, how much longer might their discoveries been made?

[from occupied ga]

national interest or importance, then the capital to support it should, necessarily, be on a national (public) level

You make the giant leap of faith that pictures of rocks and dirt from Mars are in the "national interest." I say that keeping more money in the hands of the people who earned is is more beneficial. After all, what is the "national interest?" Is it some sort of collectivist concept? Or is it simply the well being of the many individuals who make up the nation? If it's the latter then it's clearly better to keep the money with the people who earned it.

Salk and Sabin etc.

Good example; however, drug development and testing is one area where private funds are widely available (pharmaceutical companies and their stockholders) If Salk and Sabin had not been supported by grants then they would have been supported by private funds. Their job choice was not made by lack of research funds. Read Bastiat about the lost opportunity cost of publicly funding various enterprises.

funded only by such monies made available by drug companies or private donations, how much longer might their discoveries been made?

I suspect that had the money all been private, then the discoveries would have been made sooner. Don't forget that faculty members of publicly funded institutions are expected to teach, serve on committees, and above all kiss the a$$es of the administration in addition to the research that they do.