2 ms·
I don't think so. How much would a private sample-return mission cost (I assume you mean unmanned)? A billion at least? You'd need a million seeds sold at $100
by wlievens 17y ago
I don't think so. How much would a private sample-return mission cost (I assume you mean unmanned)? A billion at least?
You'd need a million seeds sold at $1000 each, or a thousand seeds sold at a million. I don't think you can command that kind of price at that level of supply either way.
- gojomo 17y agoI wouldn't think a seeds-gimmick alone could raise all the funds, but it might raise a lot. A grove of trees (or other plants) grown from seeds that have been farther from Earth than any other native organism [1] would have serious tourist-attraction value, even if replicated in many places. Wikipedia reports the ESA's 'Mars Express' as having a total budget excluding lander of about $185 million. So perhaps a bare-bones orbit-and-return could be done, unmanned and on a leisurely pace, for $300 million. Sell 5,000 seeds at $30,000/each to raise half the mission cost? Not totally inconceivable. [1] disregarding stowaway microrganisms on non-returning probes