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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Support for Shuttle
Message-ID: <6345@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 15:25:45 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6345
Posted: Mon Feb  3 15:25:45 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Feb-86 15:25:45 EST
References: <394@tekigm2.UUCP>, <3276@teklabs.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 18

> ...I want to show my support by sending some $$ to 
> NASA and say, "Here. Put this toward Challenger's replacement..."
> 
> How can I get private funds into NASA?  Memory tells me of vague problems
> with some private group (was it to support continued telemetry from
> one of the Mariners on Mars?) trying to get funds into NASA for a similar
> purpose.

The Viking Fund, organized to support continued operation of Viking Lander 1,
did indeed run into this.  There is no mechanism, and I believe no legal
possibility, for NASA to accept donations towards a specific cause -- the
only way to give money to the government is to put it into the general pot.
The Viking Fund got around this, I believe, by contracting to have NASA do
specific work for a fee, some of which was going to be done anyway, and thus
indirectly easing financial pressure on Lander operations.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry