From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!allegra!phr
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Re: fund raising idea
Article-I.D.: allegra.374
Posted: Wed May 12 11:28:35 1982
Received: Thu May 13 00:58:04 1982

It's a good idea, but prohibited by US Federal law.  If you want to
contribute money to the space effort, I suggest that you join the Space
Studies Institute, 195 Nassau St., Princeton, NJ 08540.  This group is
headed by Gerard K. O'Neill, and has funded construction of model mass
drivers, automated lunar chemical processing plants, and other
important ideas which haven't drawn government money.  They use their
funds much more efficiently than any government agency could, too.
$10/year gets you a quarterly newsletter.

If you want your money to go to NASA, you can contribute to Delta Vee,
3033 Moorpark Ave., Suite 27, San Jose  CA 95128.  They operate the
Viking Fund, which so far has given NASA over $100,000 to analyze data
which is still being transmitted from the Viking Landers (govt. funding
for data analysis dried up years ago), and the Halley Fund.  The Halley
Fund originally was to pay for a political campaign to get funding for
a NASA Halley probe.  This turned dismal, and they now (quixotically, I
think) hope to build and launch their own probe, paid for ($~100 million)
by contributions, sale of data, movie and TV rights, etc. etc.  They
have all sorts of gizmos for sale, like astronaut jackets, Fischer
space pens, and (I believe) the laser color prints of the Shuttle that
were discussed in net.space recently.  I should have suggested DV as a
worthier cause to buy the prints from when the topic was relevant.

Incidentally, NASA is not allowed to take donations for specific
purposes - only with no strings attached.  Horrible legal maneuvers
were performed (with NASA a happy participant) to make sure that
Viking Fund money was spent on Viking.

Re NASA help: NASA will lend movies, and even give presentations for
just about anyone who asks - they're a regular feature of many science
fiction conventions.  I've shown "Mars in 3-D", a stereoscopic movie
filmed on location by the Viking lander, for Delta Vee a few times.

Re feature length film: "A Space Movie" (that's the title) was shown
in NYC for several months last summer.  It's an excellent collection
of NASA footage; unfortunately I've forgotten who compiled or distributes
it.

--Paul