cocoscho

Hello Dr. Lauretta, I realize that there are many components to this project, but this question is in regards to the possible presence of the building blocks of life. I have read a few papers discussing the resistance of certain microbes to our most robust antimicrobial techniques (ex. UV light, saline solutions). How would microbiologists recognize pristine extraterrestrial proteins or nucleic acids? How will you keep your clean room clean? --Thank you!

Will researchers from other institutions write grant proposals to obtain some meteorite sample for analysis or is there already a designated group at the UA that will analyze the sample? --Thanks

But how much money is the actual operating budget? Doesn't the University of Arizona take out a huge chunk? Also, how do you allocate money to the different instrument teams because your group is working with other institutions. Do their budgets come out of your budget? Thanks, from a future P.I.

So if your budget is 800 million dollars then did your grant request ~$1,600,000,000 or did you ask for $800,000,000 and you actually get ~$400,000,000 because that does not seem like a lot of money when you consider all of the personnel listed on the OSIRIS-REx team for 10 years and also all of the technology and instrumentation.