[meteorite-list] Omani meteorite museum

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/24/2005 12:12:14 P.M. Central Standard Time, Metorman46 at aol.com writes:

"The governments of these countries see an asset for tourist business  in 
meteorite museums."


Hello List,

I find that comment very interesting.  

The government of Oman is going to be in for a "reality check" if they think that they can create a meteorite museum to aid in their "tourist business."  Who in the world would want travel to and visit a meteorite museum in Oman as a tourist?

We can hardly get anyone to visit the few meteorite museums world wide, in some of the biggest tourist cities in the world.  I am not sure if they even vacuum the carpet in the meteorite section at the Chicago Field Museum but once a year due to the lack of foot traffic (I know they haven't spent any money to update the displays in about 90 years!).  

So I am curious, what is going to be the secret for success in Oman?  Jeeps, Oman doesn't even have any local irons or pallasites!  That would be one boring museum even if they were daring enough to put one together.  It definitely is NOT going to be a profit generating venture, that is for sure

One does not have to take Business 101 in college to figure out that government run operations are massive failures when it comes to being cost efficient.   I would venture to say that private operations could do MORE with 10% of the budget than any government bureaucracy could do. With meteorite recovery, those numbers are probably in line. 

So we are to expect that Oman is going to actually spend a few million bucks a year to hunt for meteorites...for what, their museum no one will ever visit?  Ha.  I really think they have a lot more important things to do with their money than that.  

I am curious, how much does Canada, Australia and Argentina spend each year to recover meteorites?

Not much. 

And whatever they do spend, what is their recovery cost per gram?  $50/g?  $100/g? It really is a joke.

The University of New Mexico didn't even send someone to Portales in 1998 as I understand.

If Oman thinks they are going to spend say $10,000,000 they will be lucky if they only lose 99% on their investment.  At least with crude oil and frankincense they can sell that on the open market.  They will never be able to sell meteorites on the open market.  (I wonder if the Ebay user name of "Sultan" is taken yet?)

So they are going to spend their own money to recover meteorites to give them away to researchers for free?  

Now that is a good business decision.  LOL.  At least meteorite hunters were traveling to Oman to spend their own cash.  Now Oman is going to lose that tourism revenue, not to mention all the money that John's new site will indeed cost them in future tourism losses.  I think John could end up costing them several million dollars in lost revenue if he promotes that site effectively.  Is there ANY chance they can make that up with a museum? 

The only people that will make out with any profit will be the researchers who get the extra grant money to study the free meteorites given to them on a silver platter to study from the Sultanate.  Humm, I wonder who put the bug in the ears of the Omanis that they were being "taken advantage of"?

This is how I see it:

The hunters will lose out.
The dealers will lose out.
The private collectors will lose out.
The public collections will lose out.
Science will lose out.
The government of Oman will lose out, big time.

The only group that will profit, will be a couple of researchers that will temporarily get more grant money and a bigger paycheck.

The ONLY way Oman will come out ahead will be if they require "official research hunters" to pay for a license to hunt for meteorites, and require the hunters to pay their own way to Oman.  Then require 100% of the meteorites found to stay IN Oman, and if any researcher world wide wants to study it, they must fly to Oman, set up (or rent) a laboratory in Muscat, and study the meteorites there.  That way, it might be possible for them to replace some of the lost revenues from closing their borders to private hunters spending cash.  Besides, all the extra grant money the researchers will be getting would more than cover the costs of flying to Oman to study the specimens, right?

Hey, they could make these visiting researchers buy a ticket to their meteorite museum while they are there, and then they might actually get all of 3 visitors per year!

We might be onto something here.

Or then of course, they could encourage entrepreneurism, that has worked great for the last 6 or 7 years.  But no, that would make too much sense.

Canada is at least smart enough to keep Canadian Meteorites from crossing their borders in an attempt to keep the research material within their institutions so the Canadian Scientists will get the grant money rather than researchers elsewhere in the world.   But Canada actually has some meteorite researchers!  Maybe Oman should get some of their own researchers, then they could get outside grant money to pay for both the recovery AND the study of the meteorites AND get to keep 100% of their "national treasures"?  I bet the foreign researchers talking to them in the near past failed to give the Omanis that little suggestion, didn't they?

But then we all know the truth.  And the truth is that there are FAR too many meteorites for researchers to study as it is.  There is probably a backlog of 50 years worth right now.  Why would a researcher waste time and money to go hunt for meteorites when they are up to their eyeballs in specimens as it is?  

Yea, one or two might spend a few weeks there but when they find out how cost inefficient it is to spend all that money and not get to keep anything for their efforts, they will pack up and quit since there is so much to get for free via the type samples acquired from classifications from the rest of the world.

So Oman is going to keep out private hunters, and in a year or two, the scientists will stop coming and the rocks left behind will be forgotten (or smuggled out to only get vague South East Arabia [SEAxxx] numbers.)

Now of course we have not covered the topic of under-the-table bribes here, which can easily redefine what would be "logical."  But not withstanding such bribes, it is really hard for me to understand how anyone can think that it is smart to not let the free market work there by letting hunters continue to hunt.

But then again, I am not getting a big government paycheck each week either.  I actually have to earn my living.  So all this might be a little hard for me to understand.

Steve Arnold
Arkansas