Re: dino bones in space - was it a PR thing?

[Dan Chure <danchure@easilink.com>]

You raise a very good point.  What would the scientific community be 
saying about this if the specimens had been sent into space by a private 
or commercial collector / dealer?  If the specimens are such importance 
that they must remain in the public trust, why are they being shot into 
space for no valid reason?  Or are some of these "expendable"?  If the 
answer to the latter question is yes, then the argument about specimens 
needing to remain in the public trust for future generations seems 
dubious (especially in the case of the Coelophysis skull).  Was the risk 
worth the  "benefit"?

Dan

B tH wrote:
> " The first dinosaur in space was Maiasaura peeblesorum  (a duck-billed 
> dinosaur). A piece of bone from a baby Maiasaura and a Maiasaura eggshell were taken 
> into space by astronaut Loren Acton on an 8-day NASA mission (Spacelab 2) in 1985. 
> The historic Maiasaura fossils now reside at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, 
> Montana, USA. Maiasaura is the official state dinosaur of Montana (since 1985).
>
> The second dinosaur in space was Coelophysis (a meat-eater). A Coelophysis skull was 
> brought into space on the space shuttle Endeavor on January 22, 1998. It traveled to 
> the space station Mir.  "
>
>
> What was the point of that exercise?
> I'm not objecting just a little perplexed.
>
>
>
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