What would scientific organizations realistically pay for stellar samples per kilogram?

Question

I'm writing a sci fi story, and ran into a mental problem. Very short version, the Canadian Space Agency offered $500 per kilogram of samples, chosen by CSA's own scientists, taken from every planet and major body (like moons and interesting asteroids), for study. The cargo capacity of the ship is large, so I'm figuring 6K kilos of samples, or 3 million dollars.

$500 is a guess from nowhere, though. I'm thinking it'd probably be higher, really, considering satellites and ships often cost well into the billions. And the scenario takes place in today's timeframe (main character gets a ship out of nowhere, in short)

What would your estimates be for that sort of thing? Or, would you think they'd offer per liter, or just a pre-agreed lump sum for the whole batch?

*is disheartened by lack of answers*

What about guesses? What would you guess to be maybe a good number?

Or even... what figure in a sci fi book would strike you as reasonable, so you don't really pay it much attention?

W00t, yay an answer! I'm not entirely sure how to make that work out in my book, but hmm, I'll chew on the matter a bit. Thankies! **hopes for other nice people to give an idea, too**

Answer 1

base it on this, if the space agency is trying to profit then factor research, cost of launch, about 2,000 US dollars per pound(Includingfuel) the length of the mission and the capacity of the cargo hold. Once you get a net cost figure how much per pund you would need to sell to turn a signifigant profit. That is probably what they would base the price on.

Answer 2

first, the samples cannot be TOO big or the ship won't be able to get off the body.... some places a ship couldn't land, like the gas planets, Venus and maybe even Mercury... the moons and asteroids maybe.... I'm sure the pilot could ask any price he wanted once he came back with PROOF that the sample did, in fact, come from where he says it did.... and from some 'likely to be lived on someday' places, there might even be a bidding war for the sample.... like Titan or one of the other possibility moons of the giant planets...

Answer 3

i would say that even the tinyest amount would cost billions of dollars in the real world