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RE: Search meteorites on Mars

Gene Marlin wrote:
>>I have been thinking about meteorites on Mars recently. For one, a sample
>>return mission would probably leave a meteorite behind in favor of a Mars
>>rock! 

Ron Baalke replied:
>Why do you say that?  The goal would be to try to collect as many different
>type of rocks as possible.

and I reply:
This from a man whose personal collection is replete with Mars meteorites
and comparatively devoid of ordinary chondrites. ;-) 
I'm sorry, Ron, but if I were the first geologist on Mars, and if getting
off the surface and back to Earth limited me in what I could take back, I'll
be tossing out the port hole the H5 and keeping the Martian sedimentary
rock!!  First, I'd make sure there was no fusion crust on that sedimentary
rock specimen (remember Stuart's nightmare about bringing back an Earth
meteorite??) - - but wait, just how much fusion crust will develope during a
short flight through Mars tenuous atmosphere???    ~8(
Bob V.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Baalke [mailto:Ronald.C.Baalke@jpl.nasa.gov]
Sent: Monday, March 22, 1999 3:54 PM
To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: Search meteorites on Mars



>I have been thinking about meteorites on Mars recently. For one, a sample
>return mission would probably leave a meteorite behind in favor of a Mars
>rock! 

Why do you say that?  The goal would be to try to collect as many different
type of rocks as possible.

>Second, that icky red dust
>would always be getting all over your meteorite hunting cane.

True, particularly if a dust storm passes through.

>One more thing I have wondered: why not have a Discovery-class Mars lander
>outfitted with a camera pointing up?During the day, you have that camera as
>a part of the meteorology package, doing cloud triangulation, etc. At
night,
>it gets some long-exposure images for meteor counts and triangulation, plus
>some good PR.

Why not submit a proposal? Anybody can submit a Discovery proposal.

>Does Mars have its own unique meteor showers. I bet! But have instruments
>ever measured them?

Mars probably does have meteor showers, but none has been detected yet.

Ron Baalke

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