[meteorite-list] Pupils Make 2nd Trip To Mars Project (Mars Student Imaging Project)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:06:16 2004
Message-ID: <200211170320.TAA14954_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/111602/new_20021116007.shtml

Pupils make 2nd trip to Mars project
By Rebecca Loda
Pantagraph (Illinois)
November 16, 2002

STANFORD -- Olympia students are heading back to Mars.

Eleven students from the district's Alpha Tau gifted program
leave today for their second visit to Arizona State University in
Tempe, returning Nov. 23. The group was the first in the nation to
participate in the Mars Student Imaging Project when they visited
the campus in March.

Students conducted research using an image of a crater taken by
the Odyssey thermal-imaging system. On its second trip, the
group will use an infrared image, which will help identify the
composition of minerals in the area around the crater, said
Danvers Elementary School Principal Fred Shears.

Before going to the ASU lab, the group will travel to northern
Arizona to view the Meteor Crater, which is 550 feet deep. The
privately owned crater was deemed a national landmark in 1968.

Shears estimates the Arizona crater at two kilometers wide; the
Mars crater the students are studying is about 12 kilometers
wide.

"We're hoping that really hits them on just how big the crater on
Mars is," he said. "We're hoping to give them a much better
understanding of the geological impact."

Shears, who called the visit a critical part of the students'
research, said the crater in Arizona would have formed in a similar
fashion to the Mars crater. They will look at the "ejecta blanket"
in Arizona. Ejecta is matter blown out when a meteor hits.

The group also will visit the Grand Canyon to study the layering of
the rocks.

This visit to ASU will be a bit more low-key than the first, when
students were featured at a press conference and in a PBS
broadcast.

"We're hoping we can really spend some good quality time in the
lab," said Shears.

On the Net: The Mars Student Imaging Project: http://msip.asu.edu

Meteor Crater: http://www.meteorcrater.com
Received on Sat 16 Nov 2002 10:20:02 PM PST