[meteorite-list] A Great Day!

From: Adam Hupe <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Mar 3 19:39:57 2006
Message-ID: <00d601c63f24$4e6bd4a0$6401a8c0_at_c1720188a>

Dear List Members,

For those who are interested, I want to share what a great day I had at the
University of Washington, yesterday.

It was supposed to be business as usual when I visited the University of
Washington yesterday but things turned out much better than I could have
ever hoped. Instead of a sample drop and a meeting with Dr. Robert Winglee,
the Earth and Space Sciences' Chair, I was also treated to what would turn
out to be an excellent experience. I guess timing is everything as Robert
generously invited Zann and I to attend a talk by Steve Squyres of Mars
rover fame and dinner afterwards.

I am getting a little ahead of myself. After a productive meeting with
Robert, we toured the new facilities at Johnson Hall. They did a fantastic
job of remodeling the place. We then made our way to the new location of
the Microprobe lab where Zann and I met up with Drs. Scott Kuehner and Tony
Irving. They were involved with some more work on NWA 2999, which is really
turning out to be a fantastic stone. After exchanging some samples with
Tony, he called Dr. Don Brownlee, Principal Investigator of the Stardust
mission and asked if we could drop by. I was, once again, impressed by
Don's generosity by giving us a "Yes, by all means stop by" answer even
though he was extremely busy studying the comet samples.

After running out of breath, running across the campus, we finally reached
the Stardust laboratory. I must confess that it was my hope to see the
happenings in this lab before the day even started. I brought along a few
things for show-and-tell that I thought Don would appreciate as kind of a
bribe to see the cometary particles. Don was kind enough to give us a tour
of the facilities and show us the real material up close and in a
microscope. What I saw will stick with me the rest of my life, what a
fantastic opportunity!

Here are some images of the Stardust lab:

A forbidding sign to the clean room:
http://themeteoritesite.com/StardustLogo.jpg

Don and I outside the treasure vault:
http://themeteoritesite.com/AdamDonStardustLab.jpg

Dr. Brownlee, as enthusiastic as ever, showing the cometary particles to our
group:
http://themeteoritesite.com/GroupStardustGroup.jpg

Some show-and-tell items that I brought to show Don but were unnecessary to
gain access to the lab:

A Nininger 5-ray star:
http://themeteoritesite.com/FiveStar.jpg
A Nininger printing press plate entitled "Stardust Star"
http://themeteoritesite.com/StardustStarPlate.jpg

A parting gift from Don:
http://themeteoritesite.com/StardustPen.jpg
http://themeteoritesite.com/StardustPenCloseUp.jpg

We then ran with minutes to spare to Steve's talk on the Martian rovers. I
attended the rover talks in Houston two years ago so it was great to hear an
unpublished update. My brain was started to go into overload, feasting on
all of the new information and I was sorry the talk only lasted one hour.
All as I can say right now is "standby, too many cool things to share right
now."

After the talk, we regrouped at an excellent seafood restaurant called
Pontis. Although I had met Steve Squyres briefly in Houston, it was great
to have the time to listen and engage in some shop talk at dinner. I was
able to ask questions like, "What was the level of weathering on the outside
of the iron meteorite that was found by one of the rovers?" I was always
curious how a meteorite would be affected the Martian atmosphere. The answer
was quite simple. The meteorite was continually sand-blasted down to bare
metal. I guess sandblasting is a type of weathering so I should be thinking
Martian when asking such questions. The excellent conversations wound day
after a few hours and then it was time to go.

>From left to right; Alisan, Dr. Tony Irving, Zann, Dr. Robert Winglee, Dr.
Steve Squyres, Dr. Mike Brown enjoying conversation after dinner, talk about
a lot of brain-power in one place!
http://themeteoritesite.com/GroupDinner2.jpg

Anyway, I hated to see the night end. It is not every day that a person is
able to talk to two principal investigators of two successful NASA missions
in a single afternoon. I wish to thank all who helped me to have an
unexpected and outstanding day that I can reflect on for some time.

Take Care,

------------------------------------
Adam Hupe
The Hupe Collection
Team LunarRock
IMCA 2185
raremeteorites_at_comcast.net


Sorry if there are any errors, no time to proof.
Received on Fri 03 Mar 2006 07:40:58 PM PST