[meteorite-list] A Great Day!

From: Greg Hupe <gmhupe_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Mar 8 10:07:33 2006
Message-ID: <041401c642c2$047bf900$96b62041_at_Gregor>

Hello Adam and List,

Not that I really need to reply to both you and the list but thought I would
share my envy of not being able to join the day with you and all involved. I
remember three years ago or so when we had dinner with Dr. Don Brownlee and
others at the Asteroid Cafe in Seattle and listened to the details of the
Stardust Mission at that time. I also was fortunate to briefly meet Dr.
Steve Squyres in Houston two years ago at the Lunar and Planetary
Conference. I can only imagine the "atmosphere" of the day, too cool. Great
pictures also. Did Don give you an extra Stardust pen to send to me ;-)

I would have flown over to enjoy the day but I was in Morocco, yet again,
last week. I just returned late last night, more on that later after getting
caught up on things.

Best regards,
Greg

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Hupe" <raremeteorites_at_comcast.net>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 7:40 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] A Great Day!


> 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.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Wed 08 Mar 2006 10:07:28 AM PST