[meteorite-list] That's it! I'm heading for Mars.

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:46:06 -0500
Message-ID: <hkdnd5h7tnej6apparjose8obkvp0jhvh6_at_4ax.com>

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/18/opportunity-discovers-still-another-meteorite-findit-on-google-mar/

Opportunity must be driving down Meteorite Alley on Mars. The rover has come
across still another meteorite, the third space rock it has found the past few
months, and fourth overall since 2005. This one is called Mackinac, which
continues the "island" theme by which the science team has dubbed the
meteorites. Block Island was found in July 2009, and Opportunity came upon
Shelter Island the end of September (around sol 2020 for the rover). Mackinac
was found on sol 2034 (Oct 13), and it looks very similar in composition to the
two earlier meteorites. Opportunity analyzed the meteorites and found they were
made of iron and nickel. The image above was color calibrated by Stu Atkinson,
who hangs out at UnmannedSpaceflight.com. You can find all the raw images
Opportunity has sent back to Earth here, and raw images from Spirit here.

You can also follow Opportunity's travels through Meridiani Planum on its way to
Endeavour Crater at one of Stu's blogs, Road to Endeavour. But ? and this is
very fun ? you can also follow Oppy on Google Mars, and see where it has found
the meteorites. Tesheiner on UMSF regularly updates a route map, pinpointing the
spots where the rover stops. Just go to Google Mars (download Google Earth and
Mars here if you don't have it yet), open up Google Mars, then click on this
link, download and open, and you'll be transported to Opportunity's location on
Mars. Extreme, extreme cool.

Now, you'll notice that region of Google Mars doesn't have high-resolution
imagery yet. They're working on it. In the meantime, though, if you want to see
a great mosaic of the terrain that Opportunity is traveling through, check out
this image below created by Ken Kremer, also of UMSF. This is from Sol 2010
showing Nereus Crater and dunes on the Road to Endeavour, where Oppy was just
prior to discovering Shelter Island. Ken created this mosaic from raw images
from the Cornell Pancam raw images, stitching multiple images together and
calibrating the color.
Received on Sun 18 Oct 2009 08:46:06 PM PDT