[meteorite-list] Moon Rock Goes To Everest And Flies On Space Shuttle

From: Phil Whitmer <prairiecactus_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:27:10 -0400
Message-ID: <6446CE15C6A7488D9404FD93DC13CC67_at_whitmerjbqtim1>

Greetings, my fellow Americans, international Listerians, and lurkers:

Last month, the Michiana Astronomical Society got up close and personal to
the moon rock brought back to Earth by Neil Armstrong, then taken to the
top of Mt. Everest by astronaut Scott Parazynski. It was then flown on the
space shuttle Endeavor to the space station, where it sat in the window
before being returned to terra firma. It was shown by Dr. Carlton Allen,
NASA Curator for Extraterrestrial Materials at the Johnson Space Center. I
also got to fondle my first Antarctica meteorite, a black crusted OC with
white spots on the crust. I didn't really notice this feature until I
looked at the close up photo. The good Dr. also brought along an interesting
group of geological samples from the moon's surface. He said we'll probably
be returning to the moon soon, but he didn't think we'd be going to Mars
anytime soon, simply because it's so darn far away. He mentioned that all
mountains on the moon are formed by meteorite impacts, pretty obvious I
guess, but it never occurred to me. After his talk, someone asked if all the
NASA moon rocks are accounted for and he told the story of how Tricky Dick
gave away a bunch of moon rocks, most of which have gone missing. Like an
idiot, I said: "So you got back all the rocks stolen by the intern kids
then?" He said: "Oh, you had to bring that up! That was the worst day of my
life!" "Yes, we got them back and the ringleader is doing 8 years of hard
time." When someone asked the value of the moon rock, he said: "It's worth
about 8 months a gram." That got a good laugh. I was very impressed that he
would travel all the way to Indiana to give a presentation to our small
group. (It must have been on the way to somewhere more important.)


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http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z126/tboswell/Misc/x3.jpg

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http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z126/tboswell/Misc/x3c.jpg



Phil Whitmer
Received on Fri 11 Jun 2010 10:27:10 PM PDT