[meteorite-list] Edward Anders on going to the Moon: meteorites, asteroids & politics bonus (was ... 'the poor man's space probe')

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:30:45 -0400
Message-ID: <8CE1B8D20A6192D-4C8-1B8D9_at_webmail-d074.sysops.aol.com>

Hi List -- While the chemists are having a moment in the Sun-

More on Edward Anders, a colorful personality with incredible
foresight, who swam with the greats at Chicago during their
unprecedeted heyday (His colleague Harold Urey 'invented' the term
"cosmochemistry" and you all know about amino acids and their possible
relationship to carbonaceous chondrites). Taken in context in 1972,
very impressive, it could be our discussion today (and he better have a
good pair of boxing gloves) ;-)


Ref: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist (December, 1972) pp. 32-38.

"The first thing we saw on in the Apollo 11 samples was that the soil
was enriched in about a dozen "meteoritic" elements relative to the
rocks. The amount corresponded to an admixture of about 1.5 to 2.0 per
cent meteoritic material. Because the elements ocurred in essentially
solar proportions we could tell that this material was very primitive,
similar to carbonaceous chondrites. And this is still true four
missions later..."

""I have always been rather critical of the manned space program, at
first because I considered it an extravaganza and later because it
undercut and weakened our unmanned lunar and planetary programs...But
now that the money has been spent...Let us face it, manned Lunar
exploration is probably a one-time adventure for mankind. After the
Apollo program ends, I think it will take many decades or centuries
before mankind attempts another manned lunar program. There is a lot
of fundamental information hidden in the lunar rocks, and as with the
meteorites, it will take a sustained effort over centuries to extract
all this information. So we are really gathering samples for future
generations and the cost of the lunar missions has to be judged from
this point of view. Therefore it is an opportunity to carry out these
missions while we still have trained astronauts, technicians, and
engineers, why not? The ost is something like 50 cents for every man,
woman and child in the country..."

I opposed asteroid missions because asteroids are probably the only
celestial bodies [sic.] from which samples are delivered free of charge
to our door step. It would be quite embarrassing if an expensive
mission were launched to an asteroid and brought back samples a few
years later esentially identical to meteorites that have been sitting
on museum shelves for many years. We would have spent all this money
to get material that is already on hand.

I would concede one point, namely, that we probably get meteorites only
 from a small fraction of the asteroid population, maybe 10 percent,
maybe less. More than 90 per cent of the asteroids do not communicarte
with us. Among those are some oddballs which are quite different from
the rest. If future work shows that some of these asteroids are keys
to the mysteries of the solar system, then one can make a case for a
mission to such an asteroid.

Kindest wishes
Doug
PS Next time we go - and we will - it will be with less brawn but at
least as much brains! Got to love the last quote in light of the DAWN
mission at Vesta today.


-----Original Message-----
From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: karmaka at email.de; Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Thu, Jul 28, 2011 5:39 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Who invented the phrase 'the poor man's
space probe'?


... nothing but a 'poor man's space probe' launched unceremoniously
somewhere in the asteroidal belt sometime during the last two billion
years [sic.] ...?
?
1960 - Dr. Edward Anders?
Univ. of Chicago?
?
... unless Nininger said something similar earlier!?
?
Best wishes?
Doug?
?
-----Original Message-----?
From: karmaka <karmaka at email.de>?
To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com?
Sent: Thu, Jul 28, 2011 4:37 pm?
Subject: [meteorite-list] Who invented the phrase 'the poor man's space
probe'??
?
Dear list members,?
?
Does anyone know who was the first who called a meteorite 'the poor
man's space?
probe"??
?
Best regards?
?
Martin?
?
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Received on Thu 28 Jul 2011 06:30:45 PM PDT