[meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and meteoriterecovery)

From: Michael Gilmer <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:08:45 -0400
Message-ID: <BANLkTi=1nb3JJzN4FXJEUfNyp7bbDNcP5g_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi List,

Well, my lunar meteorite moon base idea has been roundly rejected by a
host of all-stars from the world of meteorites and science. Everyone
from Dr. Korotev to Sterling Webb have shot down my pipe dream with
great logic that I cannot refute. I concede and close my comic book
now! ;)

Ok, so the Lunar surface is not densely littered, or even
lightly-peppered with meteorites - if they could be called
"meteorites" at all.

Humor me one last time, let's continue to indulge the fantasy just a
bit more before we stop flogging this dead equine...

The rate of lunar impacts can be a bit more frequent than we thought,
but with no atmospheric braking, the meteoroids are coming in at
hypervelocity and they annihilate themselves on impact, or leave
behind only shattered and shocked tiny remnants that are quickly
absorbed into the character of the lunar surface.

So, what I am curious about is Mars. Mars obviously has much more of
an atmosphere than the Moon, but the air is still quite tenuous on
Mars, and it can't possibly provide a fraction of the braking action
that Earth's thick blanket does. So, shouldn't the Martian surface be
fairly devoid of meteorites as well? Wouldn't we put Mars somewhere
between Earth and the Moon when it comes to the number of meteorites
that survive the trip to the surface?

We all know about the Meridiani Planum meteorite on Mars, so how lucky
did Opportunity get? Did Opportunity literally get the lucky
opportunity of a lifetime? Or, might there be more meteorites waiting
to be found, especially if Mars perhaps had a thicker atmosphere in
the past and/or if geological forces concentrated meteorites in "sweet
spots" on the Martian surface? (ala Antarctica)

There is no real "need" to go retrieve meteorites from the surfaces of
other worlds. But, when the day comes, far from now (hopefully
sooner), when man has colonies or permanent bases on other worlds, we
will occasionally run across meteorites on other worlds as we carry
out our other routine works. Surface work and mining will turn up the
odd specimen from time to time. On the Moon, the surface has been
geologically dead (basically) for a long long time. So, with no
mechanical weathering and no chemical weathering, anything that
survived the rifle-shot fall to the surface in the last billion (2?)
years is still extant and waiting to be found....right?

The $64 question is - How many such "meteorites" (lunarites?) are
there waiting to be found now?

The expert qualified consensus says - Not very many, if any at all.

Mars had a more complex history atmospherically and geologically than
the Moon, so I assume the formulas of meteorite frequency would differ
as such?

Best regards,

MikeG

PS - WANTED : an etched part-slice of Meridiani Planum, roughly
palm-sized, 2-3mm thick. Will trade gold-pressed latinum. Contact me
off-list with offers. :)

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Meteorites & Amber (Michael Gilmer)
Website - http://www.galactic-stone.com
Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/42h79my
News Feed - http://www.galactic-stone.com/rss/126516
Twitter - http://twitter.com/galacticstone
EOM - http://www.encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com/collection.aspx?id=1564
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 6/28/11, Richard Kowalski <damoclid at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
> To: etmeteorites at hotmail.com; Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 2:35 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and
> meteoriterecovery)
>
>
>
> You want to go the the nearer Lagrangian Points in plain space between the
> Earth and Moon. That is where the most fascinating stuff is to be found,
> written in unaltered stone the genesis of the Moon and plenty more debris to
> keep scientists and collectors busy and overworked for the nex 10,000 years!
>
>
>
>
> There are no known Earth Trojans.
>
> --
> Richard Kowalski
> Full Moon Photography
> IMCA #1081
> ______________________________________________
> Visit the Archives at
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>

Received on Tue 28 Jun 2011 07:08:45 PM PDT