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Mars Meteorites

Hi All,

Following my recent - very warm! - welcome to the List, and a long day  at
work thinking about this, I thought I'd share my thoughts - and  invite your
comments - on martian meteorites. No, not meteorites from  Mars... meteorites
*on* Mars...

Okay, this is what got me started. Before heading out for work at an  ungodly
hour this morning, I was flicking through a recent SKY &  TELESCOPE, and
opened up the wonderful Pathfinder panoramic landscape  they produced. Amazing
picture, breathtaking... And as I looked at it,  picking out Yogi and the
other named rocks, I found myself thinking  "There MUST be some meteorites
there... right there on that flood  plain..!" And there have to be, right? I
mean, think about it. Mars  has a thinner atmosphere than Earth's, so many
more meteoroids will  make it to the surface intact, and although the iron
rich older  meteorites will have suffered in the oxidising climate there will
be  plenty of younger irons, and some pretty big stones there too I'd  bet...

(Of course, this isn't a new idea, I'm not claiming it is. Anyone  who's read
RED MARS will recall the stunning passage in that book  where some of the
settlers stumble across a plain littered with irons.  If you haven't read it,
take a look.)

But I digress. Anyway, I went upstairs, booted up my PC and, without  really
expecting to see anything, started zooming in on some stored  Pathfinder
images, trying to pick out anything which looked vaguely  un-martian. The way
I figured it - and someone put me right here if  I'm adding 2 and 2 to get 10!
- meteorites on Mars will have a  thinner, maybe lighter fusion crust because
they won't spend as much  time heating up in the atmosphere, but they would
still have *some* so  should be visible against the tans and cinnamons of the
martian  landscape... and with less atmosphere to plough through wouldn't at
least some be found in shallow craters, where they fell in dust dunes  or dry
lake beds?

Of course, I didn't find anything (Yeah, like the guys at JPL wouldn't  have
spotted something there before me!!) but I went to work with a  head full of
ideas and questions, and arrived home again with a few  thoughts and fanciful
scenarios which I'd like to share with you, if  only to make you smile at the
naivete and romanticism of a newbie...  :-)

Firstly, I'm wondering just what wonders await us on Mars. There must  be some
major strewn fields there just waiting to be found and  explored. With Mars'
proximity to the asteroid belt - and having those  two dinky, battered little
moons in orbit around it - surely there's  the potential there for the
recovery of a quite frightening number of  meteorites..? 

List members who hate science fiction will scoff at these next ponts,  but
think about it... perhaps in the future Mars will be a meteorite  hunter's
heaven. Maybe, once the colonisation has settled into its  stride, and there's
a permanent manned presence there, there'll be a  huge demand for meteorites
found on Mars. Eager to top up their wages,  the first settlers, feeding a
rejuvenated market on Earth, may well  roam across the surface of their new
planet filling bags with irons  and stones, like families picking strawberries
on a farm on a sunny  weekend. 

Unchecked they could strip Mars of its meteorites, sending them the  same way
that the buffalo went in the early days of the settlement of  America, so
perhaps some kind of "Mars Heritage" organisation will  have to ban their
collection and exportation, protecting them in the  same way we - try to -
protect elephant tusks and the like? But I'm  sure some will still risk it,
I'm sure, and they'll feed the black  market in martian meteorites by
smuggling undeclared specimens back to  collectors on Earth...

Here's another vision of the future if you'll humour me. If we've  found
pieces of Mars here, on Earth, then it's pretty likely we'll  find peaces of
Earth there, on Mars. (The KT event must have blasted  an impressive amount of
rock into space; surely some of it reached  Mars..?) Can you imagine the
excitement the discovery of the first  Terran meteorite on Mars will cause?
(Apart from the downside - maybe  it brought micro-organisms with it from
Earth, contaminating Mars in  the process..?) That rock will surely end up in
a Museum, illuminated  inside a tall display case, alongside the recovered
Sojourner rover  and Viking Landers, for the settlers to look at and remember
their  roots...

Of course, if there's one piece of terrestrial rock on Mars there'll  probably
be more, many more, and they'll no doubt become very popular  with the
settlers. Maybe, just as we fashion jewellery from pieces of  Gibeon, the
settlers will turn pieces of terrestrial meteorites into  rings, brooches and
pendants. Maybe they'll be more than just simple  items of jewellery though?
Maybe they'll play a role in the inevitable  political future of Mars? 

Imagine it's 2198, and - repeating millennia of terrestrial history -  there's
a flourishing independance movement on Mars. Now imagine you  disagree with
it. What better way to display your loyalty to Earth  than to *wear* a piece
of the Home Planet on your finger or breast? Go  ahead, laugh, but don't we
wear badges now to display our national  patriotism? Why not planetary
patriotism?

Looking even further ahead - I asked you to humour me! - could there  come a
day when a martian government decides it wants the lost pieces  of its planet
handing back? This isn't as ridiculous as it sounds; you  have all heard, I'm
sure, of countries demanding the return of works  of art stolen from them
during a past war by an invading or occupying  army? Here in the UK our London
museums are stuffed full to bursting  of statues from Rome, mummies and golden
death masks from Egypt and  sculptures from ancient Greece. The Greeks have
been demanding the  return of the so-called "Elgin Marbles" for years. Is it
so ridiculous  to imagine a time when a martian government - or an
electioneering  extremist, seeking votes - demands the return of all the
pieces of  Zagami, Nakhla and others from us? 

I know a lot of List members will be shaking their heads in disbelief  or
disapproval at my ideas, but that's okay. What's important is that  we realise
meteorites aren't unique to Earth. They're Out There,  waiting to be found on
other worlds, on the ash-grey floors of lunar  craters, on the dried-blood
flood plains of Mars and at its ice caps  too. At the moment we can only
collect specimens in our own back yard,  but one day we'll be able to go
further, and then I know - I just  know! - we'll find some amazing, amazing
things...

Okay, I've tossed a stone into the pond, I'll sit back and await the  ripples
with interest, but one final thought: one day they'll discover a piece  of
Earth on Mars. Hmmm. In light of recent "discussions" just imagine  the
frantic bidding there'll be here on the List when *that*  happens... :-)))

Stuart Atkinson
Cumbria, UK.