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re. meteorites on Mars

I find the current discussion about the discovery of meteorites on  Mars truly
fascinating, it's a subject I've talked about before - in  fact I think it was
one of my rambling postings which initiated an  earlier "Mars Meteorite"
thread! - and personally I'm *very* impatient  for the day when we have a
chance to look for terrestrial meteorites  on Mars; I'm almost as jealous of
the person who will find the first  piece of the Yucatan Peninsula lying on
the dusty desert floor as I am  of the person who will be the first to set
foot on the Red Planet!  It's a bit unfair, I know, but every time I walk past
a school yard or  see a group of kids playing I can't help feeling a tinge of
resentment  that when they grow up they'll have the chance to go there and
bound  across that ruddy landscape, beaming stunning pictures back to the old
folks like me, stranded at the other end of the Solar System... :-(

I'm very curious about just what terran meteorites will look like on  Mars -
will they have a thick, dark fusion crust, glassy like Nakhla,  or will their
crust be thinner and more brittle? - and I'm also very  curious about how many
meteor showers future martian settlers will be  able to enjoy in the unspoiled
starry skies above their shelters (does  anyone know if their dates, radiants
and intensity have been  calculated at all? I'd appreciate any info, it would
make my novel  much more accurate!) - but to be honest I'm just as curious
about the  effect the discovery of a piece of Earth will have on both
immigrant  and native martians, and what value, if any, they will place on it.

 We - rightly, I feel - value martian meteorites very highly. They are
magical, literally other-worldly, and although I was lucky enough to  see with
my own, startled eyes (and hold the metal disc carrying) a  piece of ALH84001
a couple of years ago, during a visit to London  (thanks again Monica!) and
I've held a couple of respectable-sized  pieces of Mars rock in my shaking
hands, I still feel tingles run up  my spine every time I pick up the one inch
square sample box which  holds my $20 worth of Zagami dust! I look at those
tiny pieces of grey  grit and hear a stunned voice inside my head saying
"That's from  Mars... from Mars!!"

 And I feel that immigrant and native martians will treasure  terrestrial
meteorites just as highly. Immigrants will value them  because they'll be a
physical link with their Homeworld, little pieces  of stone from the planet
which gave birth to them and their species  long ago. They'll be able to see
Earth shining and flashing in their  sky and, at the same time, hold in their
hand a piece of that same,  distant world, and I think they'll feel an ache
inside. They'll  treasure their terrestrials very, very highly. They'll
display them  with pride and affection in their museums and settlements;
they'll  turn smaller pieces into jewelry and wear them as symbols of their
links with Earth. 

 As for the native martians, they'll look upon terrestrial meteorites  as
curiosities, slivers and fragments of a world as distant from and  as alien to
them as Mars is to us today. Young martians will be given  them in class at
school and, weighing them in their hands, will ask  the teacher if they
*really* came from Earth, if they were *really*  blasted out of Earth in an
impact which wiped out (or contributed to  the wiping out) of dinosaurs... 

 But back-pedalling just a little, what significance will the discovery  of
the first terrestrial meteorite by martian explorers have back  home, here on
Earth? If the (premature?) announcement of the discovery  of life within the
nooks and crannies of ALH84001 prompted almost  worldwide hysteria, how much
excitement will video pictures of a  spacesuited astronaut holding up a piece
of exiled, blackened Earth  rock generate? Will it bring home to us just how
closely the worlds of  the Solar System are really linked, or will it be
viewed as an amazing  cosmic coincidence? Perhaps a meteorite from Earth will
be cursed by  scientiets - biologists won't be pleased if, weeks or months or
even  years after discovering what they thought was native martian life,  they
learn terrestrial bacteria hitched a ride to Mars on a chunk of  rock, cos
that might mean that the life isn't "native" after all...

 But all those problems lie in the far future. For now I content - and
frustrate! - myself with the knowledge that right now, at this very  moment,
as I'm typing these words, there are countless meteorites  waiting for us on
the red plains of Mars. Many will be from bodies in  the asteroid belt - a
rich and very close source of debris, of course - and some will have come from
other planets such as Mercury and  Venus. There are probably vast strewn
fields of debris from Phobos and  Deimos - martian tektites? - there too,
waiting to be picked clean by  a 21st century field party. 

 And there are pieces of Earth there too,  being covered and uncovered by the
shifting sands, awaiting recovery.  There are rocks on Mars which were
probably the last things T-Rex's  and brontos saw before their lungs caught
fire and they died in the  glow of the greatest fireball ever to rise above
this planet.. think  about that the next time you look up at Mars, as it nears
opposition  and blazes brightly in our skies. 

 If we were to discover terrestrial meteorites on Mars, in person on  future
manned missions, or with robot probes and buggies, it would be  a magnificent
achievement, and provide us with a potential scientific  bonanza too. So the
only "nightmares" I'll be having are about launch  failures and budget cut-
backs... :-)

Stu	

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