[meteorite-list] Some notes on the 35th LPC in Houston

From: Adam Hupe <adamhupe_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:51 2004
Message-ID: <02f201c40d4d$c36f2320$ad971018_at_attbi.com>

Dear List Members,

We just returned from Houston and saw how the other end of the meteoritic
spectrum operates at the 35th Lunar and Planetary conference.

Some well know collectors and dealers where present including Blain Reed,
Marvin and Kitty Killgore, David Gregory, Art from TCU and a few others I
temporarily forgot due to recovering from NASA's huge shindig last night.
David Gregory presented his new Martian meteorite which was a huge hit.
Congratulations David on recovering the 31st Martian meteorite and what a
beauty, a 500 gram plus oriented specimen!

As everybody probably knows, Mars seemed to be the overriding theme. I heard
just as many talks on NWA meteorites as I did Antarctic proving to me there
really isn't much of a bias in the scientific community regarding find
location. Most do not seem to care where a meteorite lands if good data can
be extracted and enough material is provided to science. Through the poster
sessions my thoughts were confirmed about NWA 482 being the freshest lunar
meteorite ever found. Its terrestrial age is the youngest and its state of
preservation is the best. I also found out that NWA 998 has the oldest
terrestrial age of any known Nakhlite dating ~6,000 years old. This is
remarkable considering how friable Nakhlites are. During a presentation NWA
1195 Mossbauer spectrum results where compared with those taken by the
Spirit rover on the now famous rock called "Adirondack". We provided
several planetary specimens preserved in our collection for Mossbauer
testing to obtain results that can be compared to the NASA rover missions
which were obtained the same way. Loads of interesting data are coming from
these specimens and prove that the preservation of larger pieces is very
important.

I enjoyed meeting several well known scientists that make meteorites more
interesting and add immense value. Without them meteorites would simply be
rocks from space with very little collectable interest. It was a real
eye-opener seeing all that brain power
present at a single location with over a 1,000 scientists present. The
shop-talk was excellent and I learned several interesting things making the
event very worthwhile.

I enjoyed the NASA can-do and the right-stuff attitude which shows no sign
of fading since the Apollo missions as it was present everywhere. With an
international presence it shows that the study of meteorites, planets and
space is a collaborative effort that is gaining momentum. Will write more
later when my brain clears from meteoritic information overload which only
an event like this can create.

All the best,

Adam Hupe
The Hupe Collection
IMCA 2185
Received on Thu 18 Mar 2004 08:01:47 PM PST