[meteorite-list] Meteorite On Mars....Congrats NASA

[MARK BOSTICK]

Hello List,

I would like to publicly congratulate NASA on the finding of the iron 
meteorite.  I didn't want to say anything, before NASA did....that they had 
analyzed the rock....although I must admit I didn't read all the e-mails on 
the subject.

The following is from an e-mail I got from a NASA scientist that is pretty 
well known in the meteorite scientific field.  Such that he likely would 
prefer me not to post his name so I will not. (Notice that none of these 
people post to the list.)

"Isn't it neat that the MER Opportunity rover found an iron meteorite on 
Mars. One of the MER team members with the Mossbauer spectrometer instrument 
works in our research group. He showed me the data and the nickel-iron is a 
dead ringer for kamacite and they even know the nickel
concentration fairly accurately. Actually this is the second meteorite found 
on the mission. The first one was the rock that had identical chemical 
composition to EETA79001."

The Rovers have now operated more then 4 times longer then the original 
project.  My hat is off to the many people, in NASA, and the European space 
community that worked on the Rover project....or I guess I should say 
projects.

I am writing a letter of support to my congressmen and hope that the next 
time around, NASA does not get a short stick.

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
www.meteoritearticles.com