[meteorite-list] Edward Anders on going to the Moon: meteorites, asteroids & politics bonus (was ... 'the poor man's space probe')

[MexicoDoug]

Hi List -- While the chemists are having a moment in the Sun-

More on Edward Anders, a colorful personality with incredible 
foresight, who swam with the greats at Chicago during their 
unprecedeted heyday (His colleague Harold Urey 'invented' the term 
"cosmochemistry" and you all know about amino acids and their possible 
relationship to carbonaceous chondrites).  Taken in context in 1972, 
very impressive, it could be our discussion today (and he better have a 
good pair of boxing gloves) ;-)


Ref: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist (December, 1972) pp. 32-38.

"The first thing we saw on in the Apollo 11 samples was that the soil 
was enriched in about a dozen "meteoritic" elements relative to the 
rocks.  The amount corresponded to an admixture of about 1.5 to 2.0 per 
cent meteoritic material.  Because the elements ocurred in essentially 
solar proportions we could tell that this material was very primitive, 
similar to carbonaceous chondrites.  And this is still true four 
missions later..."

""I have always been rather critical of the manned space program, at 
first because I considered it an extravaganza and later because it 
undercut and weakened our unmanned lunar and planetary programs...But 
now that the money has been spent...Let us face it, manned Lunar 
exploration is probably a one-time adventure for mankind.  After the 
Apollo program ends, I think it will take many decades or centuries 
before mankind attempts another manned lunar program.  There is a lot 
of fundamental information hidden in the lunar rocks, and as with the 
meteorites, it will take a sustained effort over centuries to extract 
all this information.  So we are really gathering samples for future 
generations and the cost of the lunar missions has to be judged from 
this point of view.  Therefore it is an opportunity to carry out these 
missions while we still have trained astronauts, technicians, and 
engineers, why not?  The ost is something like 50 cents  for every man, 
woman and child in the country..."

I opposed asteroid missions because asteroids are probably the only 
celestial bodies [sic.] from which samples are delivered free of charge 
to our door step.  It would be quite embarrassing if an expensive 
mission were launched to an asteroid and brought back samples a few 
years later esentially identical to meteorites that have been sitting 
on museum shelves for many years.  We would have spent all this money 
to get material that is already on hand.

I would concede one point, namely, that we probably get meteorites only 
 from a small fraction of the asteroid population, maybe 10 percent, 
maybe less.  More than 90 per cent of the asteroids do not communicarte 
with us.  Among those are some oddballs which are quite different from 
the rest.  If future work shows that some of these asteroids are keys 
to the mysteries of the solar system, then one can make a case for a 
mission to such an asteroid.

Kindest wishes
Doug
PS Next time we go - and we will - it will be with less brawn but at 
least as much brains!  Got to love the last quote in light of the DAWN 
mission at Vesta today.


-----Original Message-----
From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: karmaka at email.de; Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Thu, Jul 28, 2011 5:39 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Who invented the phrase 'the poor man's 
space probe'?


... nothing but a 'poor man's space probe' launched unceremoniously 
somewhere in the asteroidal belt sometime during the last two billion 
years [sic.] ... 
 
1960 - Dr. Edward Anders 
Univ. of Chicago 
 
... unless Nininger said something similar earlier! 
 
Best wishes 
Doug 
 
-----Original Message----- 
From: karmaka <karmaka at email.de> 
To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com 
Sent: Thu, Jul 28, 2011 4:37 pm 
Subject: [meteorite-list] Who invented the phrase 'the poor man's space 
probe'? 
 
Dear list members, 
 
Does anyone know who was the first who called a meteorite 'the poor 
man's space 
probe"? 
 
Best regards 
 
Martin 
 
______________________________________________ 
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 
 
 ______________________________________________ 
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