(meteorobs) "Meteor "Ablation Study in BBC article

[MEM]

If this recounts the test Sponsored by ESA which I remember but whose name I 
have forgotten-- (or one of a series of tests which some were canceled)  there 
were a lot of problems with the experiment design. 

This BBC report got a lot of things wrong when pairing it down to the attention 
span of their average reader.  

The entire assembly of several rocks samples/types was about the size of a 
bowler (hat) and some test samples were lost entirely.  

The reentry speed of the capsule was not 1/5th the velocity of a typical 
meteoroid entry.  

The assembly was intentionally placed behind the zone of direct ablation for 
fear the experiment wouldn't survive.  

The main sample--the one mentioned from Scotland was selected more for local 
notoriety than as a meteorite stimulant.  

---It was very a friable (hand crumble-able) sandstone-- not a tightly bound 
igneous rock such as a basalt 

 I believe a basalt sample from Austria(?) Norway(?)was included but lost. 
 I believe the samples included a limestone --which any geologist knows will not 
melt but will revert to Carbon dioxide and lime at 400°±. yet the researchers 
were suprised to find only white powder and no fusion crust
 The idea of piggybacking onto an existing mission was good but it got lost in 
the waste, fraud and abuse category of execution, in my opinion.

So there is a lot of potential error in trying to transfer the results from this 
experiment over to bio-viability and on ablation in general. 


There was a survival/thermo study done with one of the Martan meteorites where 
the internal temperatures maximums were proved to not have exceeded 165°F 
suggesting that organic life forms there may be could survive inside a small 
sized meteorite from Mars no less..

Elton




----- Original Message ----
> From: Roberto G. <md6648 at mclink.it>
> To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> Sent: Fri, March 25, 2011 5:20:57 PM
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Meteorites on The Ground! (Was: To Dirk)
> 
> From: "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
> To:  <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> Sent:  Friday, March 25, 2011 9:51 PM
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Meteorites on The  Ground! (Was: To Dirk)
> 
> 
> > Wayne, List, With all due  respect.
> 
> cut
> 
> > Sorry to be argumentative, but if someone can  show me a paper or
> > scientific study that proves the ablation rate of ALL  meteoroid bodies
> > empirically with recorded (not calculated) data, I'll  be happy to admit
> > I'm wrong.
> >
> > In short: You can't find  them if you don't look for them.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Eric
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7056686.stm
> 
> Best  greetings.
> Roberto Gorelli