New Mars

Exploring Mars will enlighten us not only about the red planet, but also the entire Solar System through its rich complement of meteorites. Stuart Atkinson considers how some of these meteorites may have originated from the most unexpected places of all…

I can see into the future.

No, I don’t have a crystal ball, and I don’t read runes either. I don’t slop my way through chicken intestines - well, not as often as I used to - in search of signs or portents, and as a dedicated, staring-eyed strong-and-hot coffee drinker I’m not a tea leaf reader. I don’t need any of those tricks or props. My visions come to me during long, long nights under the stars, bathing in cold starlight while frost crackles on the grass beneath my feet. And what do I see? I see meteorites on Mars. No, not from Mars, on Mars.

I see them every time I look at photos from Viking and Pathfinder, and you can too, all you have to do is open up the pages of that glorious 3D issue of National Geographic again. Put the glasses on and stare deep into the picture… no, of course you won’t actually see them but you’ll sense them, just like me you’ll feel they’re there, in the shadows, behind the big rocks, just over the horizon… oh yes, they’re there, I know they’re there.

Proof? Okay, I’ll admit it, I have none, but there must be some meteorites there… right there on that flood plain..! Think about it. Mars has a thinner atmosphere than Earth’s, so many more meteoroids will make it to the surface intact, and although the iron rich older meteorites will have suffered in the oxidising climate there will be plenty of younger irons, and some pretty big stones there too I’d bet. Sure, there’s an argument that the thinner atmosphere will mean meteorites hit so hard they’re blasted to dust or just vaporise, but I don’t buy it. Look at those pictures. All that dust! Those tall, wind-rippled dunes! Can’t you imagine standing there, seeing a fireball scream across the salmon-pink sky, hitting the ground in a towering puff of red dust.

Of course, finding meteorites on Mars isn’t a new idea, I’m not claiming it as mine. Anyone who’s read Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson will remember fondly how a team of the First Hundred colonists stumbled across a plain littered with irons too big to wrap your arms around. (If you haven’t read it, take a look.)

What will they look like? Well, the way I see it - and someone put me right here if I’m adding 2 and 2 to get 10! - any meteorites found on Mars may have a much thinner fusion crust because they won’t spend as much time heating up in the atmosphere. But they would still have some crust, so they should be visible against the dominant tan and cinnamon tones of the Martian landscape. Perhaps that thinner atmosphere will mean some will be found in shallow craters, where they fell in those aforementioned dust dunes, or on dry lake beds?

Mars could turn out to be a 21st century meteorite hunter’s dream. There must be some major strewn fields there just waiting to be found and explored: Mars’ proximity to the asteroid belt, and its own pair of blasted, battered moons must mean there’s at least the potential for the recovery of a quite frightening number of meteorites from the surface.

Some of you reading this will laugh out loud at my “visions”, but I truly believe that once the colonisation of Mars has settled into its stride, and there’s a permanent manned presence there, there’ll be a huge demand for meteorites found on Mars. Eager to top up their Government wages, the first settlers, feeding a rejuvenated market on Earth (hey, they’ll all be found eventually, right?!), may well roam across the surface of their new planet filling bags with irons and stones as casually as families pick strawberries on a farm on a sunny weekend.

A lovely romantic image, yes, but there’s a downside to the way the Ingalls will spend their free time away from their little house on the Martian prairie. Left unchecked such harvesting could strip Mars of its meteorites, rendering them as extinct as the buffalo that fell victim to the settlers in the early days of the settlement of America. I believe very strongly that some kind of “Mars Heritage” organisation will - when it’s not preserving and protecting such historically important pieces of hardware as the Viking and Pathfinder probes - have to monitor and regulate their collection and exportation, protecting them in the same way we - try to - protect elephant tusks and the like. But money talks, and will whisper in some colonists’ ears so loudly that they’ll turn meteorite poacher, and feed the black market in Martian meteorites by smuggling undeclared specimens back to collectors on Earth…

And then there’s the Holy Grail of Mars for meteorite hunters - finding a piece of Earth. This isn’t as crazy as it sounds. If we’ve found pieces of Mars here, on Earth, then it’s pretty likely we’ll find peaces of Earth on Mars. The impact which helped wipe out the dinosaurs must have blasted an impressive amount of rock into space. Surely some of it reached Mars…?

Put yourself there, try and imagine your excitement as one of the geeks from the aero-labs - yes, the ones you’re always tormenting and ridiculing with your buddies out in the field - plods into the settlement canteen where you’re sat with your rock-hound buddies and tells you that “that weird rock”

you brought in from Hellas was actually a meteorite from Earth. Imagine the furore that will cause! Imagine how big a celebrity you’ll be! Imagine the size of the cheque that will come your way! Imagine all the e-mails you’ll get from collectors back on Earth, begging you for “just a small piece”! Imagine the scene in the biology lab as the scientists there hold their heads in their hands, wondering if the Earth meteorite carried micro-organisms from Earth, contaminating Mars in the process..? (”How will ever know if Mars developed native life forms now!??”)

Your rock would surely end up in a Mars Museum, illuminated inside a tall display case, alongside the recovered Sojourner rover and Viking Landers, for future settlers to look at and remember their origins…

Of course, if there’s one piece of terrestrial rock on Mars there’ll probably be more, many more, and in time, as they become less rare, they’ll no doubt become very popular with the settlers. Maybe, just as we fashion jewellery from pieces of Gibeon, the settlers will turn pieces of terrestrial meteorites into rings, brooches and pendants. “Oh, what a lovely slice of Yucatan! Look at that gold clasp!” But maybe they’ll be more than just simple items of jewellery? Maybe they’ll eventually play a role in the inevitable political future of Mars?

Imagine it’s 2199, and - repeating millennia of terrestrial history - there’s a flourishing independence movement on Mars. Now imagine you disagree with the tall, native Martians who insist Mars should break its ties with Earth. What better way to display your loyalty to Mother Earth than to wear a piece of the Home Planet on your finger or breast? After all, we wear badges now to display our national patriotism? Why not display signs of our planetary patriotism?

Perhaps, in a time even further in the future, meteorites could lead to tension between the governments and people of Earth and Mars? What will happen if a future Martian government, frustrated by political squabbles with Earth, decides it wants the lost pieces of its planet back? This isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds. As you read this, many countries across the world are demanding the return of works of art stolen from them during a past war by an invading or occupying army. Here in the UK our London museums are stuffed full to bursting of statues from Rome, mummies and golden death masks from Egypt and sculptures from ancient Greece. The Greeks have been demanding the return of the so-called “Elgin Marbles” for years. Is it so ridiculous to imagine a time when a Martian government - or an electioneering extremist, seeking votes - loudly demands the return of all the pieces of Zagami, Nakhla and others from us?

Many of you will be shaking your heads in disbelief or disapproval at my ideas, but we have to start looking at the bigger picture, we have to realise that meteorites aren’t unique to Earth. They’re Out There, waiting to be found on other worlds, on the ash-grey lunar maria, on the dry-ice polar cap of Mars, and on its moons too.

I’m writing this on the 36th “birthday” of the Zagami meteorite, it fell to Earth 36 years ago today. I own a tiny amount of Zagami dust, a fraction of an ounce, and because a good sneeze would scatter it to the four winds it’s kept in a double-sealed specimen box. I take it with me when I visit schools to give my illustrated talks on spaceflight and astronomy, and the kids love it, adore it. When I tell them it’s from Mars they - well, the ones who believe me! - stare at it with wide, wonder-filled eyes and ask if they can hold it. It means something to them. It means the world to me.

And I don’t need a crystal ball to look into the future and predict that one day, maybe in a century or so, my Martian equivalent will hand over to a wide-eyed, native born Martian child and say: “Look… this is a piece of Earth…”

Filed under: Articles on October 1st, 2001