http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jan/01102003/utah/18930.asp
Plan to Mimic Meteorites With Bowling Balls Lands With Thud at BLM BY GLEN WARCHOL THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE January 10, 2003 A group of amateur scientists planning to bombard Utah's salt flats with bowling balls to simulate meteorite impacts has caught the attention of the Bureau of Land Management. Bill White, a BLM research scientist, called The Salt Lake Tribune, saying officials were startled to see a story Wednesday about amateur astronomers contemplating dropping objects, possibly bowling balls, from an airplane to help identify meteorite strikes in the salt beds. "We are not sure we want impact craters in the salt surface," White said. "There is a concern this will impact the resource itself. We have enough junk out there already." Besides necessitating potential headaches such as environmental impact studies, the bowling ball experiment would be an administrative nightmare, BLM officials say. "This is a public safety issue," White said. "We would have to provide law enforcement. This would be a really big deal to the BLM." The salt flats are already used for experimental activities, most famously setting land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, White said. "I can hear the screaming already from the racing community." But Patrick Wiggins, NASA Solar System ambassador to Utah and would-be sky bowler, admitted the Salt Lake Astronomical Society had not considered the BLM in its planning, though it expected to deal with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force, for which the area is part of a bombing range. Wiggins said the project is just in its planning stages. "We have no intention of doing this before literally crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's." "They need to come in with a detailed plan," White said. "We've got two weather stations out there. Murphy's Law says that a bowling ball is going to land right where you don't want it. With our luck, it would hit one station, bounce and hit the other." ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
