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  The Little Spaceship that could!    

The rock that I have found may not be from Mars. But if it turns out that this rock is not from Mars, it will at least make a good model for how one of these "Barnacle Bill" type rocks, could and did, act as a perfect little "spaceships" to bring material, including living things, from Mars to Earth.

There has been much talk lately of the possibility that Martian life, if it exists on the planet, would have been driven deep below the surface where it would be protected from the harsh Martian surface. This life would be similar to deep Earth life that has recently been discovered on our own planet. For many years, mankind thought that light was probably a necessary energy for life to exist, but now we know of many living systems that exist on chemical energy alone. I don't disagree that there may be deep Martian life, but I think the surface of Mars provides many opportunities for life also. If Mars did have an extended period of liquid water, then life could have evolved extensively during that time. If the transition from wet and warm to cold and dry was gradual enough, then surely one or more species would have managed to survive, in one form or another. I propose that the vesicles of the silicon rocks on Mars would make a wonderful home for small Martian citizens. These small holes would offer protection from the harsh conditions and would allow the "critters" access to atmospheric gasses and source materials when the different particles of Martian dust are blown into and out of the vesicles.

If these types of rocks would make good homes for tiny Martians, then wouldn't they make even better spaceships. We are fairly certain that large meteoroids impacting on Mars are capable of launching surface material into space. But most of the pieces we have found to date are apparently some of the deeper pieces of Mars that don't contain vesicles. So where would the life "ride?" A rock with vesicles, on the other hand, has lots of little compartments that would allow numerous particles and other things to make the trip along with the rock.

Why would this rock make such a good spaceship? Because it is made much like a space shuttle heat tile, except in this case, the whole spaceship is made of the same material. The space shuttle heat tiles are made of mostly silicon and they are made in an "egg crate" manner with lots of vesicles and thin supporting walls. This allows the material to dissipate heat quickly. So now look at a microscopic view of the "insides" of my rock. See anything familiar?

It shows the same structure, only nature made this one and so didn't make everything exactly alike, the way mankind likes to make things. Also, you must remember that this rock is made of mostly silicon, but it has a fair amount of magnesium, aluminum, titanium, and iron. These are all materials that we might use to build our own spaceships.

To me, it is a miracle that any rocks have made the trip from Mars to Earth. But the miracles associated with my rock, seem to go beyond that. The next miracles that I would like to discuss involves how I believe this rock came through the atmosphere with so little damage and thus proved it was a good little spaceship. It doesn't do a spaceship any good to leave a planet like Mars, if it can't land somewhere. I think this little rock had the "guts" to land here on Earth and the exterior of the rock tells its story. Much like the space shuttle "flies" thought the air when it leaves orbit, this little rock "flew" through the air in a single orientation, similar to the old lifting bodies that NASA tested years ago. This rock seems to have the shape of a lifting body.

Here, the "spaceship" is on the "launching pad." The "nose" is up in this picture. If we compare this rock to the space shuttle, the rock appears as if it were sitting on the launching pad and we are looking at bottom side, the side that would receive the most heat during landing. One can see areas that are more melted and some areas that are less melted.  The older (49 ma) portion of the rock is clearly visible here as the red parts.  All of the rock around the red portion is what I have called the gray rock and it is 13 ma.

What this means is that heat was more extreme in some areas and less in other areas. The picture below shows what I think is the bottom of the spaceship, except this picture is upside down. The rounded area at the bottom left would represent the top or nose of the ship. The red area in the middle would have been its flight surface and the blunt area near the top of the picture would have been the bottom of the spaceship. The flow of air would have been from bottom left to the top right and the "flight" of the ship would have been the opposite.

The next view shows the left side of this little spaceship. This side contains a crevice which I think acted to stabilize the vehicle. The air flow split along the top of the ship, with part going across the crevice and the rest going across the right side which will be shows in the next picture after this one.

In this view, the rock is set with the nose at the upper left side and the bottom at the lower right. The under side would be on the left side of this picture, out of view. The flow of air would have been from upper left to lower right with most of the air going through this crevice. If you look carefully, you can see where the air flowed across the entire upper left surface, across the rock and down the crevice. Near the middle of the picture, you can see a melted region where the air flow was most intense and therefore generated the most heat. It is just below where the crevice starts on the left side and is very near the center of the picture. You can tell it is more melted than the other regions because the vesicles have closed more in this region than the region just below it and those just above the crevice.

This is not the best view of the right side, but it is all I have digitized at this time. This area was melted because it kind of "stuck out" compared to the rest of the rock. This region marks the flow of air across the right side.  The melting is clearly visible here without the aid of a microscope.

In summary, this rock has a structure that is strong enough to survive a "launch" from Mars and a landing on Earth. The structure provides homes for many little things and helped insulate them from the heat of entry. The vesicles provide little compartments in which to store little beings and their entire "luggage." It is made of space age materials and has a shape that is similar to vehicles we have designed in our own laboratories. In essence, it could be a perfect little spaceship.