Schoolhouse Rocks!

Rock Around the World

Mars scientists are asking students from around the world to help them understand the Red Planet. Send in a rock collected by you or your classroom from your region of the world, and the Mars Spaceflight Facility at Arizona State University will use a special tool like the one on the rovers (Mini-TES) to tell you what it's made of. Then everyone can compare their rocks to the ones found on Mars.

The scientists will post a picture of your rock on the web, and give you a report on what kind of rock it is. They'll also send you an official certificate and Mars sticker for your contribution. Click here to see some of the rocks that have already been analyzed!

Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell Your rock will be kept in a special collection where scientists from around the world can come to study them. Take a look at the latest results from Mars and see how to interpret some of the data.

Here's how you can participate:

Minimum to send:

Rock - minimum 2" / maximum 6" (preferred 4" size)
Name
Age
Address (to send certificate and sticker - not released)
Name of city/village and country (include zipcode if US)
Clean rock - wash with water if dirty (make free of dirt)

NOTE: Only First Names, Age, and Cities will be listed on the web

Optional:

Latitude/longitude of sample site
Name of geographic feature (if it has one) where rock was collected
Copy of map with location where rock was collected
Picture of rock in person's hand for scale
Picture of location where rock was collected (with no people)
Short paragraph describing area where rock was collected

Place to Send Your Rock:

     Dr. Phil Christensen
     Mars Space Flight Facility
     Arizona State University
     PO Box 876305, Moeur Building Rm 131
     Tempe, Arizona 85287-6305
     U.S.A.

If you have any questions about the program, please send to Imagiverse - Ask The Expert
and we''ll be glad to forward it along to the Schoolhouse Rocks team.

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Last Updated:
11 July 2004