World Space Week needs your help, and it's easy to do -- all it requires is a fist-sized rock from your neighbourhood. No matter where you live in the world, the organizers are asking you to send in these stones to form part of an "Earth Master Sample."
From this vast collection, a small fragment from each rock will be taken out, combined with the other fragments in a powder, and then mixed up with a Mars meteorite. Crystal producer Swarovski will then make 100 crystals from this powder. Swarovski plans to show off the crystals during Yuri's Night celebrations on April 12, 2014 for presentation to policy makers, space agencies and other space-faring groups.
Below are the instructions (provided verbatim from the organizers of World Space Week) for participating. Please get your samples sent in time for the Nov. 15 deadline for arrival of the packages in Austria.
1 - Take a picture of the sample site and a scale (e.g. classmate, family member etc.) from at least 10m distance
2 - Take a close-up picture with a scale (e.g. hammer, pen, etc)
3 - Note your geographical location (e.g. 31°22.363 N 4°4.357 W (to find these, type the address (or find the location) on Google Maps, right click on the location and click 'What's here?'. The coordinates will display in the search bar. South and west coordinates begin with a - sign)
4 - Take a fist-sized rock sample. (No soil samples, no sand please).
5 - put the sample into a clean plastic bag. IMPORTANT: Label the sampling bag with: date (DD/MM/YY) + Time (HH:MM) + geographical coordinates. (e.g. 17AUG13 17:22, 47.234 N / 11.234 E)
6 - Send an email to [email protected] listing the geographical location, the two pictures and the details of a contact person.
7 - Mail the rock-sample to: Austrian Space Forum / Earth Master Sample Project, Sillufer 3a, 6020 Innsbruck, AUSTRIA
Here's a great flyer, in PDF format, you can use to distribute to others showing everything you need to know. Click the image below for the full-size version (1.8 MB).
