Luca Foresta, our Aouda.X analog astronaut suit tester, has been out to the banks of the Sill river in Innsbruck to collect a rock for the ‘Earth Master Sample’ project.

First, Luca took a wide shot to show the general location:

Luca, our analogue astronaut, takes a wide shot to show the general location.

He included our social media team leader, Olivia Haider, in the shot to show the scale:

Take a picture of the sample site and a scale (e.g. classmate, family member etc…) from at least 10m distance.

Next, he selected a suitable candidate rock, about the size of his fist, and took a close-up picture with his phone to give an idea of the scale.

Take a close-up picture with a scale (e.g. hammer, pen, etc)

Luca collected his selected rock. The Earth Master Sample team requests fist-sized samples to make sure that the geologists that will be analysing the rocks have enough material to work with.

Take a fist-sized rock sample. (No soil samples, no sand please).

Luca put the sample into a clean plastic bag to protect it during its journey to its destination.

Put the sample into a clean plastic bag.

Using a permanent marker, he wrote the coordinates, the date and the time on the plastic bag…

Label the sampling bag with: date (DD/MM/YY) + Ttme (HH:MM) + geographical coordinates. (e.g. 17AUG13 17:22, 47.234 N / 11.234 E). Send an email to listing the geographical location, the two pictures and the contact coordinates of a contact person.

… and sent it to the Austrian Space Forum to form part of the Earth Master Sample! All the rocks submitted will be analysed by our geologists, then a small piece from each will be ground into a powder and mixed together to form the Earth Master Sample. This will be mingled with a fragment of a Mars meteorite, melted down and crafted into commemorative crystals by the company Swarovski. The crystals will be presented to decision makers and heads of space agencies around the world – by submitting a rock, you are adding your voice to the message that analogue research and future exploration of Mars matters and is something that the public supports.

Mail the rock-sample to:
Austrian Space Forum / Earth Master Sample Project
Sillufer 3a
6020 Innsbruck
AUSTRIA
Deadline: 15. November 2013 (for arrival at the Austrian Space Forum)

More information on the Earth Master Sample

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