The whole point of the original "proposal" was to determine what happens to space rocks that might impact the hard, dense salt crust of the Salt Flats. I did not realize just how hard the salt is until I first went to the Flats to hunt for meteorites, and I wondered whether small rocks might just ricochet or if they would penetrate the salt and essentially disappear. Other questions arose: What size/velocity would an impactor have to achieve to punch through the crust? Could we model this somehow at the Salt Flats? Would a low-angle trajectory cause an object to skip across the salt? (Images of WW2 Dambusters here.) One night at advanced training a number of us were discussing this, and the rest is history. So, now I think I might be ready to try this again. If we can find a salt pan or a portion thereof that is not on federally-owned land, it would be a lot easier to pull off. Does anyone know of such a place? I think that north of the racetrack area there might be some salt pans that could work. We need to find salt at least a few inches thick so that we are indeed modeling the effects of an impact on the salt itself, and not the mud. Now that I know a thing or two about getting permission to do anything on federal land, I'd be willing to pursue this further. Ann, you should still plan on being bombardier. I have a genuine A1 flight jacket for you to wear. ;-) Kim -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Ann House Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 8:26 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bowling balls - etc. You are correct, Chuck. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-02-meteor-bowling_x.htm -A _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".