Prez Says...

by Dan Teich, MSDC President

I'm still talking about last month's presentation on precious metals, their uses, and life cycles from mining, utilization, and recycling. Gold, sure, we all know about it; silver, too. But palladium? Rhodium? Not so much. Mineralogy is about so much more than pretty rocks (no to pooh-pooh pretty rocks - a few of you will have my head on a rhodium platter), and the fair Dr. Ballinger took us on a tour of the main precious metals, showing how essential they are to our daily lives. How much silver is in my condo that's not in a mineral specimen? I'm looking at you, light switch!

February 4th's presentation about Spirit and Opportunity has me excited, as well. I remember watching the landing of both rovers live on NASA's website, with baited breath, waiting to see if they survived entry to the red planet. And from there I followed the missions with all of their triumphs and nail-biting moments, until their very end.

Above our bed is large picture I put together from Spirit's panorama of the East Hills. I don't want humans to colonize Mars, we have a wonderful planet of our own, of which we need to be better stewards. But studies of Mars can definitely give us insights to our own blue planet, and I'm eagerly awaiting Dr. Grant's talk! Join me on a small space odyssey!