Think Astronauts are the only ones that can come up close and personal with the surface of Mars?
Space Center Houston is organizing an exhibition that will give the general public a chance to touch a rock from Mars.
The event at the Space Center Houston will open on Sunday at 9 p.m. starting with the Mars-themed live broadcasts.
Visitors can get astronaut autographs, followed with different activities for children and young both. A pancake breakfast is also arranged at the centre which will be available on Monday at 2 a.m..
Astronauts Stan Love and Mario Runco, and Mars exploration experts Carl Allen and John Connolly are among the guest speakers for the event.
This kind of event is getting organized for the first time in the history of U.S. where visitors are allowed to experience and even touch the only rock available at the Space center Houston which is actually a part of the meteorite EETA 79001 Martian found in the Antarctic in 1980.
The 180 million years old rock is very young on the solar system scale. The rock weighs 17.4 pounds, which makes it one of the largest Mars meteorites ever found.
The sample for has been provided by the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office.
The Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate takes care of the extraterrestrial samples from the moon, asteroids, comets, the solar wind and the planet Mars.
