Soil on Mars Honors Around the Americas

Happy Homecoming Ocean Watch, you now have a soil on Mars named after you. That’s right. A little patch of dirt* on Mars is now named “Ocean Watch.”
Wait, what’s Ocean Watch?
Pacific Science Center and Sailors for the Sea have just completed Around the Americas: a science outreach project to sail all the way around both North and South America (including through the Nortwest Passage). The boat they sailed was called Ocean Watch, and they did all kinds of fun science and activities with people at every port of call.
Mission:
Around the Americas is a 25,000 mile sailing circumnavigation of the American continents with the mission of inspiring, educating, and engaging citizens of the Americas to protect our fragile oceans.
Back when I was a kid the Northwest Passage didn’t exist, so this would have been impossible, and now not only is it possible, but my friend Zeta sailed through it. This wasn’t that long ago either … the ice really is melting.
Ocean Watch arrived back in Seattle today (June 17, 2010).
What does that have to do with Mars?
Nothing. But Dr. Amy Knudsen from the Planetary Science Institute was volunteering with Pacific Science Center during ...