The blast is deafening, heard and felt for miles around, spraying rocks and debris hundreds of feet and scouring the earth with such force that in past tests unsuspecting deer roaming the hillsides half a mile away have been found pelted to death, fur blasted off.

Now scientists are preparing to use the next rocket firing for a scientific and educational -- as well as aesthetic -- end. Scientists have strategically placed chunks of rock, metal, and even ceramic works of art in the middle of the inferno so that a group of middle and high school students can observe first hand the effects of the heat and turbulence on chunks of rock.

Scientists hope the test, set for mid-February, will provide more information about what stresses rocks from space undergo when entering Earth's atmosphere.

These stresses are mainly heat and extreme weathering, called ablation, said Scott Hughes, an associate geology professor at Idaho State University who helped to plan the "Desert Fusion" experiment.

Hughes said the test could also help planetary scientists who hope to find meteorites from Mars somewhere on Earth. Fossils from the Red Planet may exist on Earth but have yet to be found, perhaps because they could be hard to tell apart from ordinary rocks, he said. A simulated re-entry of Martian rocks may provide clues to what they look like.

Hughes and others collected scraps of granite, obsidian, basalt, quartzite and limestone, each of which vary in composition, texture, melting point and heat capacity. They anchored the samples in concrete between 200 and 300 feet from the booster's mouth.

The experiment will help students understand the melting points of the rocks, Hughes said, and volatile geological processes with high temperatures, such as earthquakes and volcanoes.

The scientists also put works of art, including a three-foot copper fish and a six-inch ceramic sculpture in the ground, hoping for colorful effects.

These have been dug into the dirt far enough from the engine that their color or texture may be changed without destroying them. If the samples are found intact, calculus students and junior high school students from Idaho, and Utah middle school science students will get to examine them in class.

Sides said she expects hundreds of onlookers to watch the blast from a parking lot at a safe distance of 1/2 mile.

"A lot of families come out, there's a lot of word of mouth that gets around about these test fires," she said. "It's a big impressive powerful show."

When clouds are low, insulating the sound, tests can been heard by residents south of Salt Lake, almost 100 miles away, Sides said.