ANSMET
ANSMET (ANtarctic Search for METeorites) is a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation that looks for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains. Since 1976 ANSMET has returned 10,000 meteorites.
The importance of the program is that it is the only continous source of non-microscopic extraterrestrial material, since the Apollo program. It is also the source of many of the known lunar and martian meteorites such as ALH84001.
The search for the meteorites is down visually. A team of six, lives for 5–7 weeks on the ice field. Using snowmobiles spaced 30 m apart they scan the blue ice for meteorites. Once a specimen has been located its position is found using GPS and it is given an identification number. It is then placed in a sterile teflon bag. The teams make sure that the specimen remains frozen throughout its journey back to the Antarctic Meteorite Curation Facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
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Categories: Antarctica | Meteorites