The First Russian Meteorite Expedition of UrFU has started

13:01, December 15, 2015

On December 14, the First Russian Meteorite Expedition to Antarctic started with a farewell ceremony held at Ural Federal University

Six scientists, participants of the expedition came to university in order to participate in the farewell ceremony after which they headed to the airport. They had to take several flights via Moscow and Dubai to Cape Town, before they reach Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. The team hopes to find at least 100 meteorites during their two-week search. They will collect meteoritic matter and after January 10 will bring it to the Research and Educational Center "Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies" at Ural Federal University. The scientific supervisor of the project is UrFU professor Victor Grokhovsky.

According to Victor Grokhovsky, the blue ice of Antarctica contains meteorites and dust from the Moon and Mars: “Antarctica is a storehouse of space material and a variety of ores in general. There are 'blue ice' territories, which in fact are glaciers, rearing over rocks due to the movement of ice on the mountain slopes; they have been moving very slowly, but for millions of years. Powerful winds from the coast blow away the snow, sublimating ice. And in these ice there are a lot of meteorite fragments, which had been reaching the surface of our planet over the millions of years; you can just go and collect them. Lunar soil is literally “free” material, which is as old as our planet, and is about 4.5 billion years old. Imagine how much you can learn about the origin of the universe, life, its natural laws and, therefore, the future of our planet!”

The scientists promise to share the obtained results with their foreign colleagues.

The students, management and partners of the university, and, of course, relatives and friends of the members of the expedition came to UrFU to wish good luck in a two-week journey of scientific discovery.

Having reached Cape Town, the group will check the connection with the Media Center of Ural Federal University, which will receive and spread information during the expedition. By December 19, expedition plans to get to the station "Novolazarevskaya", situated at the coast of Queen Maud Land.

Reference

UrFU Antarctic Meteorite Expedition is the first scientific project in the history of modern Russian aimed at search of meteoritic matter on the southernmost continent.  It became possible thanks to the participation of the university in the Project 5-100. The author of a research project is Professor Victor Grokhovsky.

The budget of the expedition is estimated at about 12.8 million rubles, most of the sum was provided by Ural Federal University. Thanks to the efforts of the Students’ Union of UrFU 500 thousand rubles have been collected by means of crowdfunding, some part was invested by sponsors. For example Ekaterinburg Engineering Company Plana invested 1 million rubles. The clothes for the members of the expedition were sewed by the local company Discovery, and the food supply was provided by NL International.

The expedition will return to in January 2016. More trips are planned, after the collected material would be studied. Therefore, the collection of funds for the expedition to the Antarctic continues. Every one can support a unique research project of the Russian scientists on the expedition's website, as well by sending a text message “urfu sum” (for example: urfu 1000) to the number 3443.