Andrew Beck, Otway Massif, December 12th, 2012

The final four members of the systematic team, along with about 12,000 lbs of gear, landed safely at Otway Massif at about 12:20 pm today. We were greeted with a balmy -20 C air temperature (a few degrees below 0 F) and 15-20 knot winds. The LC-130 deployed our cargo via a combat drop; the exit ramp was opened while the plane taxied and our gear slid out the back. We then spent the next 3 hours unpacking gear and setting up the remaining tents. Stan, Rob, Tom and Shaun, the four members of the team who arrived on Monday, had done a fine job getting everything ready so we were able to finish in a reasonable amount of time.

A previous ANSMET team recovered a high concentration of ordinary chondrite meteorites very near our camp at Otway Massif a few years ago. Ordinary chondrites (OC) get the first part of their name because they are by far the most common type of meteorite recovered on Earth. In fact, ~91% of all meteorites recovered by the ANSMET program have been OCs (see NASA curation home page listed in a previous blog). To give a sense of proportion, there are about 20 groups of meteorites making up the other 9% of recovered samples. The term “chondrite” refers to the family of meteorite to which the OCs belong. Chondrites are important samples because they were the very first solid materials to form in our Solar System and went on to become the building blocks for the planets. You may be wondering why, if they were the building blocks of planets, are there any still around to fall to Earth as meteorites? The asteroid belt, a ring of debris orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, represents a whole lot of building blocks that never coalesced into a single planet. Several processes can cause material in the asteroid belt to move out of orbit, some of which then intersects with the Earth’s orbit and falls to the surface as meteorites.

We hope to start collecting soon and will keep everyone updated on our progress. We also want to send positive vibes to the recon team, who are still in McMurdo. Here is hoping you all can get a flight out within the next few days!