Nicole with our first achondrite of the season.

There are two ways that humans get rocks from space: (1) Natural delivery of space rocks as meteorites (2) Space rocks directly brought back by space exploration missions known as returned samples.
Probably the most famous example of how humans acquired rocks from space is when the Apollo astronauts collected rocks on the Moon, and then brought those rocks back to Earth. Not all returned samples were/are directly collected by humans. In fact, aside from the Apollo program, all other missions that have returned samples have been uncrewed (i.e., no people aboard). The other way we get rocks from space relates to what our ANSMET expedition is doing by collecting meteorites in Antarctica! Meteorites started their journey to us as rocks that were ejected after collisions between asteroids or when asteroids collide with larger planetary bodies such as the Moon and Mars.
As a reader of the ANSMET blog you might be thinking, how do returned samples relate to meteorites? In the 21st century, we frequently study returned samples in concert with meteorites. We have more meteorites in number, variety of planetary bodies of origin, and in the quantity of material. Whereas, we know exactly what planetary bodies and where on that body returned samples were collected. Both returned samples and meteorites from the Moon provide a great example how they can be studied together to more effectively investigate the Moon’s geology. All the samples returned from the Moon were returned from the near side of the Moon (the side we always see from Earth). So far, no samples have been returned from the far side of the Moon (commonly confused with the Dark Side of the Moon, thanks to Pink Floyd) so meteorites are the only rocks we have from that half of the moon. By comparing lunar meteorites to returned lunar samples and data collected by orbiting spacecraft, we can determine which lunar meteorites are likely from the far side of the Moon. In turn, these far side lunar meteorites will be used to guide investigations of samples that NASA plans to returned from the far side of the moon in the future. This is just one example of how meteorites help maximize the new scientific information we can get out of returned samples.
Several lunar meteorites were found last year in our field area (Davis Ward) so we are hoping we found some lunar meteorites this year too! We can’t know for sure until the meteorites we collect are returned to the U.S. and investigated at the Smithsonian by their scientists using state-of-the-art analytical equipment.
Currently, there are two exciting spacecraft missions in the process of collecting and returning samples of asteroids to Earth! These missions are OSIRIS-REx (U.S.) and Hayabusa 2 (Japan), which are both sampling Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), the asteroids that cross or come close to Earth’s orbit. It is important to understand the properties of different types of asteroids, just in case we need to defend Earth from one someday. The asteroids these two spacecraft are visiting are thought to resemble carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which frequently include components from the birth of our solar system. Planetary scientists and cosmochemists like to study certain carbonaceous chondrites to investigate the source material for our solar system and how it formed. SPOILER: We have probably already collected about a dozen carbonaceous chondrites this season!!! The samples returned by these missions will enable us to investigate how their source asteroids resemble known carbonaceous chondrites and expand our knowledge about components of these rocks that may not be fully preserved in meteorites. The OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa 2 samples will be protected in sealed containers in their spacecraft to preserve components that could be sensitive to terrestrial modification (volatiles/ices and possible organic molecules). The OSIRIS-Rex and Hayabusa 2 returned samples will let scientists study parts of carbonaceous chondrite material from the earliest part of our Solar System’s history that may be changed by exposure to Earth’s atmosphere and warm temperatures (even Antarctica is warm compared to space!). The carbonaceous chondrites collected by ANSMET in previous years are already being studied in anticipation of the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa 2 samples, and the ones we have collected this season may be studied alongside the returned samples once they reach Earth!
In addition to the scientific discoveries that can be made by studying the new meteorites ANSMET finds each year, it is exciting to think that the meteorites we find may be studied to support upcoming space exploration missions! We are looking forward to the weather allowing us to get out of our tents and search for more meteorites.
Nicole Lunning, Tent-bound due to high winds in  Davis-Ward Antarctica January 19, 2020