Why does NASA want to find meteorites?

In 1979 and 1984, meteorites were found that some scientists thought showed signs of very primitive life forms, such as microbes. Since that would have been proof that some kind of life existed in outer space, scientists all over the world were very interested. NASA has a very high-level division called the Meteorite Steering Committee that, as you can tell by its name, focuses on meteorites. That committee decided we needed a new kind of technology to help scientists find and analyze meteorites more quickly, in hopes of finding more meteorites that seem to show that there is life elsewhere in the universe. NASA asked CMU to create a robot that could assist human scientists on the Antarctic Meteorite Search.

Why go to Antarctica? Are there more meteorites there?

No. Meteorites fall pretty much equally on all parts of the earth, but they’re a lot easier to find in Antarctica: since meteorites are usually darker colors, they’re easy to see on the white ice–especially since more meteorites are on the surface there than in other places. That’s partly because there were never people in Antarctica to dig, build or disturb the ground; the people there now are all scientists doing research, and Antarctica is covered by an international treaty that makes it illegal to disturb the environment. Another reason so many meteorites are right on the surface is the way the ice masses flow: at a place called Meteorite City, for example, giant masses of slow-moving ice have churned up thousands of meteorites and dumped them on the ground, on places known as stranding surfaces. Scientists have found over 3000 meteorites in Meteorite City, and they’ve only been there three times.

What’s Elephant Moraine, and why is Nomad going there?

Elephant Moraine is a part of the Antarctic landscape that, from the air, looks like an elephant’s head (Peter: insert link to that image Dimi showed us). One of the meteorites that some scientists think shows signs of life was discovered there in 1979; that meteorite is called Elephant Moraine 79001, by the way, since it was the first meteorite discovered there in 1979. The area has been explored, but not completely. Hopefully, Nomad will find a meteorite like EM 79001.