Expanding the Foundation of Planetary Science

我们对太阳系的认识是建立在陨石分析的基础上的。知道它们的轨道起源提供了一个关键的空间背景，但我们只有不到0.1%的样本有这个数据。该项目旨在解决这一问题。澳大利亚有66个陨石福尔斯坠落，其轨道由沙漠火球网络确定，等待恢复-比目前的全球数据集更多。该项目希望通过使用无人机和机器学习应用创新的搜索方法来产生新的知识。预期的结果包括大幅增加轨道陨石的数量。这将带来巨大的好处。通过将陨石与它们的母小行星联系起来，每一块岩石都变成了一个小型的样本返回使命。

Our understanding of the Solar System is based on a foundation of meteorite analyses. Knowing their orbital origin provides a critical spatial context, but we have this data for <0.1% of samples. This project aims to address this issue. There are 66 meteorite falls across Australia with orbits determined by the Desert Fireball Network that await recovery - more than the current global dataset. This project expects to generate new knowledge by applying an innovative search methodology using drones and machine learning. Expected outcomes include dramatically increasing the number of orbital meteorites. This should provide significant benefits. By linking meteorites to their parent asteroids every rock becomes a small sample-return mission.