The UK Desert Fireball Network: Continuation

沙漠火球网络已经是一个非常成功的设施。然而，为了充分利用这个系统的科学潜力（见“目标”），有必要超越我们目前拥有的试验网络，并建立一个覆盖大面积（> 100万平方公里）的全面运作的火球网络。总结我们目前的成就：我们已经设计，建造和现场测试了一个自主的火球观测站。我们在西澳大利亚州的纳拉伯部署了一个小型的试验网络，并表明它们可以长时间承受沙漠条件。我们证明了我们的成像系统，当集成到提供火球的网络观测时，可以提供一些从火球中恢复的最精确的轨道数据。我们确定了南半球火球的第一个轨道。我们确定了具有显著终端质量的物体的下落位置。我们在第一次搜寻的第一天就发现了一块陨石：第一块碎片在预测的中心坠落线以南97米处被发现;第二块碎片在中心线以北39米处被发现。总之，我们已经证明，我们有技术，物流和方法来解决具有根本重要性的研究问题，并获得独特的样本集。最后剩下的里程碑是证明我们可以在地面上回收陨石。事实上，我们发现陨石在100米的预测下降的位置表明，我们的标准计算流星体的“黑暗飞行”和高分辨率的风在高层大气中的建模相结合（见主要情况）是一个非常强大的工具。简而言之，我们已经实现了所有近期目标。现在是超越初步网络的时候了，以便我们能够充分解决中心研究目标。我们目前有四个观测站（其中两个是STFC资助的）。该试验网络仅运行了大约2.5年。虽然观测站数量少，容易受到单点故障的影响（丢失一台相机可能导致网络观测暂停），但我们在DFN上的成功（我们比以前的火球网络的生产力高出几个数量级-参见主要案例）表明，扩展的网络将能够在项目的生命周期内提供数十颗陨石。拟议的工作将使我们能够开始扩大。

The Desert Fireball Network has already been an extremely successful facility. However, to fully exploit the science potential of this system (see 'Objectives'), it is necessary to go beyond the trial network that we currently have, and build towards a fully operational fireball network covering a large area (>1 million km^2). To summarise our current achievements: We have designed, built, and field-tested an autonomous fireball observatory. We deployed a small trial network of these units in the Western Australian Nullarbor, and showed that they could withstand desert conditions for extended periods. We demonstrated that our imaging system, when integrated to provide networked observations of fireballs, could deliver some of the most precise orbital data ever recovered from fireballs. We determined the first orbits for southern hemisphere fireballs. We determined fall positions for objects with a significant terminal mass. We recovered a meteorite on the first day, of the first search: the first fragment was found 97m south from the predicted central fall line; the second fragment was recovered 39m north from the central line shortly after. In summary, we have demonstrated that we have the technology, logistics, and methodology to address research questions of fundamental importance, and acquire a unique sample set. The last remaining milestone was to prove that we could recover meteorites on the ground. The fact that we found meteorites within 100m of their predicted fall positions indicates that our combination of standard computation of meteoroid 'darkflight' and high resolution modelling of winds in the upper atmosphere (see main case) is an extremely powerful tool. In short, we have met all our near-term goals. It is now time to move beyond a preliminary network, so that we can fully address the central research objectives. We currently have four observatories (two of which are STFC funded). This trial network has been in operation for only around 2.5 years. Although the small number of observatories makes it vulnerable to single-point failure (loss of one camera can result in suspension of networked observations), our success with the DFN (we are orders-of-magnitude more productive than previous fireball networks - see main case) indicates that an expanded network will be capable of delivering dozens of meteorites over the lifetime of the project. The proposed work will allow us to begin that expansion.