YEKATERINBURG, December 21. /TASS/. The meteorite expedition of the Ural Federal University has arrived to Antarctica, the university’s press service said on Monday.
"We reached the destination - Novolazarevskaya station. We will set the camp at firt, get some rest and then start working," participants of the expedition said.
The team set off from Yekaterinburg on December 14. It reached Cape Town in two days and after spending three days in South Africa flew to Antarctica. "The expedition is scheduled to end in mid-January. The budget is 8-12 million rubles. The money was collected worldwide, partly donated by sponsors and the University. Students helped as well - they collected around 500,000 rubles with the crowdfunding service," Professor Viktor Grokhovsky told TASS.
Head of the field work Ruslan Kolunin said that weather in Antarctica may be the main problem. "It is cold there, and strong winds are blowing. This will complicate works. We hope to bring back as many samples as possible. They will mainly be small, weighing several grams. The heaviest sample will be the 18-kilogram meteorite," Kolunin noted.
The Antarctic meteorite expedition is the first scientific project in modern Russia on collecting meteorite material on the southernmost continent.