Except from the Moon, people can not obtain geological samples from other planetary bodies in the solar system by spaceflight vehicles---up to now, collecting the meteorites fell on the surface of the Earth becomes the only way of obtaining the samples of the terrestrial materials. Meteorite, the oldest fossil in the solar system, the rock sample from outside the Earth, the gift of the nature to human beings, stores the information on all of the process of the agglomeration of the nebula in the Solar System, the accumulation of the planets, and the melting and separation of asteroids. Compared with other resources on the Earth, meteorites are rare and precious: before discovery of meteorites in Antarctica and deserts, only 3000 or more pieces of meteorites, including about 100 found in China, were collected since history. Since 9 pieces of meteorites were found by Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition Team on the blue ice in the Yamato Mountain in 1969, it has been realized that the Antarctic icecap is suitable for long time reservation and there is a unique concentrating mechanism, and then around 40,000 pieces of meteorites were found in the Antarctic continent by Japanese, American, Chinese, EU and the like Antarctic Research Expedition Teams.   The Antarctic Continent has become the most meteorite concentrated area so far on the Earth.

 

CHINARE found four pieces of different types meteorites in the Grove Mountains Area which is more than 400 km far from the Zhongshan Station for the first time in 1998. It was confirmed that the Grove Mountains area is a new area rich in meteorites. In 1999-2006 total three science traverse teams were dispatched and 9,830 pieces of meteorites were found in the middle range of ridge, Harding Mountain, and ZakharoffMountain in the Grove Mountains area, and this amount enables China to be in top rank of those countries owing meteorites in the world. At present our country owns 9,834 pieces of the Antarctic meteorites, mainly stony meteorite, stony meteoric iron, and meteoric iron, among which are two Mars meteorites, one Kitchen God Star meteorite, and other rare and unique meteorites.

 

Mars meteorite: GRV99027, 9.97g in weight, the surface covered with a thin black melted shell, which is formed by melting due to high temperature resulting from the attrition when the meteorites crossed the atmosphere. From the broken part of the melted shell, the French gray picrite and olive in coarse granule crystal are exposed. As the first Mars meteorite collected and owned by China, it is obtained from the Grove Mountains in 1999 by CHINARE.

 

Mars meteorite: GRV020090, 7.54g in weight, the second Mars meteorite found by China. It was obtained from the Grove Mountains in 2002 by CHINARE. The initial analysis shows that the rock structure, mineral constitution, basic elements, and isotope of the meteorite are the same with those of the Mars meteorites found in the world.

 

Up to now altogether 37 pieces of Mars meteorites have been found and reported in the world, and they are categorized to be five types. Two Mars meteorites found by China are of the comparatively rare type, lherzolites, and there are only 6 pieces in the world. Through the research on the Martian meteorites, the fundamental questions, for example, the materials making up of the crust and the mantle, the geochemistry evidence of water existing, are expected to be answered.

 

The meteorite samples collected from the Antarctica by China are state owned and curated in PRIC,who builds the Antarctic meteorite depository. To prevent weathering resulting from the thaw of a little of snow and ice on the surface of the meteorite, all of the meteorite samples are kept frozen. At present, several domestic relevant expedition organizations are cooperating in the classification of the samples and will submit all of the information to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society in order to approve the names of the meteorites.

According to the “China Ordinance on the Administration, Application, and Usage of the Antarctic Meteorite Sample”, the meteorite samples are for scientific research, and domestic and international researchers can apply for the Antarctic meteorite samples.