After 31 years during which the Japanese antarctic meteorite program has existed, 25 years of the ANSMET program, and three or four field seasons by European consortia, we have a collection of around 30 000 meteorite specimens from Antarctica. Is there anything we can learn from this massive group of specimens that we could not have learned by patiently waiting for falls to occur during the normal course of events, in more convenient regions of the world? We have seen already that one martian meteorite from Antarctica has had an important role in establishing Mars as the planet of origin of the SNC meteorites. Our first lunar meteorite, also found in Antarctica, has provided proof that rocks can be lofted into space, at least from smaller planetary bodies. The antarctic collection has added significantly to the numbers of available specimens of some of the rarer meteorite groups. But all this would have occurred sooner or later over the careers of successive generations of planetologists, patiently waiting for new falls to arrive. So the question is, ‘Is there anything unique about the antarctic collection to justify all the effort that has been expended in amassing it?’

I have given a lot of thought to this question, and I believe the answer is yes, for the following reasons.

• There is much to be said in favor of systematic collection and controlled curation of large numbers of meteorites in a frozen environment such as that of Antarctica. We can get an independent estimate of the proportions of the different groups of meteorites reaching Earth.

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