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In 2020, the Lunar and Planetary Institute of Texas purchased a meteorite from Indonesia for $1.85 million, which was converted into RMB 12 million, and a collector in Beijing directly purchased China's best black treasure green meteorite at a price of 40 million.
In the face of such a high price, many "meteorite hunters" have gone to look for traces of meteorites, including Yang Kexin, a girl born in the 90s in Guizhou, who has persisted on this road for five years.
During these five years, she shuttled through the desert Gobi Desert and crossed the hinterland of Lop Nur hundreds of times, not only nearly lost her life many times, but also walked more than 100,000 kilometers in no man's land, and under this hardship, she picked up more than 600 meteorites, weighing more than 400 kilograms.
This makes people wonder, how did Yang Kexin collect these meteorites, and where would she use them?
Five years of hard work
In 2012, Yang Kexin received an invitation from stone friends to go to Lop Nur for meteorite hunting, when she learned the news, Yang Kexin was also very excited, she felt that it was like a dream, so she immediately shared the good news with her family, what she didn't expect was that her family disagreed.
Because she was only 22 years old at the time, and this kind of long-term exercise was not only full of all kinds of dangers, even some rough old men couldn't bear it, let alone this quiet and beautiful little girl, but even in the face of the opposition of many people, Yang Kexin was still determined to go.
After making some preparations, Yang Kexin followed the stone friends to Lop Nur, you know, Lop Nur is not only known as the "Ear of the Earth", but also known as the "Sea of Death", not only at an altitude of about 780 meters, but also the world's most famous drought center.
Especially the temperature situation, when people enter there, they will feel unusually dry and hot, if it is in summer, the highest temperature in Lop Nur is as high as more than 40 degrees, and even in winter, its lowest temperature is about minus 20 degrees Celsius.
In order to be able to carry out their work as soon as possible, they embarked on the journey at about four o'clock in the morning, and around noon, they were parking in a safe area to rest, but after all, Yang Kexin was a girl, so it was also very inconvenient in some aspects, so she could only walk far away for convenience.
The original article was published on Chinanews.com on June 11, 2018, about a report on a girl in Guiyang who retrieved more than 600 meteorites and crossed the Gobi more than 100 times in 5 years
But unfortunately, she was unfortunately lost on the way back, but fortunately it was not very far, after a period of delay, she returned to the place where she had just rested, and before she could breathe a sigh of relief, she found that the convoy had driven away, just like that, Yang Kexin was completely lost in Lop Nur.
And Yang Kexin's equipment and communication equipment were all left in the car, you know, it is very dangerous to get lost in Lop Nur, because the environment there is very harsh, and at night there will be all kinds of hungry beasts, especially for her who has no experience in wild survival?
As time passed, the sky gradually darkened, and she was very scared at this time, and thought that her life could be explained here, but she had no choice but to stay where she was and wait for her teammates to find her, because she was afraid that walking alone would make the result worse.
But fortunately, at night, she vaguely saw a light in front of her, at this time Yang Kexin, who was cold and hungry, seemed to grasp the straw in her life, so she hurriedly waved to the front and called for help, as the light got closer and closer, Yang Kexin found that it was her teammates who came back to look for it.
After seeing her kind teammates get out of the car, the tears in Yang Kexin's eyes couldn't stop flowing, this incident was her first challenge between life and death, and in follow-up interviews, she often mentioned this matter, and she still feels a little scared when she looks back on it now.
After Yang Kexin's inquiry, it turned out that the person in the front car thought she got into the back car, and the person in the back thought she got in the front car, so there was an oolong incident, but fortunately, they were able to find it in time, which also avoided a serious consequence.
Under this experience, Yang Kexin also found the first meteorite in her life, although it weighed only 20 grams, but for Yang Kexin, this is the result of her own efforts, and it is also a certification for her career as a meteorite hunter.
After having the first experience, Yang Kexin gradually changed from a quiet and beautiful little girl to a very experienced meteorite hunter, and even invested five years of her youth.
During these five years, she shuttled through the desert Gobi Desert and crossed the hinterland of Lop Nur hundreds of times, not only nearly lost her life many times, but also walked more than 100,000 kilometers in no man's land, and under this hardship, she picked up more than 600 meteorites, weighing more than 400 kilograms.
Rejection of sky-high acquisitions
When many friends who like to collect, after learning that Yang Kexin had more than 600 meteorites in her hands, they looked for her and hoped to buy some meteorites, but Yang Kexin refused, for this reason, these enthusiasts even offered a high price of 10,000 yuan a gram.
10,000 yuan per gram? Yang Kexin has more than 400 kilograms in her hands, and if she casually sells some of the meteorites in her hand, then she will not be able to obtain a considerable amount of wealth? Moreover, she has no worries about food and clothing in the second half of her life.
That is, she refused to sell these meteorites, and was also ready to donate half of the meteorites in her hands to the country, because she believed that these meteorites were more valuable for scientific research, so she could not be limited to money, but should make some modest contributions to her country's scientific research.
After donating half of the meteorite, Yang Kexin also took out all her savings and returned to her hometown Guiyang to open the Guizhou Meteorite Culture Science Museum, and served as the curator by herself.
When the news came out, many friends from other places came to visit the Guizhou Meteorite Culture Science Museum, after all, this is the "star" in the sky for us, and in order to let people know more about the origin of these meteorites, she also personally became a meteorite docent.
With the gradual increase in the fame of the science museum, nearby schools often bring students to visit, in order to allow students to have a better experience of the museum, Yang Kexin also hired several professional docents, the purpose of which is to hope that more children can contribute to the national deep space exploration in the future.
And in 2021, Yang Kexin was also invited to participate in the CCTV program "Let's Talk", and in the program, she also had a video connection science dialogue with Chief Designer Li Haitao related to the universe and meteorites.
The original article was published in Zhizhi Guiyang on March 04, 2021, about Guiyang citizens appearing on CCTV "Let's Talk" and talking to the chief designer of the tracking and control system of China's Mars exploration mission
Li Haitao, as China's ambassador for aerospace science popularization, said: "From the perspective of popular science, popular science has a great impact on primary and secondary school students, and holding a popular science activity can not only make primary and secondary school students interested in relevant popular science knowledge, but also change their ideals and devote themselves to the aerospace industry when they grow up." ”
When Yang Kexin opened the popular science museum in Guizhou, the people who went to visit it were endless, and over the years, Yang Kexin has been actively participating in popular science activities related to the universe and meteorites, the purpose of which is to let people know more about meteorites and let people really open a door to the universe in their hearts.
But with the science museum in a state of deficit for a long time, this also made Yang Kexin have to accept the reality, because there are other staff recruited in this science museum, and they still need to pay a fee every month, so in order to be able to solve this problem, Yang Kexin thought of a new idea.
That is to sell some peripheral products near the science museum, as well as produce meteorite ornaments and other small items, which can not only continue to complete their ideals, but also cope with the pressure of reality, of course, this may also be the best status quo of "half life, half ideals" for Yang Kexin.
And for Yang Kexin's contribution to the spread of meteorite culture, many stone friends have also donated their treasured meteorites, and even the local government has carried out relevant policy subsidies for their science museum when they learned of Yang Kexin's difficult expenditure, and her family sold the house in order to support her.
I believe that in the future, there will be more forces from all walks of life to work with Yang Kexin to do a better job in meteorite science popularization, and let more people understand the planets, the universe, and all the mysterious things in outer space through meteorites.
Key sources of information:
The original article was published on Chinanews.com on June 11, 2018, about a report on a girl in Guiyang who retrieved more than 600 meteorites and crossed the Gobi more than 100 times in 5 years
The original article was published in Zhizhi Guiyang on March 04, 2021, about Guiyang citizens appearing on CCTV "Let's Talk" and talking to the chief designer of the tracking and control system of China's Mars exploration mission