Hunting for Meteorites in the Desert with Sideris and Detectorshop

The Sideris project is about to take off, a docu-series created by director and author Giuseppe Ferreri that explores the fascinating world of meteorites.

Giorgio and Lina Tomelleri will set sail from Genoa in a few days, heading to Tangier and then, moving south, they will arrive at their intended destination after a day of travel: the Sahara desert. Here, in areas free from vegetation and basalt, they will turn on their metal detectors and begin their hunt for meteorites.

"It won't be easy to find pieces of asteroids," explains Giorgio Tomelleri, "especially since these lands are heavily searched by local researchers who, having realized the value of meteorites, have become particularly skilled in their searches.".

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The Sideris team will focus in particular on a small mountain village where a meteorite crashed some time ago, creating a crater of about fifty meters: "We will comb that terrain inch by inch," he says, "with the hope of finding something interesting."

The European Space Agency (ESA) has also paid attention to the mission, which will last about 15 days, and in anticipation of future space expeditions, has established an informational course for astronauts dedicated to the search for meteorites.

The Sideris project, financed through a crowdfunding initiative, has seen Detectorshop as the main sponsor.

Stars of the docu-film are Giorgio - known as the Indiana Jones of meteorites - and his wife Lina. The couple will sleep among sand dunes and oases, covering hundreds of kilometers with their eyes fixed on the ground, and with a little luck, with the support of a videomaker crew, they will try to return with footage of a real meteorite discovery.

An impossible mission? Not at all. For 25 years, Giorgio and Lina Tomelleri have been traveling thousands of kilometers in their Toyota jeep through African deserts, and the world's most important meteorite discoveries are due to their finds.

They have even found meteorites from