Mike Hettwer -Fotografo.

In the Gobero Area of the Sahara Desert in Niger, a 6,000 year old "Tenerian" skeleton was found with his middle finger in his mouth for reasons that are unknown. The average daily high temperature in this part of the Sahara Desert was 120F degrees (49C), a far cry from the Green Sahara 4-9,000 years ago. (© Mike Hettwer)

This cast of a Suchomimus dinosaur seen in Agadez, Niger, was donated to the country of Niger by paleontologist Paul Sereno at the Flamme de la Paix ceremony, that celebrated the end of a five year civil war. Suchomimus was a 110 million year old meat eater with a dinosaur's body and a crocodile's head. Over 20 new species of dinosaurs and crocodiles were found on this three month expedition. (© Mike Hettwer)

Six thousand years ago, a mother and two children died at the same time and were buried here holding hands. Someone obviously cared a great deal, as the scientist found that flowers were placed above and below the bodies. It is not yet known how they died. (© Mike Hettwer)

Dr. Chris Stojanowski of Arizona State University and an an undergrad student examine a woman who died at age twenty at the very rich Gobero archeology site. (© Mike Hettwer)

This Tenerian man was found with his head buried in a pot and was affectionately known as "Pot Head". He also had a crocodile ankle bone and a wild boar tusk among the grave goods. (© Mike Hettwer)

This 8,000 year-old giraffe rock carving in DaBous, Niger is considered one of the finest petroglyphs in the world. The giraffe has a leash on its nose implying some level of taming the animals. It was found relatively recently on the top of a granite hill by local Touaregs and dates to the Kiffian era of 7,000 - 9,000 years ago. (© Mike Hettwer)

A previous burial was pushed out of the way to make way for this woman's skeleton. There were two football-field-size cemeteries found on this site, where 250 skeletons were found. (© Mike Hettwer)

A Wodaabe boy walks the family cows home each night from a well five miles away. The Wodaabe may be the closest modern relatives to the groups found at the huge archeology excavation site. (© Mike Hettwer

Interestingly, ancient sand has a memory of when it last saw light. To provide dates for the original lakebed, a hole must be dug to the original lake bottom on a pitch black, moonless night. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of the sand completed at a US lab proved the lake bottom was formed 15,000 years ago during the last ice age. (© Mike Hettwer

Frequent sandstorms blew up to 30 mph during the dig, sometimes quickly covering the skeletons that took a day to excavate. (© Mike Hettwer)

Project Exploration is a Chicago-based non-profit organization whose goal is to make natural science accessible to the public, especially urban youth. In October 2003, University of Chicago paleontologist Dr. Paul Sereno and 11 team members crisscrossed northern Niger’s Sahara desert in search of Africa’s youngest dinosaurs. The National Geographic Society and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation sponsored the expedition, and the National Geographic Society Education Foundation supported the Project Exploration “Dinosaur Expedition 2003” Web site initiative. Through the site, the team communicated daily with school children and teachers to provide a window into real-life science in action for tens of thousands of visitors.
Getting connectivity at the research sites was indispensable in achieving the timely, educational goal of the project, as well as for dealing with all the obstacles that such an expedition could encounter. In such remote and underserved areas as the Sahara desert, satellite is the only way to communicate with the rest of the world.
Mike Hettwer, Systems Manager at Project Exploration, recently spoke with Satellite Business Solutions magazine and shared how satellite technology made Project Exploration’s mission possible in safe conditions.