ANTARCTICA | Thursday, 27 June 2013 | Views [359] | View Smaller Image
At the beginning of February, the last plane left Concordia Station, one of only three manned inland Antarctic stations. I took this with Frank Hurley's shot he took 100 years ago of Sir Ernest Shackleton rowing off Elephant Island to try to reach South Georgia, to raise the alarm and to rescue his men. Here at Concordia, you soon left after a blast of ice to the face from the DC3 plane engines, to contemplate your fate. We were left standing as a team of 13 people, to begin a stretch of 9 months of complete isolation, where the temperature drops so low (-80C) that no plane fly in to rescue you. You are about to experience the best and worst the Antarctic winter has to offer.
The 9 month period of complete isolation is important as it is used to mimic the conditions for long distance class spaceflight missions, for example where it would take 8-9 months to reach Mars (one way) with currently technology. It also allows scientists to study how teams can operate as they would isolated on the surface of Mars.
Welcome to one of the world's greatest and most peculiar journeys.
