Tara Polar Station
6 Sailors, 6 scientists, and one goal – to know more about the melting of ice in the Arctic, which increasingly prevents explorations to the mysterious region.
A vessel of 20 million euros and 12 people. This is so, an investigation ship that will cross the Arctic Ice Cloak in search of new information about this mysterious land mass.
And it can be quite useful: due to the difficulty in circulating in the north pole, scientists are mainly based on satellite data, summer expeditions and winter ice fields. But it is increasingly difficult to cross the Arctic due to – the research fields have even had to evacuate, leaving the space without any monitoring in winter.
Tara Ocean Foundation, French NGO, will then build a floating shelter for research teams. The structure will be conceived to resist the strict winters of the Arctic, where temperatures can go down to the -50°C.
It is a 26-meter boat that has a technology that allows you to get up and sit on ice. The project even has a “Monthly pool” which allows investigators to direct access to the ocean without having to drill the ice.
“The inspiration was really to build a shelter that could house scientists during the polar night, throughout an Arctic season,” NGO President Chris Bowler, who describes the project as a Arctic version of the International Space Station: “We hope to develop the Tara Polar Station as an international installation, which scientists can apply to use.”
The crew, six sailors and six scientists, is actualemtne being recruited. People on board will have to take the keys, open things, move everything and notice things, ”says Bowler.“ We need people who are very good in DIY, very practical people. ”
The goal is, in the next 20 years, 10 2 year tripsto build a database on Arctic, focusing on the gradual disappearance of ice, as well as the coverage of clouds and the microbiological disturbance of the food networks in the region.
“On the one hand, we will certainly be telling a very, very sad story, the loss of marine ice in summer, potentially the loss of different types of organisms,” says Bowler. “But we will also be learning a lot about this fantastic ecosystemwhich we know very little. ”
