{"id":260199,"date":"2017-01-09T06:32:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T10:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?guid=1c67d8b12121590d6edaf4331c164090"},"modified":"2017-01-09T06:32:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T10:32:00","slug":"caravan-on-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=260199","title":{"rendered":"Caravan on ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\nHow do you deliver supplies to one of the remotest research stations on Earth? Put the equipment and food on skis and pull them by tractor across the ice and snow in a long caravan.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis image was taken by France\u2019s Pleiades satellite orbiting 700 km high. The convoy of supplies can be seen on the 1000 km trek from Dumont d\u2019Urville on the Antarctic coast to Concordia research station.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe traverse across Antarctica takes 10 days, climbing more than 3000 m to reach Concordia\u2019s plateau. Pulled by heavy-duty tractors, the caravans carry up to 300 tonnes of fuel, food and heavy equipment in 300 m-long convoys organised by France\u2019s IPEV polar institute.\n<\/p>\n

\nOnce at Concordia, three days are spent unpacking and preparing for the return trip. The trip back to the coast generally takes two days less because it is downhill most of the way.\n<\/p>\n

\nConcordia sits on a plateau 3200 m above sea level. A place of extremes, temperatures can drop to \u201380\u00b0C in the winter, and the Sun does not rise above the horizon in the winter, forcing the crew to live in isolation without sunlight for four months of the year.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor ESA, the isolation and extreme weather offer interesting parallels with spaceflight and living on another planet. Each year an ESA-sponsored medical doctor joins the crew of the Italian\u2013French station to monitor and run experiments on the crew of up to 15.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn addition, the area around Concordia is also used as a validation site for a number of ESA\u2019s Earth observation missions such as the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite.\n<\/p>\n

\nESA\u2019s Didier Schmitt took part in this year\u2019s traverse and is blogging about his experience<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nHow do you deliver supplies to one of the remotest research stations on Earth? Put the equipment and food on skis and pull them by tractor across the ice and snow in a long caravan.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis image was taken by France’s Pleiades satellite orbiting 700 km high. The convoy of supplies can be seen on the 1000 km trek from Dumont d’Urville on the Antarctic coast to Concordia research station.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe traverse across Antarctica takes 10 days, climbing more than 3000 m to reach Concordia’s plateau. Pulled by heavy-duty tractors, the caravans carry up to 300 tonnes of fuel, food and heavy equipment in 300 m-long convoys organised by France’s IPEV polar institute.\n<\/p>\n

\nOnce at Concordia, three days are spent unpacking and preparing for the return trip. The trip back to the coast generally takes two days less because it is downhill most of the way.\n<\/p>\n

\nConcordia sits on a plateau 3200 m above sea level. A place of extremes, temperatures can drop to –80°C in the winter, and the Sun does not rise above the horizon in the winter, forcing the crew to live in isolation without sunlight for four months of the year.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor ESA, the isolation and extreme weather offer interesting parallels with spaceflight and living on another planet. Each year an ESA-sponsored medical doctor joins the crew of the Italian–French station to monitor and run experiments on the crew of up to 15.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn addition, the area around Concordia is also used as a validation site for a number of ESA’s Earth observation missions such as the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite.\n<\/p>\n

\nESA’s Didier Schmitt took part in this year’s traverse and is blogging about his experience<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260200,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260199\/revisions\/260200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}