scientists are researching
“Wintering in Antarctica is a special case”
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The 13th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition was solemnly launched at the NASB
This year ten participants will go to the ice continent: both specialists who have already visited Antarctica (five people) and firsttimers. The expedition members will have hard work to do in order to boost the construction of their own house in Antarctica — Belarusian Antarctic station “Vechernyaya Mountain”, as well as to do scientific research as part of the state program of Antarctic studies. At the end of October, the members of the 13th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition left for St. Petersburg. Expeditionary cargoes were sent there as well. From St. Petersburg on board a Russian vessel the Belarusian polar explorers went to Antarctica. From December to mid-February, i. e. 2.5 months, scientific research and work on the deployment of the outpatient surgical module of the station will be conducted at the South Pole. The return of Belarusian polar explorers to their home country is planned in the first half of March. The day before the permanent head of all the Belarusian Antarctic expeditions Alexey Gaydashov told a BelTA correspondent about the plans to build infrastructure, scientific research, principles of selection and life of the polar explorers, as well as about the plans to do all-year research. In an abridged version we give the most interesting questions and answers.
From Spartan conditions — to comfort — Alexey Alexandrovich, how did Belarus start to explore Antarctica? What has been achieved in the past years? — Our country acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 2006. For a long time after that we worked in the field environment. The Russian side granted to use free of charge several structures that had survived since Soviet Antarctic expeditions. They were rather dilapidated, with cracks, old broken furniture, it was dark, cold and damp there. It was impossible to heat the room well: the diesel generators were weak. Sanitary conditions were very bad. We used to wash with water from the kettle, to cook on a small gas cooker with two burners which had small gas cylinders. As for our work, we mainly took measurements, collected samples and specimens to bring them to Belarus because we could not even process them on site due to the lack of scientific laboratories. Despite the fact that we had to work in harsh conditions for a long time, our zeal didn’t burn out. We went forward step by step. In 2013, the Government, the National Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Natural Resources, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, approved a plan for the construction of the
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Belarusian Antarctic Station. For two years, documentation was being developed and preparatory work was in progress. The first facility appeared in 2015, it was a communication and navigation management module.
Delegation of Belarusian polar explorers
And today the first stage of the station construction allows to house up to 11–12 people of the expedition members. Each has their own living room, albeit small, but cozy, with a heating and ventilation system. There is a separate sanitary-hygienic module. There are modern scientific laboratories in such areas as atmospheric physics and biology. There is a hydrometeorological bureau: its instrumentation allows remote measurement of the main parameters of the Antarctic natural environment, i. e. wind speed and direction, relative humidity and air temperature. And all data is immediately processed and sent to the main land. This is important, among other things, for servicing flights of Antarctic aviation and maritime navigation. — And what do the main structures of the Belarusian Antarctic Station look like now? — The service and residential module for communication and navigation management, which was built first, houses a meteorological bureau, navigation equipment, communication equipment for both Antarctica and the Mainland, aviation and ships. The second facility is an eight-section laboratory and residential module, which we completed during the 12th expedition. There are scientific laboratories, living quarters, a technological module for controlling electricity, a sanitary section with showers, washing machines, a section-sauna with a rest room, an outpatient clinic with modern control and diagnostic, physiotherapeutic equipment. Another sec-
