Today Russell, Jake (the newest addition to our team who has arrived to assist with the packing of our equipment and securing the E-Base for the winter), and I went to the morning services at the nearby Russian Orthodox Church that overlooks Bellingshausen Station. Built after the breakup of the USSR, this rustic building was constructed of Sitka pine logs in Siberia, which were then taken apart, shipped thousands of miles down to Bellingshausen, and reassembled, on a rocky spine above both the Chilean and Russian research stations. Scrambling across the mud, sand, and rocks to hike up to the church, it’s something of a Calvary just to reach the door. (more…)

Thank you for all of your support and well-wishes. You have encouraged us to stay inspired when things were not always as rosy as we would have liked, and you still remind us on a daily basis just how many people believe in what we are trying to do.

For all of the friends and supporters of the Inspire Antarctic Expedition team members who are avidly following the story as the team is on their way to join us, thank you for your messages and know that the 2008 IAE Expedition site is up and running: http://expedition.2041.com. You can watch your friends and family as they travel through Antarctica and leave comments on their posts on that site.

All the best from the EBGL team here in Bellingshausen and please continue to follow the adventure!

To say that we have become a truly formidable team doesn’t begin to describe our camaraderie, with a simple understanding that we could not have accomplished any task, large or small, as individuals, but that through teamwork we could conquer any obstacle.

It was quite touching to receive the following message on our Message Wall yesterday from an outside perspective, a gentleman who crossed our path here in Bellingshausen last week, when we first arrived.

Ajay, thank you for highlighting the conditions of our endeavor. Your words were received with great humility and both comforted and inspired our small team. (more…)

Well what a day. Today was my first attempt of installing solar thermal panels and I know you’re all asking, “Did it go well?”. Let me tell you it went spot on.

Having only ever seen a solar thermal panel attached to my colleague Pete Forest’s roof back in the UK, during a show-around to see how it all works, let’s just say I was not fully confident when the time came that I could successfully install not one, but two panels!

The beauty of this solar thermal technology is that it’s simple. A basic knowledge of plumbing and some hard work, and anyone out there can install solar thermal panels. With the added benefit of my right hand man Benjamin Contreras, one of 2041’s Antarctic contacts, the job seemed to go very easily.

Once the frames were built, the individual solar tubes fit straight into the manifold. I then attached a pump and a few sensors to form a fully working solar thermal system.

The greatest part of the day came once the system was up and running. As we pumped the first bit of water through, we could immediately feel a rise in temperature in the water, and in this very beautiful, sunny, warm and humid weather (HA!), it was a good thing, as I needed a shower.

As an American, the old adage from the Great Depression of the 1930’s, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” takes on a certain resonance here in the Antarctic.

At the E-Base and E-Home, everything that can be recycled is recycled, and not in the sense of putting down your second cup of coffee, lightheartedly separating milk cartons from newspapers, leaning out the back door, and tossing them in their respective recycling bins, but recycling in the sense of pulling on rubber boots, bundling up in cold-weather clothing and wandering around Bellingshausen scouring trash, scrap wood, packing materials, etc, and looking at everything with a gimlet eye to determine what can be reused or turned into something useful. There are no handy hardware or camping supply stores in the Antarctic, and if you need something, you have to be creative.

Plastic loading pallets left from a resupply ship to one of the international research stations in the area form the floor of the E-Home, and a rusting pile of decades old angle-iron and steel cable become, with the help of a hacksaw and some physical effort, a full set of tent stakes and guy-line to secure the E-Home against strong storm winds. A futon bed frame with broken legs, thanks to some clever handiwork from Russell, is turned into a wall-mounted desk at the E-Base. Scrapwood of various sizes and lengths form the frame of our solar water heating system.

When one of the wind generator tailfins broke, we weren’t able to call a friendly toll-free telephone number to order a replacement—instead we wired it back together with some (found) steel cable, and soon the generator was aloft and generating electricity again.

Even the cardboard box from the crew of the ship Vavilov that once contained a going-away present of fresh fruit (alas, the fruit is long gone…hello Scurvy!) is now, after being cut down to form a flat surface, serving as the floor mat for our muddy boots as we enter the E-Base.

Making do, Antarctic style…

In January 2004, I started working with a group of aerospace students on a rover project called Polarbot. This tele-operated, GPS enabled, solar powered rover was designed to be operated in polar environments. Four years and four student groups later, the rover was finally tested in King George Island Antarctica while visiting 2041 at the E-Base.

We learned a lot these last few days while testing the rover: from design and development problems to packaging, shipping and logistics issues. Overall it was a great experience for me to see the work of several students finally tested.

I am sincerely thankful to 2041 for hosting me at their E-Base, and helping me ship, assemble and test the rover. And most importantly for providing an opportunity to experience Antarctica.

Guest Post by Satish Chetty - Mentor at Stanford University’s Aerospace Department

Well imagine that happens when you can’t head home and have a nice warm shower and a change of clothes to make you feel instantly better. Imagine not being able to turn on the light at the flick of a switch.

The past few days have been really tough. There has been a constant icy wind and it hasn’t stopped raining. Everything I have is wet and I feel cold to the core. But in order for our Antarctic life to get any easier we’ve had to persevere… to work outside in the driving rain and freezing cold to get our two wind turbines up and running.

It’s simple really. Without our turbines we would have no electricity. That means no light, no heat and no power for our computers to tell you about this truly amazing experience.

Today we finally finished putting up those turbines. We now have a power supply - and even better we have a power supply that is clean, green and 100% renewable. Keeping our commitment to live off renewable energy in Antarctica has been incredibly hard but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

When our batteries are full and the turbines are still generating electricity we convert that extra energy to heat through an electric heater. As I sit here writing I can hear this little heater whirring away - so warming the air around me ever so slightly.

It will never have the same visual effect as burning logs in an open fire on a dark Winter’s night but this little fan heater as brought more warmth to me than the flames of a thousand fires.

It’s difficult to describe how much we have struggled to get to this point but I’m proud to say that, despite everything, we are here in Antarctica living off renewable energy.

Being out here really does make you think about how much we take for granted.

Polar Bot details (PDF, 156KB)

Every time one enters the E-Base there ensues a clumsy ballet as the transition from outside boots to indoor footwear begins. Stomping up the stairs to the vestibule, hopping on one foot while trying to pull off a muddy Sorrel boot, while at the same time not taking a single step into the E-Base, requires a certain skill, and it’s quite tempting just to keep your outside boots on when you simply have to dash in to get a needed tool. Try as we might, mud and dirt always seem to make their way into the E-Base and the E-Home—broom and dustpan duty is one of our many daily chores. (more…)

What can I say so far it’s just been amazing since I got here, I haven’t stopped smiling. We got here about 11pm Saturday night. We had to do a bit of work emptying the sleeping accommodation building of its contents before we could bed down, and were all properly exhausted when we finally fell asleep.

And it’s just been non-stop since then! We got our first light powered up today (check out the video!) and we are going to tackle the wind turbine tomorrow.

We have some amazing people out here, each bringing their own individual personality to the team. I couldn’t think of any other people I would want to spend my time out here with and I love the fact I have this opportunity to do this.

If I have learnt one think so far, is that it doesn’t matter what you want to do or how hard you think it might be, just go for it and see what happens! That’s what I did and look where I am now: writing this from Antarctica!

Keep watching and speak to you all soon.