BELARE Team Welcomes 2023 with a Full Plate
The new year signals the halfway point during the season. While the only scientists present at the station this season wind up their work before heading home next week, the BELARE team prepares for the arrival of another flight at Perseus Intercontinental Runway and the arrival of the supply ship at the Queen Maud Land coast.
A calm yet festive New Year’s
With a few members of the team still performing the usual reconnaissance of the coastline to find the most suitable ship unloading site, the rest of the team had a calm yet festive New Year’s Eve.
Assisted by station doctor Jeanne Picard and engineer Nicolas Herinckx, the cook Thomas Duconseil prepared a festive and elaborated meal, which the team enjoyed while socializing and talking about the various projects they’ve been working on until midnight arrived.
Work continues
New Year’s Day was back to work for everyone!
Meteorite hunters from the BAMM project have been using the international team in hopes to able to find even more micrometeorites to analyze when they return home.
Meanwhile, IPF engineers have continued maintenance of scientific instruments of the various projects collecting data at or near the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. And the engineers from Venturi have been busy testing the upgrades they’ve been making to the Venturi Antarctica, the world’s first fully electric polar exploration vehicle.
After returning from Perseus, where the team has been working on installing an office, living facilities, and solar panel energy supply at the hangar next to the runway, Alain and colleagues then headed out to the coast to complete reconnaissance to find the best offloading site for the ship, which is scheduled to arrive in mid-January. Fog and white-out conditions have made the reconnaissance task challenging. In spite of fast-changing conditions, the team managed to find a safe place to offload cargo from the ship.
The reconnaissance team has brought several containers of waste to be evacuated from the station to the coast. The remainder of the load will be transported to the coast when the ship arrives. The ship will bring the components of the long-awaited new water treatment system.
The station will have a second cook, David Rigotti, a veteran of several seasons with BELARE, and Johan Demuylder, who will help with cabling the garage in the annex and installing the new water treatment system.
Picture: Alain Hubert at the coast looking for a good spot to unload the ship - © International Polar Foundation