Poolreiziger Alain Hubert nodigt u - leerkracht en/of leerling uit het het vijfde middelbaar (ASO, TSO) - om samen deel te nemen aan de wedstrijd Polar Quest. Hierbij zal je je niet alleen in een heus wetenschappelijk avontuur storten samen met je hele klas, maar maak je ook kans op een bijzondere prijs: outdoor materiaal ter waarde van 250 euro voor alle leerlingen van de winnende klas, en een unieke reis naar het Princess Elisabeth-station in Antarctica voor de begeleidende leerkracht. Bekijk de trailer en ga snel naar http://www.educapoles.org/nl !

For those who don't know, a windscoop is a special kind of ice configuration created by the action of the wind brushing up against the landscape. It's basically a bowl-like depression in the ice that is reminiscent of an ice-cream scoop. It forms near obstructions such as rocks.There is one windscoop next to Utsteinen, which never ceases to impress scientists, newcomers and seasoned veterans visiting the station. We thought it would be nice to show people what it looks like through a small video.The International Polar Foundation would like to thank T.A.G.E.O. for giving us the rights to use their music as the soundtrack for this video. 

From Cape Town, South Africa, the Ivan Papanin, a Russian ship, reached the coast of Crown Bay on December 21st, 2008. Aboard the ship were building materials, technical equipment and some pieces of interior woodwork - everything needed to finish building the Princess Elisabeth station before the end of the IPY in March 2009. Alain Hubert and a team arrived on-site to offload the containers.

The first thing which had to be done after the team members had arrived at Utsteinen was the setting up of base camp. And the first tents to be mounted were the "mess" and "office" tents, the two most important rooms of the entire base camp. This is where team members cook, eat, socialise, plan the field work and carry out satellite telecommunications...

Upon their arrival at Utsteinen, the members of BELARE 2008-2009 found the entrance to the garage covered by huge piles of snow. The same was true for everything else left outside from last year's expedition. The snow in front of the garage entrance was piled up almost to the roof. The station, on the other hand, we found to be completely uncovered by snow, just as the wind tunnel tests on a model of the station had predicted.

The BELARE 2008-2009 expedition has now truly begun. The footage in this short movie was filmed upon arriving at Utsteinen. Alain Hubert opens the station's front door for the first time in eight months. In his speech, Alain reiterates the importance of the first "zero emission" research station in Antarctica for future generations.

A scaled mock-up of the Princess Elisabeth station's technical core was built at Laborelec (research centre of the group GDF SUEZ) in Linkebeek. For the past three and a half months, the technical systems allowing the station to reach "zero emission" were pre-assembled inside the mock-up for prior integration tests. Here is a short sequence on the assembly of the ventilation system inside the roof of the station.Copyright credits: Electrabel / GDF SUEZ.

The equipment load necessary to build the station was carried to the base camp, over almost 200 km, using three "Prinoth" tractors and eight sledges. In total, it took the team 18 traverses and over 700 hours to haul all of the containers back to the base camp.

This time, it's for good: night time has returned. When the sun dissapears,the moon comes out to follow the Prinoth convoy returning from the coast. Here is a short movie giving you an idea of what it all lookslike.