When will the tourists follow? Polar Explorers Set Sail for Antarctic
Six years ago Ukraine and Great Britain signed an agreement to transfer the Faraday Antarctic Station to Ukraine. Thus, we became one of the 17 nations keeping a permanent Antarctic polar expedition engaged in research of upper atmospheric strata, magnetic waves and meteorological measurements. On January 19, the Horyzont research ship set out on another Antarctic winter expedition with the necessary yearlong supply of food (twenty tons), equipment, fuel, and lubricants. In Kyiv, a farewell party was staged for the seventh team of wintering polar explorers.
The scientific work expected from this expedition is supposed to become a salient component in the State South Pole Research Program for 2002-2010. They will also contribute to the fulfillment of Ukraine’s obligations to its foreign partners under the Protocol on Environmental Protection in the Antarctic. According to Vice Prime Minister Volodymyr Semynozhenko, despite the fact that the expedition costs the nation’s budget around $1 million annually, the unique research conducted by Ukrainian polar explorers is “a good investment” and augments Ukraine’s international image.
Incidentally, the plans of Ukraine’s scientific structures that deal with polar expeditions also include arrangements for tourist travel to the Antarctic. Such a practice of extreme recreation has long since become popular worldwide and, being a rather expensive pastime, it yields colossal profits that go to fund additional research of the South Pole. Since a similar Ukrainian project is only being worked out, The Day asked experienced polar explorers how one can spend free time in the Antarctic snow. “Our fellows have a regular tradition, to bathe in the ocean. On the whole, we try to have active kinds of recreation: we play football, go skiing, and shoot videos. All this also helps one cope with psychological problems,” says Station Chief Viktor Sytov who has a long record of winter expeditions. The psychological element is really important, considering the monotonous landscape and routine work, the same people in the team during a whole year: rookies turn up only after a year, when the next ship from Ukraine arrives. Because of the station’s specific location, the Ukrainian polar explorers can contact expeditions from other countries only by radio.
In such conditions, psychological breakdowns are simply inadmissible, says system mechanic Bohdan Havryliuk. Before going to the Antarctic, all members of the future expedition undergo a compulsory psychological training course. Incidentally, in order to avoid conflicts and because of the extreme work conditions, no women are included in the expedition. The all-male polar team can only keep thinking of them while mixing with the curious penguins that occasionally drop in or have a drink in the station bar. The latter serves libations in very limited quantities, only on Saturdays and special holidays. The polar explorers’ wives, although understanding the importance of the job their husbands do, suffer from the separation nonetheless. As Viktor Sytov’s wife confessed, this third time it was much harder than before to let her husband go.
