ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS
Tourism Industry |
Brief news items on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
non-government expedition activities.
ANAN 55
Wednesday, 12 September 2001
News in this edition:
55-01. Bellingshausen clean-up logistics announced, then
deferred.
55-02. Climbing, skiing venture, targets Danco Coast.
55-03. Solar power, fuel cells, proposed for 2002-03
traverses.
55-04. Philatelic focus for proposed tourist voyage.
55-05. Group plans traverses in both polar regions in 2002.
55-06. Coming events relevant to non-government activities.
BELLINGSHAUSEN CLEAN-UP LOGISTICS
ANNOUNCED, THEN DEFERRED
[ANAN-55/01]
‘Mission Antarctica’ (MA), the non-government group that has been assisting the Russian national program to clean up Bellingshausen station on King George Island (KGI), is making major changes to the plans it announced just a few weeks ago for the shipment, early next year, of some 1,000 tonnes of waste from the station to Uruguay for recycling.
According to information linked to the group’s web site last month the UK-based organisation, which is funded by sponsorship from a wide range of companies in several nations, was to have used the Russian-registered vessel 'Bashmakov' to carry the waste from Bellingshausen and to provide students from many nations with the opportunity to visit Antarctica.
What MA says are "temporary funding shortfalls" has meant, however, that it has been unable to seal the contract for 'Bashmakov' as originally hoped. Representatives of the group told ANAN last weekend that they are confident that monies will eventually be forthcoming and that their project will proceed during the coming austral summer, although in just what form, and whether the 'Bashmakov' will be involved, is not known at this stage. Senior MA personnel are understood to be visiting South America this week in an attempt to develop alternative arrangements for transport of materials from Bellingshausen to Montivideo.
Since the mid-1990s, MA has provided resources that have enabled additional Russian national program staff to be employed to work on the Bellingshausen clean up. As a result, large pieces of metal have been cut into manageable sizes and waste oil from rusty barrels has been transferred to new plastic containers for shipping. The group has also been attempting for several years to raise funds to charter a vessel for shipment of the waste from KGI (ANAN-38/06, 3 January 2001).
Prior to last week’s set-back, the seventy-metre ‘Bashmakov’, which can carry up to forty-two passengers and around 350 tonnes of cargo, was to have conducted up to three, two-week, voyages to Bellingshausen from Ushuaia, Argentina, over a two-month period from early January. The ship was to have been provided by the Russian-registered company Polar Aurora (ANAN-51/09, 18 July 2001).
MA’s first trip south next January was planned as what the group calls a "purely working voyage to recover a large amount of the waste". That operation, which was to be accompanied by a "waste management expert", involves a major effort at Bellingshausen to load the maximum amount of materials possible for transport to Ushuaia.
Subsequent voyages, which were to also load rubbish and waste at KGI, were to be open to up to sixty student and teachers from some 850 schools around the world that are affiliated with the International Baccalaureate Organisation which works at the university entrance level. Those schools were provided with information about the venture last month and encouraged to apply to take part in the voyages.
On each of the student trips, three to four days were scheduled at Bellingshausen to load waste, but a similar amount of time had also been allowed for tourist-type landings and visits to places such as Deception Island, Paradise Bay, the Lemaire Channel and Port Lockroy, and were to involve what MA says was "more educational and experimental elements".
The cost of participation for schools was put at a minimum of $US400 for clothing, educational kits, travel insurance and personal expenses. Mission Antarctica said at the time that it was "finding sponsors" who were to cover air fares and other costs for those involved.
Given that 1,000 tonnes of waste materials were involved, each 'Bashmakov' voyage would have had to discharged waste at Ushuaia for later trans-shipment to Uruguay, and two days had been scheduled in the southern Argentine port between voyages for that purpose. No details were released, however, about just how and where the waste was to be stored, or how and when it would be moved to Uruguay. Originally, MA had hoped to ship the waste to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for recycling, discussions being held to that end earlier this year (ANAN-40/01, 31 January 2001).
Mission Antarctica’s twenty-two metre yacht ‘2041’, which has visited the Peninsula region four times over the last two seasons (ANAN-38/06, 3 January 2001), is currently in Cape Town, South Africa. As yet her program of activities for the 2001-02 season has not been announced.
Details of Mission Antarctica?s project are available on line at http://www.missionantarctica.org.
CLIMBING, SKIING VENTURE, TARGETS DANCO COAST
[ANAN-55/02]
Personnel affiliated with the British Army are to undertake a range of climbing and skiing activities during a non-military adventure expedition to the Danco Coast in 2001-02 according to UK media reports late last month. The expedition's yacht, a twenty-four metre steel-hulled ketch named 'John Laing' that can carry up to eighteen people, left the UK late last month bound for Stanley in the Falkland Islands.
Few details are currently available about the venture, newspaper articles saying little other than that a "land party will ski and climb its way up a 3,050 m peak to make the first detailed map of the [Danco Coast] area and collect scientific samples" and then "explore" the plateau area which a UK national program group traversed in 1957 (ANAN-33/08, 25 October 2001). The plateau in that area forms the main spine of the Antarctic Peninsula.
It would appear, but cannot be confirmed at this time, that the group will attempt to climb to plateau level along the long ridge that runs from Portal Point at the northern end of Charlotte Bay up the Reclus Peninsula to the Foster Plateau. The plateau there is around 1,900 m above sea level, however, maps of the area do not show any peak that is close to 3,000 m as reported in the UK media, therefore just which mountain is the target for the climbers is not clear at this stage.
'John Laing' is expected to leave Stanley for the Danco Coast sometime around mid-December, and operate in that area until early February. Those involved in the Antarctic part of the venture will join and leave the yacht in Stanley, the craft being sailed from the UK to there and back by other Army and other personnel as part of an adventure training exercise.
Media reports hint that fifteen people will be on the yacht for the Danco Coast program, with perhaps ten to a dozen of them being involved in climbing and sledging operations ashore.
Information available suggests that the 'John Laing' is expected to return to the UK in May 2002.
SOLAR POWER, FUEL CELLS, PROPOSED FOR 2002-03 TRAVERSES
[ANAN-55/03]
Two separate Antarctic traverses being organised in Japan and Australia for the 2002-03 austral summer plan to use electricity generated by solar and fuel cells to drive their vehicles. The proposed solar powered expedition is said to involve a journey to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) and the fuel cell venture a full crossing of the continent, although as yet neither group has released many details of their plans.
Members of the Japan-based 'Challenge Antarctica 21' are proposing to use fuel-cell powered motor toboggans for what is planned as a seven-week, 2,700 km crossing via the SGP. The cells generate electricity by using hydrogen, combined with oxygen, and the group says that their venture is designed to demonstrate what they say is the "usefulness of the new energy source" and in the hope that it will "encourage industries to develop environmentally friendly vehicles".
Fuel cells, which unlike batteries do not require charging, are not new technology having been used on human-rated spacecraft for over thirty years. Their application on Earth has, however, been more limited, although research is currently under way in the United States, Europe and elsewhere to utilise them in the automotive industry and even in aircraft.
'Challenge Antarctica 21' has indicated that it is developing fuel-cell powered snowmobiles in cooperation with Japanese manufacturers, although which companies are involved are unknown at this stage.
Up to six people are said to be taking part in the proposed crossing although the exact route they intend to follow has not yet been announced. Organisers say that they hope the convoy of vehicles will be able to travel at between five and twenty kilometres per hour for around ten hours each day. According to information so far released, the expedition will be resupplied once at the SGP, food and other materials being delivered there by air.
While the Japanese plan to use fuel cells, the Australian venture is believed to involve the use of what is being called a 'solar dog' that runs on electricity generated from the Sun's rays.
Few details of the 'dog' have been released, although it is understood that an 'engineering version' of it has been built and is currently undergoing trials in Australia. Just how many people are to be involved with the traverse, or the logistics arrangements that will apply for the venture, have not yet been made public.
The Australian solar powered venture is being organised by Dick Smith, a high-profile businessman who has been interested and active in Antarctica for many years (ANAN-14/07, 2 February 2000). Smith has said publicly on many occasions that he is keen to undertake further activities in Antarctica; over the past year he has given solid support to operations conducted by the Australian company Ocean Frontiers (ANAN-54/04, 29 August 2001).
Late last year Smith visited Belarus to inspect the factory that made the 'Snow Bugs' used by the 'Millennium Expedition' in January 2000 (ANAN-14/02, 2 February 2000), hinting that he might be considering using them for an overland journey to the SGP from the coast of East Antarctica (ANAN-36/08, 6 December 2000). That journey is very difficult logistically, however, and Smith may have now set his sights on a journey from the Weddell Sea side of the continent to the Pole.
Only one non-government group currently operating in Antarctica, US-based commercial air operator Adventure Network International (ANI), appears to have the capability to support the Japanese and Australian ventures by both flying them to and from Antarctica and supporting them in the field (ANAN-28/02, 16 August 2000). Neither group has, however, directly mentioned the need to acquire ANI support for their ventures at this time.
PHILATELIC FOCUS FOR PROPOSED TOURIST VOYAGE
[ANAN-55/04]
Belgian company Asteria Antarctica is offering a tourist voyage late next year that has a special philatelic focus, one of its aims being to visit postal facilities at up to eight national program stations in the Antarctic Peninsula region.
Stamp collectors from many nations have a special interest in polar philately with polar philatelic societies in a number of countries, including France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. There are internet newsletters available on the subject and a number of web sites, some of which carry images of postal facilities at Antarctic and sub-Antarctic stations. Expeditions planning visits to Antarctica frequently get a significant number of requests for specially marked and signed envelopes from collectors.
What is being called the 'International Polar Philately Cruise to the Antarctic' is advertised for the period 27 December 2002 to 7 January 2003, and is to depart from, and return to, Ushuaia, Argentina. Asteria says it will sub-charter either the fifty-two berth tour ship 'Professor Multanovskiy' or the slightly smaller, forty-eight berth vessel 'Grigory Mikheev', for the planned voyage.
Apart from standard tourist visits to frequently visited sites in the north-west Peninsula area, the voyage will attempt to visit post offices at national program stations on King George Island such as Arctowski (Poland), Artigas (Uruguay), Bellingshausen (Russia), Eduardo Frei (Chile), Ferraz (Brazil) and Great Wall (China). Other such facilities listed for possible visits include Palmer (US), Port Lockroy (UK), Vernadsky (Ukraine), as well as those at Argentinian and Spanish stations at Deception Island.
English, French, German and Dutch speaking tour guides and lecturers will be on the planned voyage, and Antarctic philatelic displays and lectures are also proposed.
Details about the voyage can be down-loaded from: http://join.at/polar-philately.
The UK-based 'Polar Quest' expedition is proposing to conduct an unsupported, 2,200 km return traverse to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) from the Patriot Hills in Ellsworth Land late in 2002 as part of a venture that is also expected to involve a trek to the North Magnetic Pole (NMP).
Sean Chapple, Kevin Foster and Matthew Vivian, who are all serving members of the British Royal Marines, plan to undertake the two-pole expedition during the 2002 calendar year, a twenty-day journey to the NMP in the Canadian Arctic being scheduled for next April.
The trio says that they plan to utilise support from US-based commercial air operator Adventure Network International (ANI) for the SGP traverse. ANI is, according to the expedition, to be engaged to fly them to the Patriot Hills from Punta Arenas, Chile, early in November 2002, and to provide search and rescue cover during their traverse.
According to the expedition's web site, the three men propose to use parasails on the traverse to the SGP and back to the Patriot Hills, which they anticipate will take them around sixty days. Dutch pair Marc Cornelissen and Wilco van Rooijen took sixty-six days for a similar two-way, parasail-assisted journey, during the 2000-01 austral summer (ANAN-39/10, 17 January 2001).
The Canadian-based international expedition 'Pole to Pole 2000' conducted similar treks to the NMP and SGP in April and December, respectively, last year, although the latter was limited to a 220-km trip from latitude 88° south. Nine persons from seven nations were involved (ANAN-32/06, 25 October 2000), the treks in both hemispheres being linked by a series of activities conducted by the group as it travelled southwards through North, Central and South America (ANAN-38/04, 3 January 2001).
Further details of Polar Quest's plans are available on line at: http://www.polarquest.co.uk.
COMING EVENTS RELEVANT TO NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
[ANAN-55/06]
Please forward notice of events via e-mail to: tourism@aad.gov.au. Up-dates are made to ANAN's web site at
http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp as soon as new information comes to hand.
Please forward notice of events via e-mail to: tourism@aad.gov.au. Up-dates are made to ANAN's web site at http://www.antdiv.gov.au/goingsouth/tourism/Research/BibConf/Confer/default.asp as soon as new information comes to hand.
YEAR 2001
14-20 September (Brittany, France)
Second international exhibition for polar philately.
Contact: philex.pole@laposte.net
12-16 November (Wilton Park, U.K.)
Conference: "40 Years On: The Antarctic Treaty System in
the 21st Century".
Participation by invitation only.
YEAR 2002
4-11 January (South Geographic Pole)
South Pole Marathon.
Contact: http://www.adventure-network.com.
2 March (King George Island, Antarctica)
Fifth Antarctic Marathon and Half Marathon.
Contact: marathon@shore.net (Thom Gilligan).
Last week of June [Dates/location to be set] (Europe).
IAATO year 2002 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation
required).
15-26 July (Shanghai, China).
XXVII SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research).
15-19 July (Shanghai, China)
COMNAP XIV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and
Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
3-14 September (Warsaw, Poland)
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting XXV
YEAR 2003
July [Dates to be set] (Seattle, United States).
IAATO year 2003 annual meeting.
Contact: iaato@iaato.org (Denise Landau)(invitation
required).
[Dates to be set] (Brest, France).
COMNAP XV (including the sub-committee on Tourism and
Non-Government Operations).
Contact: jsayers@comnap.aq (Jack Sayers).
23 November (Queen Mary and Dronning Maud Land regions).
Total solar eclipse (See ANAN-3/08, 1 September 1999).
ANTARCTIC NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY NEWS (ANAN)
ANAN's aim is to provide a periodic summary of non-government activities in Antarctica. It is prepared from contributions from company, governmental, academic and private individuals with an interest in this area of endeavour on or around the southern-most continent.
EDITOR: Dave Moser (David.Moser@aad.gov.au).
POSTAL: Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia 7054
TELEPHONE: +61-3-6232-3347 (2200-0600 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3500.
RESEARCH/WRITING: Martin Betts (Martin.Betts@aad.gov.au)
TELEPHONE/FACSIMILE: +61-3-6267-4790 (2200-1100 UTC).
FACSIMILE: +61-3-6232-3500.
NEXT ISSUE: ANAN-56 to be issued on Wednesday, 26 September 2001
Deadline for items: Sunday,23 September 2001 @ 2359 UTC. (send any items to tourism@aad.gov.au)