Emerging Technologies in Antarctica

• Main Author: Sickinger, David
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2005
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica; International Polar Year; IPY; polar night; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13983

The International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 is fast approaching. The concept of IPY 2007/08 is to have an intense, internationally coordinated campaign of polar observations, research, and analysis to improve the understanding of the polar regions and their relationship to the global climate system. Both the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the U.S. National Committee for the IPY 2007-2008 encourage the development of innovative technologies to expand the range of polar instruments and equipment available for use, including technologies such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), rovers, and uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) [ICSU04][USNC04]. These three technology areas are the focus of this review. The [CarC)1] paper lists ways in which autonomous rovers would be able to significantly contribute to science tasks in the future, they are: Mapping detailed and tedious routes: areas that require dense observations Polar night: observe surface processes that occur in the dark of polar winter Hazardous routes: traversing dangerous sea ice Extremely remote routes: reach areas where even airborne support is difficult Simple instrumentation acquisition: where manned traverses can't be justified Instrumentation requiring slow traverse: magnetometer and gravimeter data Augment manned scientific traverse: rovers on different path for 2-D statistics Measurements without pollutants: solar powered for chemical investigations Autonomous rovers will continue to evolve over time which will increase their potential to contribute in a significant way to science in Antarctica. There have been two previous GCAS literature reviews that have dealt with robotics in Antarctica. The first was from the GCAS 1998/1999 course titled "Robots and their place in Antarctica" [Nob99]. This review covered the robot Dante I which attempted to explore the crater of Mt. Erebus in 1992 and the early testing of the Nomad robot which was designed to find meteorites in Antarctica. The second GCAS review was titled "Antarctica: A Test ...