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by going to hover.com/Wendover. The South Pole is, without a doubt, one of
the most extreme places on earth that’s continuously inhabited by humans. In fact, it’s safe to say that there’s
nowhere in earth with such a large population—about 45 in the winter and 150 in the summer—where
nature is so constantly working to kill you. The warmest it’s ever been at the pole,
in recorded history, is just 10 degrees Fahrenheit, or -12 degrees Celsius—a temperature that
most of the world would consider absolutely unbearable—while most of the year is spent
at 50 or 60 below zero, but it’s not just temperature that gives the pole its “extreme”
classification. It’s also one of the driest places on earth,
with a relative humidity regularly dipping to 0.03%. In comparison, most places’ humidity hovers
between 55% and 75%, meaning that those at the South Pole are constantly battling skin
and body dehydration. In addition to all that, due to the thousands
of feet of ice and snow layered on top of the ground below, the Pole is located at about
9,300 feet or 2,800 meters above sea level, which for most people isn’t high enough
to be deadly, but is enough to potentially lead to sickness which could elevate the severity
of other conditions. Put together, these factors compound to paint
a pretty clear picture: the South Pole was not made for humans, but nonetheless, through
sheer force of will, we’re there, permanently. What makes this possible is the Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station. This American-run facility is now in its third
iteration. The first was built in 1956 as a simple, wooden,
pre-fabricated structure that quickly became buried by snow. This was upgraded in 1974 to a larger geodesic
dome that itself protected buildings inside, but this too was buried by snow each winter,
meaning that each summer, considerable time and fuel had to be used to dig the station
out. In a place where absolutely everything has
to be flown in, this was an enormous expense that got in the way of the science. Therefore, in the years leading up to the
turn of the millennia, the United States Antarctic Program worked to develop a more permanent
solution. And that solution was this. Now, this current structure is undoubtably
distinctive, but its design comes with good reason. The building itself is shaped like an airplane
wing, with the leading edge facing the prevailing winds. This pushes air down, accelerating it underneath
the facility, which naturally clears out the snow. As most of Antarctica is a desert, only about
8 inches or 20 centimeters of snow per year accumulates at the South Pole, but as the
temperature quite literally never goes above freezing, the snow never melts. In addition, since the landscape surrounding
the Pole is quite flat, and the winds are strong, enormous snow banks quickly form on
the upwind side of any building. While the shape of the main station building
reduces this, snow still does accumulate in front and under it. Therefore, it’s designed so that, every
ten to fifteen years, the structure will be raised up a few feet. This is a thirty-day process, which can only
happen over the three-month summer period when the station can be reached by plane,
meaning that in order to not shut down the facility during its busiest period, the building
was designed to be operational while it’s lifted. Therefore, its different components are connected
by a number of flexible joints that can move during the lifting process. Of course, the actual purpose of the station
is for research, but that poses the question, what sort of research do you actually need
to be at the South Pole for? Well, as it turns out, quite a lot. One of the top uses is for astronomy. You see, in most places, water vapor in the
air ever so slightly distorts the image from telescopes, which for most types of astronomy
isn’t a problem, but when one is trying to observe galaxies billions of light years
away, for example, precision is key. In fact, the South Pole telescope itself has
discovered truly countless far-away galaxies. In addition, thanks to this clarity, it was
a crucial component of the planet-wide network of telescopes that created the first-ever
direct image of a black hole in 2019. Beyond that, the clean air of the pole allows
for super-precise atmospheric research, and the relatively low annual accumulation allows
for climate research through studying ice-cores. This is all to say, the South Pole station
isn’t just there for prestige. It’s a critical piece of scientific infrastructure
supporting a huge variety of research. However, most of the research itself isn’t
actually conducted there. Given how expensive it is to travel to the
pole, various institutions generally only send a small number of people to the station
to calibrate and maintain their scientific equipment, while the data are sent back to
their respective headquarters’ for analysis. That means that, each summer, in that three-month
window when flights can land, there’s a flurry of activity as personnel try to get
all their work done before the season is over. Then, over winter, only a skeleton crew remains
to keep everything running. Of course, given the absolute isolation that
occurs over this period, the station staff is very carefully selected. Everyone is screened to assure that they’re
in near-perfect psychical health, as conditions that might be minor in the rest of the world
can turn deadly given the station’s lack of advanced medical care, and they’re also
subject to a extensive psychological evaluation. This is primarily to assure that they can
handle the severe degree of isolation, six-months of continuous darkness, and small work community
for nine months as, if mental health deteriorates over winter, there’s truly no way out. Over this period, there tends to only be a
single doctor at the station, conducting their work with somewhat limited medical facilities. This doctor is subject to even more rigorous
medical screening themselves, given their importance to the health of everyone else
at the facility. In fact, some countries’ Antarctic programs
even require their doctors to have their appendix removed to prevent the possibility of appendicitis. Of course, a single doctor can’t know everything,
so for any advanced conditions that arise with station staff, the facility is outfitted
with advanced telemedicine equipment, which can transmit medical data in real-time, so
specialists in the US can attempt to diagnose and treat a patient remotely. Of course, in order to do that they need internet,
which is yet another challenge at the South Pole. Most non-polar, isolated research stations
nowadays are able to rely completely on commercial satellite internet providers, but that’s
not entirely possible at the bottom of the world. Commercial satellite internet is only widespread
where there’s a market, and there’s only a market where there are lots of people. That means that most telecommunications satellites
are not positioned in an orbit that the South Pole can reliably view. Therefore, the station has to largely count
on the NASA network of communications satellites designed to link spacecraft to earth. In fact, this network is the very one the
International Space Station uses for data up and downlink. Even this system, though, is only in view
of the pole a few times per day. On November 13th, 2020, for example, the South
Pole could connect to one of its satellites from 3:29 to 3:55 pm, 4:59 to 7:05 pm, and
8:09 to 9:27 pm, meaning they only had a connection for three hours and fifty minutes that day. These NASA satellites provide the bulk of
the station’s data connection, with an overall capacity of 275 Mbps, meaning they use these
short passes to transmit the bulk of the scientific data back to the outside world, and this is
also the time when it’s possible for station staff to use the internet themselves to connect
with their families or friends. The station supplements this connection, though,
with a daily four and a half hour pass by a UK Ministry of Defense communications satellite,
which provides a much leaner 1.54 Mbps data link, and a subsequent four-hour pass by a
US military communications satellite, which allows for 10 Mbps of uplink and 30 Mbps of
downlink. For the rest of the day, the station only
has a very rudimentary 38 Kbps data link through the Iridium satellite network, meaning, for
all but the most urgent communications, it’s cut off from the world. Beyond that, even just taking out the trash
is difficult at the South Pole. The station is required by international law
to limit waste as much as possible, and this means that nearly everything brought in is
eventually brought out. All trash and recycling is collected during
the winter season, and flown back to the much larger McMurdo Station. There, recycling is processed, while trash
is grouped together and stored to be sent all the way back to the US on the single annual
resupply ship. That means that any garbage will travel 8,000
miles or 13,000 kilometers over a period of up to a year from a trash can at the South
Pole Station to a landfill in the US in order to be disposed of. The reason for this obsessiveness around cleanliness
goes beyond environmental consciousness—it’s crucial to the science conducted there. For example, there’s a zone that stretches
98 miles or 150 kilometers north-west of the station where no motor vehicles at all are
allowed. That’s because this zone is upwind from
that station’s atmospheric research station, which is located there due to the pollutant-free
air, and the exhaust of one snowmobile could contaminate the air enough to throw-off the
observations, potentially complicating some research. Now, it’s worth pointing out that this structure,
the South Pole station, is the only thing separating the staff of the facility from
the deadly Antarctic environment and, for nine months a year, the facility is entirely
unreachable. Outside of the summer season, stretching from
November to mid-February, the weather is simply too harsh for planes to land with any degree
of safety, so if this facility fails, there is almost zero opportunity for evacuation. To put this into perspective, if the International
Space Station fails, for example, astronauts can almost immediately load into the spacecraft
they came in and return to earth. At the South Pole, even if it were life or
death, and even if a pilot was willing to put their life on the line to get to the pole,
there are stretches of weeks when the weather makes it physically impossible to get a plane
on the ground in one piece. However, in very limited circumstances, when
it becomes clear that someone has developed a medical condition severe enough that they
will not make it till summer, and when there’s a flight crew willing to put their lives on
the line to save another’s, the Antarctic Program has authorized attempts at evacuation. This has only happened successfully three
times. Each of these flights was conducted by extremely
experienced pilots from Ken Borek Air—a Canadian airline accustomed to operating at
the poles—in small Twin Otter aircraft—one of the only types that can withstand the Antarctic
winter cold. These aircraft had to be ferried down from
Canada, and then landed and held short of the continent for a number of days while waiting
for a weather window to fly further south to the pole. Once that happened, though, they flew the
final stretch and landed in darkness, quickly picking up their patient before the aircraft
froze, and then flew to South America to reach an advanced hospital. With these evacuations, it took more than
a week to actually get an aircraft down to the pole, so if something went catastrophically
wrong that made the entire station uninhabitable, such as a fire, for example, there’d be
little chance of getting everyone out in time. That’s why there’s a smaller, self-sufficient,
fireproof wing of the station designated as an emergency life-boat. This has a kitchen, a small living area, a
dedicated generator, a water treatment plant, and is designed to be able to keep the station
staff alive through the winter, until an evacuation is possible, if the rest of the station fails. All in all, the 45 or so people living at
the South Pole over the winter have to be, in the most true sense possible, self-sufficient,
because there is almost no opportunity for outside help, and that’s exactly what makes
it so dangerous. This season, though, the potential for danger
is escalated. Right now, in November 2020, the South Pole
is reconnecting to the world for the first time since February 14th as its summer season
gets started. Now, the world has obviously changed a lot
between February and November, but Antarctica has pretty much stayed the same. Up until now, COVID was not a threat to the
continent, since it severed its link to the world before the virus became widespread. Antarctica is currently the only COVID-free
continent, and it’s crucial it stays that way. In the cramped facilities of the various bases,
social distancing is impossible, one case can turn into a major outbreak very quickly,
and there’s really no ability for the intensive care that severe cases require. If the virus took hold in the Antarctic population,
a winter season, with limited possibility for evacuation, could become very difficult
or impossible. Therefore, all staff is now intensely tested
and quarantined for at least two weeks before flying to the continent, and the stations
are implementing policies such as mask-wearing for the first time as an extra-precaution. Also, this season’s activities have been
scaled back to essentially the bare minimum required to keep the science going, such as
crucial maintenance and resupply, and so almost all construction projects have been cancelled. That means that McMurdo station, for example,
will have a peak-population of just 450—compared to 1,250 normally. It’s tough to understate how tough it is
to live year-round at the South Pole, and COVID is making it even more challenging. Life at the bottom of the world is certainly
an adventure, but it’s one that requires spending the vast majority of the year indoors,
in a single building, with a small number of people. It is undoubtably a sacrifice. Most of those living and working there don’t
do so because it’s fun, because, for the most part, it’s not, but rather, they do
so because they believe so deeply and fundamentally that the science, even in the face of extreme
adversity, is worth it. As Wendover Productions has grown into a more
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Sam did do a previous video which covered (roughly) the same topic; The Logistics of Living in Antarctica