This video was made possible by CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of high-quality documentaries
and get access to my streaming service, Nebula using the link in the description. In 1940, a team of American explorers set
out to chart one of the last unexplored corners of the planet, traveling thousands of kilometers
to reach the South Pole, through parts of Antarctica no human had ever seen before. A place so remote and inhospitable, many earlier
attempts to explore it had either failed or ended in tragedy. But unlike earlier attempts, the Americans
will explore Antarctica with the ultimate exploration machine. A 37 ton mobile base which will sustain a
small team of explorers while they live, work and sleep in isolation for an entire year. This is the Antarctic Snow Cruiser. Designed to push through the harshest conditions
on the planet. And itāll end up as one of historyās greatest
engineering legends. Before 1939, only two expedition teams had
ever set foot on the South Pole. And only one of them made it back out alive. Because temperatures in Antarctica can fall
below -80 degrees Celsius. Winds of two or even three hundred kilometers
an hour are not unheard of. And with over 14 million square kilometers of icefields
and polar mountains, itās an environment unfit for human life. But underneath the frozen landscape lies the
potential for enormous riches, including vast oil and mineral reserves. And by 1939, the Worldās powers had begun
claiming huge portions of it for themselves. But missing from this map of Antarctic claims
was the United States. While American explorers had made inroads
into the continent, these were privately-funded expeditions. To make their own claim on Antarctica, the
United States would need a larger and more official presence. So in 1939, U.S. President Roosevelt launched
the United States Antarctic Service Expedition. In the fall of that year, two ships, carrying
one hundred and twenty five men, would set sail for Antarctica in the largest American
expedition to date. Their mission would be to explore previously
unknown regions of the continent and to establish two new field bases on either side of Antarctica. The expedition would bring a host of exploration
equipment, but the centerpiece would be the Antarctic Snow Cruiser. Nothing like it had ever been built before. The size of a small building, and would even
carry its own aircraft along with five explorers who would live and work onboard it for up to
a year. The Snow Cruiser would have a special role. Itās crew would travel thousands of kilometers
to reach the South Pole. From there, theyād continue Eastwards to
the newly established American field base. In effect laying the groundwork for an American
claim on the continent. News of the expedition made the headlines,
but it was the Antarctic Snow Cruiser and itās daring mission that would capture the
world's imagination. Designed by Chicago's Armour Institute of
Technology, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser looked like something out of a Jules Verne novel. To traverse the rough polar landscape, engineers
give it enormous ten foot tall rubber wheels, which would help absorb the shock of the unforgiving
frozen terrain. When faced with a seemingly impassable ice
crevasse, the Cruiser would hydraulically retract its wheels and use itās large front
and rear overhangs to slide over gaps. Allowing it to cross ice crevices up to four
and half meters wide. To travel reliability for months on end, the
Cruiser would feature an innovative diesel-electric hybrid drivetrain. Instead of driving the Cruiser directly, diesel
engines would supply power to electric motors inside each wheel hub. This space saving design would do away with
the need for complex driveshafts and gearboxes, promising to be more reliable. To combat frigid temperatures, coolant from
the engines would circulate throughout the cabin to heat interior spaces, and in extreme
weather, coolant could also heat the Cruiserās hydraulically retracted wheels. The Antarctic Snow Cruiser would carry enough
fuel, food and supplies to last an entire year. And feature spaces for itās five explorers
to live, sleep and work. It would even carry itās own biplane to
conduct aerial surveys and photograph hundreds of kilometers of Antarctic territory. With the Snow Cruiser, the Americans would
explore more of Antarctica in just a few months than all previous expeditions combined. When the Cruiser rolled out itās assembly
plant on October 24, 1939, huge crowds formed to greet it. But things were about to unravel. Although research and design of the Snow Cruiser
started in 1937, it wasn't until the spring of 1939 that a decision was made to use it
in the upcoming expedition. That left just six months to finish design
and construction, forcing engineers to work around the clock. And the Cruiser rolled out of its assembly
plant in Chicago just weeks before it had to be loaded onto expedition ships waiting
in Boston, leaving little time to test the machineās capabilities. Instead the Cruiser would be driven 1,600 kilometers
all the way from Chicago to Boston in a shakedown trip to work out any issues. With all the excitement and press, the cross-country
trip would become a national sensation. But it would also prove to be more difficult than
anyone anticipated. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, just a few days into
the journey, progress was halted by of all things, heavy rains. Which made roads too slippery to continue. Soon after, the Cruiser lost control and careened
into a ditch, where crews spent the next three days trying to get it unstuck. It was an embarrassing start for a supposedly
unstoppable machine, designed to handle the most difficult terrain on earth. A hydraulic line failure and a small fender
bender further delayed progress. But worst of all was the realization of just
how painfully slow the Cruiser was. It should have been able to travel at speeds
of up to 48 kilometers per hour. But it struggled to reach even a fraction
of that. The problem was, each of itās electric wheel
hub motors produced just 75 horsepower. It meant that altogether the 37 ton Cruiser
had just 8 horsepower per ton to motivate it forward. And wherever the slow moving machine went,
it backed up traffic. Outside of Boston, it caused the worldās
worst traffic jam. Backing up 70,000 cars. But on November 12, the cruiser finally arrived
in Boston with just 2 days to spare. The drive was supposed to have taken 8 days. Instead it took nearly 3 weeks. The Cruiser struggled so much on smooth paved
highways, many questioned whether it was really ready for the expedition. But with so much excitement and publicity,
there was no turning back. On November 15, 1939 the most ambitious American
expedition left for Antarctica. But for the Snow Cruiser, things were about
to turn from bad to ugly. The mishaps would continue as soon as the
Cruiser landed in Antarctica.Because the machineās real problems, were only just beginning Having been built in only 11 weeks over a
single midwestern summer, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser would see snow for the very first
time in January of 1940. And immediately it looked out of its element. While the Cruiser had proven itself on highways,
on tough uneven terrain, the machine was hopelessly underpowered. But the real problem were the tires. Designed to absorb impacts and to be virtually
indestructible, they were also..perfectly smooth. And in the Antarctic snow, they spun hopelessly. Meaning a machine built to conquer mountain
ranges, could barely move an inch The decision to use smooth tires is perplexing
in hindsight. But with such a tight development timeline,
engineers had to make due with an already existing tire design specifically built for
swamp buggies. Cutting threads into the tires might have
been possible. But designers figured theyād just fill up
with ice and snow anyway. Not that they had time to test the theory
in actual ice or snow. In a desperate effort to solve traction problems,
crews attached chains to the tires and even doubled up the front wheels with spares. But it made little difference. After weeks of struggling, it was obvious
that part of the problem was the machineās unequal weight distribution. Driving the Cruiser backwards actually turned
out to be the most effective way to get it moving. So thatās what they did. On its longest trek the Cruiser managed to
travel backwards for 148 kilometres in a loop around the landing base. But driving in reverse severely limited the
Cruiserās speed. And there was no way it could make it all
the way to the south pole in reverse. The expedition team eventually admitted defeat
and permanently parked the Cruiser for use as a stationary laboratory. The expedition would continue without the
Cruiser, but it would also have to end early. With the Second World War looming, the entire
project was abandoned and the expedition team returned home. After the War, the world had changed and conquest
and colonization of distant lands had fallen out of favour. The abandoned Snow Cruiser was last spotted
in 1958, after it was dug out from under several meters of snow. Today, the machineās whereabouts are unknown. Itās either still buried under sheets of
ice, or has since broken off on an ice flow and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. In the end, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser had
clearly been rushed into service and the result was a machine that had been over designed
and under-tested. Extreme optimism had seemingly been its design
philosophy. This is the SR-71 Blackbird, the worldās
fastest jet. For years, the Blackbird could operate anywhere
in the world using speed to outrun any threat. But the legendary spy plane would eventually
meet its match. This is the MiG-31. Designed to intercept any threat. It's one
of the fastest combat jets to enter into service and holds the absolute world record for altitude. Itās phased array radar can track multiple
targets hundreds of kilometers away. And just four MiG-31s can defend an area of
airspace nearly a thousand kilometres wide. In a few weeks, Iāll be releasing my next
Nebula-exclusive on the legendary MiG-31 Foxhound. Itās just one of a growing number of exclusive
Mustard videos on Nebula. Nebula is where Youtubeās top educational
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free when you sign up for CuriosityStream. A streaming service with thousands of big
budget award-winning documentaries. If you want to learn more about the fascinating
history of Antarctic exploration, check out Icemen: 200 years in Antarctica and learn
why so many have been drawn to the frozen deadly abyss. Get an entire year of both CuriosityStream
and Nebula for less than $15 by going to curiositystream.com/mustard and use the promo
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR0M7KjnJTE
A perhaps better documentary without flashy graphics, but lots of footage. Including the buried bisected remains of what is possibly the base where it was last known to be, protruding from the side an ice-shelf adrift in the sea.
I'd love to see a modern version of that built with real snow tires and more powerful electric motors. Maybe we don't need something like that in the modern age, but man is it cool.
Looks a lot like the APC from the movie Aliens, which in turn was built from an existing airport tug vehicle.
This thing was featured in a Clive Cussler novel. I think it was Atlantis Found. Hilarious read.
It's funny but not wholly unexpected that YouTube channels basically repeat each other's content.