He's a working scientist all right. Subject of some medical experiments for ESA. Also, he has brought one of his infrared cameras, his own design, for his own purpose.
Somehow, I don't think he'll be fronted the money by a science grant, unless he does what I have seen some very rich do--start their own foundations in order to send themselves on fancy camping trips in the name of "science." Example--paying to go to Antarctica at $50K a pop, searching for a meteorite, not finding one, and writing it off to "charity". Then deduct the cost of the ticket. Is that what Olsen is doing? Does he have a "foundation" that he can write off this ticket to?