US building highway to the South Pole

New Scientist ^ | 13:52 23 January 03 | Fred Pearce

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The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service

US building highway to the South Pole

13:52 23 January 03

NewScientist.com news service

American engineers in the Antarctic have begun work on a highway from the giant US coastal base at McMurdo Sound to the South Pole - a distance of 1600 kilometres.

In the next few weeks the ice road should have crossed the wide expanse of the Ross ice shelf, which permanently covers the ocean, and be approaching the Transantarctic Mountains. The mountains mark the halfway point to the Pole.

The road is expected to reach the US Scott-Amundsen base at the pole within two years, according to Bill Spindler, a scientist at the base and editor of South Pole News.

An initial purpose for the highway will be to help lay a $250-million fibre-optic cable to the Scott-Amundsen base. The cable, which should be completed within five years, will revolutionise communications at the Pole.

The Scott-Amundsen base is home to a growing amount of scientific equipment. But it is out of sight of most geostationary communications satellites, so it cannot reliably send back real-time data to the laboratories in the US that use the equipment. The cable would solve that problem.

Bulldozers and crevasses

Construction of the ice road involves clearing the route of snow, bulldozing rough ice and filling in crevasses. The route will cross the Leverett glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains.

Once completed the road is likely to become a permanent fixture. The Scott-Amundsen base is only currently accessible by air, which places limits on cargo and relies on good weather. The road could be open to heavy traffic for up to 100 days a year during the austral summer.

Scientists say the road will allow overland transport of the increasingly heavy loads of scientific equipment being taken to the pole, such as that for the planned Ice Cube project.

Ice Cube is an astronomical observatory to be built at the pole to study cosmic neutrino beams. Its detectors will be spread through a cubic kilometre of clear ice beneath the base. Ice Cube is expected to generate 20 gigabytes of data a day when it is completed in about five years' time.

The road will need to be cleared of snow and checked for crevasses and ice movement each spring, says Karl Erb of the National Science Foundation in Virginia, which is funding the $12-million project. "But crevices don't change much from year to year," he says. "We will just have to monitor them."

Spindler says it will take about 20 days to reach the pole, which is at an altitude of more than 3000 metres. The downhill return journey will take about 10 days. The traffic will consist of slow-moving convoys of caterpillar tractors, towing sleds carrying fuel and bulky equipment. Independent travel will not be allowed.

The polar base plans three return journeys each summer, says Spindler. The annual capacity of the route would be about a million litres of fuel - roughly the capacity of three Hercules transporter planes that currently supply the base.

Environmentalists appear relaxed about the scheme. The ice cap is a barren wilderness devoid of life. And the road is unlikely to pave the way to exploitation of Antarctic natural resources, as this is banned under the Antarctic Treaty until 2041.

[onedoug]

Pave it. Pave it all!

[ChicagoRepublican]

We're going to step up the development of missions in the Antarctic, and Alaska. In a few years NASA will set up training bases, and we'll attempt to build bases completely out of robot probes. With humans landing on Mars in a decade or so we'll need the practice. After all the first landing will set up a permanent base up. The United States is truly moving humanity into a glorious path civilizations thousands of years from now will look up to.

[ErnBatavia]

You're right - since this highway is in "the South"...

[Junior]

I wonder how long it will be before the first Stuckey's is built.

[pabianice]

So much for the cover story. My bet is that it will have a military application.

[ErnBatavia]

Another roadside bidniss is in the works...

[davisfh]

"it makes fiscal sense to pay down the debt before we pay for this kind of nonsense. the south pole will still be there when we pay off what we owe."

Looks like we may have a difference of opinion here, Roland. But then, that's part of what America is all about isn't it. Just go back and read the name of this web site.

Didn't make a lot of fiscal sense to send Columbus to the Americas either, did it. It did turn out rather well though, didn't it? And besides, if we wait until every debt is paid off before we launch further scientific investigations, we'll never progress past where we are right now.

I recall reading that some member of congress back in the late 19th century proposed closing the U.S. Patent Office. He thought that everything that could be invented had been. I'm very happy that we didn't listen to him.

[mvpel]

They need a nuclear reactor down there, that way they wouldn't have to lug so much fuel down there. http://www.atomicengines.com/

[Peter Zimbelman]

Am I the only one to see the "biddness" potential of a 1600km downhill run? Some places would be flat (ice skating and hocky) while the medium slope for bobsleding and the steep roadSIDE for skiing. How about a 62 mile ski run?

[lavaroise]

I can see a great place to incarcerate muslim terrorists and their liberal friends away from attention.

[Stingray51]

And the road is unlikely to pave the way to exploitation of Antarctic natural resources, as this is banned under the Antarctic Treaty until 2041.

This is what the EnviroSocialists would like to do to Alaska. I say start drilling.

[johnny7]

Could be a route above Lake Vostok... largest underwater lake on the continent.

3 miles below the ice, Lake Vostok simmers under a canopy of methane.

As large as Lake Ontario, Vostok remains warm from deep, fissures in the Atlantic rift.

It's been sealed in ice for 5-10 million years.

[Axenolith]

If you or I were Presdent, yeah.

Dude! Lets run! The platform will be "NO STUPID S**T"