12 participants of the new annual expedition to the Ukrainian Antarctic station Academician Vernadsky completed compulsory education. It must pass every future polar explorer, and it is over today, March 1, 2018. Training took place during the week in the territory of the Main Center for Special Control.
It will be the 23rd Ukrainian expedition, which will hold an annual winter break at the station Academician Vernadsky. It included 7 scientists and 5 representatives of the technical staff who were selected on the basis of the competition and the medical board.
Polar training has several obligatory elements. First – the most necessary knowledge and skills. It’s about a comprehensive course ranging from video tutorials to the station, the study of all the instructions and ending with practical exercises with the diesel station, the deployment of a fire pump, etc.
The second one – the participants get to know each other and learn to interact in the near-Antarctic conditions. For example, during training the cook is preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for all. In addition, as well as at the station, every day someone joins to work in order to maintain the general order, work with techniques, etc.
During training for future polar explorers is a psychologist who conducts a number of necessary tests. First of all, candidates are checked for stress and character compatibility. If the results of the psychologist will conclude that someone will not be able to withstand the winter – he will be final, and the candidate will have to be replaced. At the same time, the psychologist works with polar explorers not only before sending, but also directly during their stay at the station (in remote mode) and upon return.
In the forthcoming 23rd Antarctic expedition, only three people are newcomers, that is, they go to Antarctica for the first time. It’s a dyzelist, a mechanic and a sysadmin. Other participants had already wintered at the station and for the most part more than once. For example, the head of the expedition, the meteorologist Victor Sitov, who is currently the head of the Black Sea and Azov Sea Weather Center, will leave for the fifth time. And for the first time he was there in 1995 – exactly when the station was transmitted from Britain to Ukraine.
“In early November 1995, the first five Ukrainian representatives flew to Cambridge. We spent several weeks internship in the British Antarctic Service. Only then did we go to the station and, for about two and a half months, we worked with our British colleagues, adopted techniques, knowledge and experience. They have borrowed certain traditions in the organization of life and work at the station, which is still. And already on February 6, 1996, the British flag was launched at the station and this date is considered to be the official birthday of the station Academician Vernadsky “, – Victor Sitov told.
Approximately the departure of the 23 UAE to Antarctica is scheduled for the end of March. At the same time there will be traditional ceremonial polar explorations.
