A full Internet connection at the Ukrainian Antarctic station Academician Vernadsky may appear this year. This is explained by the acting Director of the National Antarctic Scientific Center MES Yevgeny Dyky today, March 1, 2018, at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
“Now we are negotiating with providers, we already know which satellites cover our station in Antarctica in order to provide uninterrupted Internet connection on it. We have managed to solve many technical nuances. If everything continues according to the plan, full Internet at the station should appear this year, when there will be a new, 23rd expedition “, – said Eugene Dicky.
He emphasized that this process will take place in two stages. The first is an increase in traffic within the existing connection by 20 times.
“Already during the immediate change of winterers, in April of this year, within the existing connection, we switch to another tariff. We will pay more in general, but the unit of transmitted information – cheaper than now. So far, we’ll limit ourselves to 10 gigabytes per month. This is not much, but compared with the current one – about 0.5 gigabytes – 20 times more. And it already gives a qualitative breakthrough: winterers will have the opportunity for everyone to use the Internet, browse the sites, have their own mail or even a blog, only so far without video. For comparison – now there are only text messages, once a week, and only through the address of the National Academy of Sciences, that is, it’s not about the privacy of correspondence with even families. And from the point of view of science, we will have the opportunity to receive at least weekly data from all devices, and not wait for a year to pick up loggers (a special device that collects and stores data – Ed.) With accumulated information during a re-change, “the NANC chief .
And the second stage, he said, “this is the installation of its own host” plate “and the transition to the type of communication V-SAT. Then there will be an unlimited Internet, with the possibility of video streams, webcams at the station, and so on. It is planned to be scheduled in December 2018 – January 2019. ”
The presence of Internet communication at the station is very important for the work of polar explorers. After all, for example, every day in Antarctica, our scientists collect and process primary data, which are then used to analyze global processes – climate change, dynamics of melting glaciers, etc. For this information is transmitted to large international data centers. The Internet will allow Ukrainian wintering people to do this online and receive feedback, which will open up new opportunities for their own research.
