Science Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

[Notebook]

A 100 years since the failure of Scott's Antarctic expedtition.

Its in the news here at the moment. Especially about this man:
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Oates"]Lawrence Oates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
and his famous last words"I am just going outside and may be some time"

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroic_Age_of_Antarctic_Exploration"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroic_Age_of_Antarctic_Exploration[/ame]
Was this the end of terrestrial exploration, only space exploration has that "glamour" now?

N.

 

[ED_4]

What are you talking about no explorers on Antartica? What about those researchers that are constantly over there?

Antartica is inhabited by anywhere from 1,000 - 5,000 people at any one time.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antartica"]Antarctica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Notebook]

Yes, everybody is in the Antarctic doing research, not what I would call exploration. If they get into serious trouble, there is a good chance of them getting help.

When those early explorers went off, there was a good chance of not coming back, and little chance of any help.

Thats my point basically, Earth is well mapped, and has good communications. People sail single handed around the oceans, everybody has been up Everest, only space is really dangerous...

N.

 

[ED_4]

I think we can explore it now just via satellites. Seems too expensive to be doing any trekking and at a cost of possible lives. It's a harsh desert environment the coldest desert on Earth.

 

[Ghostrider]

Good luck exploring a cave with a satellite...

 

[marooder86]

...
Thats my point basically, Earth is well mapped, and has good communications. People sail single handed around the oceans, everybody has been up Everest, only space is really dangerous...

You forgot the depths of the oceans, although it's also well mapped it hasn't been explored on a large scale, and who knows, maybe there is something worth to discover, waiting down there. The other thing is we have people living in a regions like Antarctica or even in space but there's still no habitated places on the bottom of the ocean. So my guess then is the space is not the only really dangerous place left to explore and it's still not gonna be. At least for some time.

 

[ED_4]

You forgot the depths of the oceans, although it's also well mapped it hasn't been explored on a large scale, and who knows, maybe there is something worth to discover, waiting down there. The other thing is we have people living in a regions like Antarctica or even in space but there's still no habitated places on the bottom of the ocean. So my guess then is the space is not the only really dangerous place left to explore and it's still not gonna be. At least for some time.

Being in the deepest depths of the ocean can be far just as fatal as being in space. Imagine being crushed to death if you were in there without any special suits. Not even a regular sub can reach the deepest of the deep. Only a special kind has made it to the very bottom. And even then it really has to withstand those great pressures of the water down in the deep.

Remember "The Abyss"? That sort of technology seems to be something that needs to be enhanced for us to survive down the depths.

 

[george7378]

I agree, whatever happened to the exploration of the Challenger Deep? The images of the bottom of the ocean are just as amazing as those taken on the space station, if not more mysterious and spine-tingling. Also, the idea that there are remote places on Earth that no-one has yet even seen is quite beautiful, and I would love to go and explore in such places...

 

[Suzy]

Deepsea Challenge: James Cameron is planning to go down there very soon!

 

[Notebook]

Coincedentally:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17364684

Norway tries to reclaim explorer Amundsen's ship Maud The ship was renamed the Baymaud and became the Cambridge Bay area's first radio station.

A hearing on Thursday will decide the fate of a ship once captained by Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer first to reach the south pole.

 

[Notebook]

Been some time...

A scientific expedition will next year try to find the Endurance, the ill-fated ship of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.
The vessel sank in 1915, crushed by sea-ice in the Weddell Sea and lost in 3,000m of water.
Shackleton and his crew were forced into lifeboats to make an extraordinary and heroic escape across the Southern Ocean.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43703723

 

[llarian]

The seabed is NOT well mapped. That's why we have the Seabed 2030 project on the go. Still, depending on who you are the "romance" of exploration did end 100 years ago. Several events have come up to remind us of: The finding of the Erebus and Terror, Shackleton, Scott and Party, Amundsen, Nansen (I have first editions of his books Farthest North Vol. 1 and 2), and many others. But the costs of exploration have pretty much taken the "romance" out of it. Look how quickly the Apollo Program became "old hat". Modern society is too fickle and can't keep focused on an idea for more than a week.

 

[Andy44]

The seabed is NOT well mapped. That's why we have the Seabed 2030 project on the go. Still, depending on who you are the "romance" of exploration did end 100 years ago. Several events have come up to remind us of: The finding of the Erebus and Terror, Shackleton, Scott and Party, Amundsen, Nansen (I have first editions of his books Farthest North Vol. 1 and 2), and many others. But the costs of exploration have pretty much taken the "romance" out of it. Look how quickly the Apollo Program became "old hat". Modern society is too fickle and can't keep focused on an idea for more than a week.

The romance is in the danger. Using your Apollo example, Ron Howard made a movie not about Apollo 11, which was highly successful and thus pretty boring, but about Apollo 13, which failed and whose crew were lucky to make it back alive.

When people tell stories about climbing Everest, exploring the New World, the old West, etc., the stories always involve adversity.

 

[Graham2001]

I'm surprised that no one has bought up Imperial Japan's first (and last) voyage of Antarctic exploration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Antarctic_Expedition

They overcame funding issues, 'Yellow Peril' nonsense in Australia, with the help of former Antarctic explorer Edgeworth David, and managed to get to 80º South.

https://australianmuseum.net.au/professor-edgeworth-david-and-the-shirase-expedition

 

[GLS]

Seems appropriate for this thread:

IMO a very, very good documentary.

 

[Notebook]

Arctic explorer's ship returns home after 100 years
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen famously beat Britain's Captain Robert Scott to the South Pole in 1911, becoming the first man to reach it.
But his later attempt for the North Pole was not as easy - and the Maud, his ship for that trip, has finally come home.
She spent years locked in Arctic ice - and when Amundsen ran into financial difficulties, he sold it off. It became a floating warehouse and radio station under its new owners - before sinking off Canada in the 1930s.
Raised from its watery grave in 2016, it has now been towed across the Atlantic to its Norwegian home - 100 years after it left.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world...-explorer-s-ship-returns-home-after-100-years

 

[Notebook]

I suppose this chap qualifies:

An army officer has become the first Briton in history to trek unaided across Antarctica.
Capt Lou Rudd, 49, finished the solo 921-mile (1,482km) journey at 19:21 GMT on Friday after 56 days.
He was just two days behind the American explorer Colin O'Brady who became the first person to complete the feat on Wednesday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-46709412

 

[Notebook]

I suppose this chap qualifies:

An army officer has become the first Briton in history to trek unaided across Antarctica.
Capt Lou Rudd, 49, finished the solo 921-mile (1,482km) journey at 19:21 GMT on Friday after 56 days.
He was just two days behind the American explorer Colin O'Brady who became the first person to complete the feat on Wednesday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-46709412

 

[Notebook]

Endurance: Search for Shackleton's lost ship begins
By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47192952

 

[GLS]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47192952

Shackleton's skipper, Frank Worsely, was a very skilled navigator and used a sextant and chronometer to calculate the precise co-ordinates of the Endurance sinking - 68°39'30.0" South and 52°26'30.0" West.

Yes he was very good, what he did in the James Caird was... wow.

Seems appropriate for this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyQRHHHXntc
IMO a very, very good documentary.

I can't plug this documentary enough, so here it is again.