Taking samples at Concordia

Carmen Possnig, the 2018 ESA-sponsored medical doctor at Concordia research station, followed the effects of lack of sunlight and a less oxygen on herself and her fellow subjects for researchers developing countermeasures to altered motor skills, memory, sleep patterns and moods.

Experiments included playing simple memory games and more complex sessions in simulators requiring subjects to pilot and dock a spacecraft as well as routinely providing blood and urine samples

Concordia research station is a collaboration between the French Polar Institute and the Italian Antarctic programme. It is one of only three bases  that is inhabited all year long, and is located at the mountain plateau called Dome C. 

As well as offering around nine months of complete isolation, Concordia’s location at 3233 m altitude means the crew experience chronic hypobaric hypoxia – lack of oxygen in the brain. During the Antarctic winter, the crew of up to 15 people also endure four months of complete darkness: the sun disappears from May and is not seen again until late August. Temperatures can drop to –80°C in the winter, with a yearly average of –50°C.

As a station set in Earth’s harshest space, Concordia is an ideal stand-in for studying the human psychological and physiological effects of extreme cold, isolation and darkness.