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Not a scene from a remake of Friday the 13th – just a researcher battling the cold. Enough to make your blood freeze though, temperatures outside the French-Italian research station Concordia drop to –80°C in the winter, with a yearly average of –50°C.
The crew of up to 15 people are subjected to almost nine months of complete isolation each year in their remote Antarctic abode. The station’s location, at 3233 m altitude, means inhabitants also experience chronic hypobaric hypoxia – lack of oxygen to the brain – making it an ideal environment to better understand how humans adapt and survive in extreme conditions.
The environment and isolation are scary enough, but in addition the crew spend four months without sunlight as the Sun does not rise above the horizon during the winter.
ESA sends a research doctor to Concordia each year to study the effects of the stress the crew experience living in a base not unlike living on another a planet, preparing for human and robotic exploration farther out in our Solar System.
Because of the extremes they have to live with and physical and psychological risks, the crew are carefully selected, with calm and sensible personalities chosen to spend a year on the ice.
Each year, a Halloween film viewing is a regular social event, where watching “The Thing” is obligatory.
Read about their experience from the crew themselves on the Concordia blog.