ST. PETERSBURG, May 22. /TASS/. Participants in the first expedition the North Pole ice-resistant self-propelled platform discussed the mission's results at a news conference on the Day of the Polar Explorer (May 21). The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute's Director Alexander Makarov said that during its first expedition, the ship had shown off all expectations.
"Now the platform will be serviced, it will undergo warranty services. The vessel has shown off very well both in providing scientific work and in terms of ship qualities - it was able to cross ice bridges. We can say with confidence after the first expedition that we have a tool that will work continuously for 30-40 years, and now we can plan experiments for decades, which we could not do earlier," he said.
As the services are over, the ship will leave Murmansk for another expedition - North Pole-42 - in late August or early September, the institute's director told TASS. Right now, specialists continue analyzing the platform's operation to improve the work. One of the tasks the new expedition will be facing is to organize more frequent shifts of crew and scientists on board the platform, he added. Scientists plan to expand the research program, to introduce new directions.
The North Pole-41 drifting expedition's leader Kirill Filchuk stressed that in many ways the expedition's technical task was to check the vessel and its capabilities. The past 20 months of work and 3,000 nautical miles covered on the route have made it clear how to act in the event of destructed ice floe, with which the platform should drift, how the current can shift the ship away in the Arctic, etc. He continued by saying the ice floe with which the platform originally drifted did collapse, and it was for the first time in history of polar expeditions that the explorers managed to change it to continue work.
As for the North Pole platform's design, there is nothing to improve, as it fully meets requirements of scientists, offering comfortable living conditions and sophisticated equipment for data collection in the Arctic, he continued. Certain calibration could be in some systems, like, for example, the air temperature in work areas, but these issues will be addressed anyway.
"It was a real pleasure to work on it. I and all the participants are proud to be the first to try it out," the expedition's leader told TASS.
The North Pole expeditions
The North Pole - 41 Expedition continues the Soviet program of complex drifting research missions in the Arctic's high latitudes. The world's first polar research drifting Arctic station North Pole (North Pole - 1) began operation on May 21, 1937. As many as 40 expeditions of the kind have been organized.
In 2013, a team of scientists was evacuated from the North Pole - 40 drifting station, and the program was suspended for almost ten years. In September, 2022, the program resumed at a new technological level - the expedition is supported by the North Pole ice-resistant platform.
The world's first ice-resistant self-propelled North Pole platform is designed for year-round expeditions in the Arctic Ocean's northern latitudes. It does not require icebreakers to sail to the designated area, and it can drift for up to two years and sail back to the port. The vessel takes on board 14 crew and 34 researchers. The platform is equipped with an on-board scientific complex of 15 laboratories, a mobile field camp for accommodation on ice floes.