By Tom Metcalfe – Live Science Contributor 3 days ago Planet Earth
It’s studying the interactions between the Arctic and the global climate.
The RV Polarstern will soon set sail and deliberately trap itself in Arctic sea ice. Hundreds of scientists from 17 countries will study the ice, oceans, and atmosphere during the expedition across the Arctic Ocean.
(Image credit: Stefan Hendricks/Alfred Wegener Institute)
The German icebreaker RV Polarstern will spend about a year adrift in the Arctic Ocean, surrounded by thick floating sea ice.
The Polarstern is the most advanced research icebreaker in the world, and the expedition leaders calculate it will be unharmed by being stuck in the Arctic sea ice.
(Image credit: Mario Hoppmann/Alfred Wegener Institute)
One of the world’s most indestructible ships will depart Norway in a few weeks, bound for the Arctic Ocean, where it will spend the winter deliberately trapped in sea ice, drifting wherever the winds take it.
The powerful icebreaker, called the RV Polarstern, has an ambitious goal: to determine how climate change is reshaping the Arctic. The 13-month-long, $130 million expedition, called Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAIC), has been planned for years and will require more than 600 scientists and technical staff.
The ship sets sail Sept. 20 from Tromsø, in northern Norway, and it will head eastward along the coast of Russia. Expedition leader Markus Rex, of the Alfred-Wegener Institute (which operates the Polarstern), said the ship will likely enter floating sea ice in mid-October, and then will drift across the Arctic, surrounded by ice, until next summer, before returning to its home port in Bremerhaven, Germany, in the fall.
Getting stuck in floating sea ice would spell the end for most ships, but Rex said the Polarstern is tough enough to handle it.
Related: Images of Melt: Earth’s Vanishing Ice
“Our ship is one of the most powerful and most capable research icebreakers that exist,” Rex told Live Science.”There could be huge pressure from the ice … but we know the strength of our vessel. We are not in danger of losing our ship.”
HT/Yooper
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the russians are going to save us , anyway. They’ve got time tested equipment
All the while powered by four DIESEL engines producing up to 19,000 hp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RV_Polarstern).
Methinks they will be very appreciative of fossil fuels while sipping their hot chocolate.
Shackleton’s ship got caught in the Antarctic ice, and was crushed. I hope these guys have better luck.
The Titanic was unsinkable.
From the article: “The powerful icebreaker, called the RV Polarstern, has an ambitious goal: to determine how climate change is reshaping the Arctic.”
More properly, that should be: To determine *if* climate change (CAGW) is reshaping the Arctic. They went one assumption too far here.
I was unsinkable too. Then there was some ice.
Titanic, anyone?
What is the betting that the data collected will never be released because it would contradict their political agenda.
$130,000,000…that’s $216,667 per scientist involved.
And what’s the point again? To spread as much soot and break up as much winter ice as possible?
Because there is such a good track on claiming to have unsinkable/indestructible ships. Almost staggering arrogance…
At least no polar bears or walruses will be hurt in the making of the movie.
Why didn’t they just throw some large yellow plastic ducks into the water instead – a lot cheaper?
When the Fram tried this 125 years ago they harmed one bear. It was a scientific expedition so they opened it up to see what it had been eating; they found a single piece of paper that they had dropped (and it blew away) the day before. Other than that the bear hadn’t eaten anything.
Umm… that didn’t go too well for the Shackleton Expedition to Antarctica. Should be a fun show. Pass the popcorn.
But they know the strength of their ship! Who needs to know the force of the stresses in shifting winter sea ice when you already know your ship won’t sink – signed crew of the Titanic.
my name is Ozymandus king of kings look on my works yea mighty and despair
I don’t think they are going to get any answers to their questions.
“The powerful icebreaker, called the RV Polarstern, has an ambitious goal: to determine how climate change is reshaping the Arctic.”
Unless they have old data from some previous locked in ice ship expedition their data will have no real value. All it can do is provide data to compare to some future expedition.
What I wouldn’t give to have that much time and money to waste, and what a charmed life grantologists lead.
Seems to me that one could do this with setting instruments out on the ice and uploading the data for a great deal less money.
Or is this a stunt? We could not find any ice to get stuck in! One might navigate away from anywhere they might get stuck, and then claim matters in the Artic are “worth than we thought!”
unsinkable hmmm ???
God says “Hold my Beer …”
I expect they will have helicopter crew changes once per fortnight, food drops, fuel drops etc.
A very expensive way of doing things when automated buoys could do the same with less cost and risk.
Will Greta Thunberg be going with them ?
Did they think to invite her ?
Creeping ice is an irresistable force however strong the ship’s hull. The crew will rely on the ship’s powerful engines to get themselves out of a pickle. If they have enough time that is. I have the sneaking suspicion that they count on a backup in the form of one of Russia’s nuclear powered breakers.
Wind blown ice can exert a lot pressure. Just freezing in place can create 30,000psi pressure. Thats getting into tensile strength of steels territory especially with the steel very cold. The ship’s hull can be treated as a beam and differential pressures can create bending of the hull.
Also wind or current driven thick ice striking the hull causes point loads. The calculations aren’t difficult but they are theoretical and depend on welds/rivets being up to spec as well as uniform quality of the steel and insignificant metal fatigue, a factor that simple repeated bending of the hull in riding rough swells (sagging in troughs and “hogging” on crests) can create over time. I’d hope that a good safety margin was included in the calculations.
The icebreaker will get frozen in, but the public trough of bounty will never freeze.
Nor will the imagination needed to dream up such predatory schemes.
This one–a $130million “sciencey” boondoggle.
It is nothing more than a very expensive stunt, with the patina of “science” laid on top. Whatever data they gather will be fed into the “Climate Change” regurgitator, designed to spit out the “conclusions” they desire.
600+ scientists on a vessel that has a capacity of 124 persons and a crew of 44.. so they’re not all going together then, I expect they’ll be helicoptering people to and from the vessel 2 or 3 times a day, plus running the generators 24/7 for a year or more. To establish what, exactly? That ice forms in winter and melts in summer? Guys, I think I can save you some money..
Shark–I suspect the majority of scientists involved will be warm and safe at home studying data sent back by the ship of fools.
Capt. J. E. Bernier stayed in the Arctic ice for the winter of 1905 I think. It was Sept. till following July
before they could sail again………….. and they used coal for heat???? They did not have to worry their engines would malfunction.
Funny how it always takes lots of fossil fuel to try to prove to the world that fossil fuel should not be used.
Don’t forget to take Greta along for the ride. She can C CO2.