Expedition planning #1 - Expedition dates set

Despite still not having any funding news yet, the plans for our Antarctic summer campaign are well underway.

There are not too many routes one could take to get to Antarctica. A lot depends on the polar institute that provides the logistical support. In our case, this is IPEV (Institut Paul Emile Victor), the French polar institute.

We will most likely be traveling on the French ice-capable ship, the Astrolabe. You can find details about the ship, as well as pictures and a video of the Astrolabe advancing through the pack on these IPEV web pages [in French].

We now have provisional dates for our expedition : 26 December 2007 - 20 February 2008. Nearly two months to get to Concordia, do some maintenance on the seismometer in the ice cave, set up our field experiment, test everything to death, and get back.

In my first post, I wrote about this experiment becoming more and more real as the planning advanced. Setting these provisional dates is another step towards making it all happen.

[Photo: See IPEV credits page]