Chinese Team Heading for Coldest Spot on Earth 385
LMCBoy writes "Dome A is the highest point on the Antarctic Plateau, and it has never been reached by humans. It is thought to be the coldest place on earth, and is certainly among the most remote. Yesterday, a team of Chinese explorers set out from Fremantle, Australia to reach Dome A and set up a robotic weather station which will monitor the local conditions for up to five years. The team is expected to arrive at Dome A in early 2005."
Question (Score:5, Interesting)
Excellent teamwork (Score:3, Interesting)
That really doesn't seem a close match for the climatic conditions in the Antarctica. It may be far too easy compared to the high altitudes they are facing.
It would also be interesting to learn what challenges are involved in building those automated weather recording stations. How *do* they keep it running unattended for 20 years with batteries?
The continuing rise of China. (Score:5, Interesting)
And this really ought to mildly concern people in the US. Yes the US already has done most of these things or something similar (they have a couple of Antarctic bases, one at the pole I believe). But that's the key point. The US has done such things, but doesn't seem to be expending quite the effort they use to on pushing boundaries of exploration and science. Increasingly it seems to be Chinese and Indians with the real fire to try and push ahead. And all the better I say. The US seemed to slacken off and grow complacent, so its about time there was some serious competition again.
Go China.
(Hopefully they can break new ground sorting out their political issues too)
Jedidiah.
Re:This voyage isn't a joke, it's serious stuff... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not the world's easiest spot to ship to (no FedEx service, even) or build at, but it's cheaper than the South pole of the moon, or Earth-Sun L2, which are suggested alternatives.
Re:Question (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps the the -90C figure was calculated using satellite data and/or readings from nearby weather stations.
suprised US hasn't already done this. (Score:3, Interesting)
Guess despite for all our telecommunications, earth's still pretty damn big.
Re:My experiences in China (Score:4, Interesting)
Just to get it out of the way, I'm an American businessman too, that lives and works mainly in Tokyo Japan. I too travel all around the world, but so far business hasn't taken me to Antarctica yet. (Every continent, eh?) That said...
Anyways, when I stepped off the train from Hong Kong (which was no paradise itself, as that place has gone down the shitter since the Brits left) I was shocked. The whole place smelled like a combination of vomit and dog shit that had been left out in the sun for a day or so.
Reminds me of NYC.
And it was probably BECAUSE there was vomit and dog shit all over.
Yep, bingo, NYC! (Well, it's more vomit and urine, and less dog shit...)
People spit everywhere. Trash litters the streets. I found myself looking DOWNWARD much more than looking FORWARD when I walked.
Chill out, it's a cultural thing. If you're not used to it, the spitting can gross you out, but there are plenty of other things that we do that would gross out alot of other people. For example, not using a specialized tongue cleaner every day sorta grosses out the Indians. Using PAPER to wipe our asses is considered incredibly unhygenic (and in a sense it is) as far as most people in the middle east and asia are concerned. On the other hand, the thought of wiping our asses with water, USING OUR HANDS, grosses us out equally.
It doesn't help that their infernal language consists of abrupt rapid fire tones that is a cacophony for any human ear to bear. How do they speak and listen to that shit without going crazy all day long is beyond me.
If that's what you have to say about Chinese, you don't want to know what most people think of Yankee, Aussie and Kiwi English.
Anyways, Chinamen stink -- literally. There is no concept of personal hygiene whatsoever. Meetings with even top officials were hourlong sessions of having to endure hot sweaty bodies and rancid breath eminating from mouths missing a few teeth. Geez, at least use deodorant for crying out loud.
Americans stink too. It's not that rare that you'll run into a white american manager that apparently has never heard of deoderant. Soggy, dark sweat stains under their pits. I know many Chinese, and just like us Americans, there are dirty ones and clean ones, and nationality seems to have little to do with it. That said, Europeans have a much higher rate of having really bad BO, than Asians. Even with the deoderant, the Japanese seem to be able to pick up this scent, and will gag and puke behind your back. Again, this is all relative.
The hypocrisy, corruption, and double-standards from the highest levels of government on over are the norm at the same time China opens up to the world. Foreigners get charged as much as five times for transportation, lodging, food, and everything else.
Okay, I have to agree with this. There are a lot of back-stabbing double-standard corrupt "high" officials in China. This certainly has room for improvement. However, it's not that unusual in developing countries. Ever been to Indonesia?
Traffic is horrible. Rules are non-existent except for at traffic lights: red means to go fast, green means to go REALLY REALLY fast.
Ever been to Rome?
The Chinese people themselve are pretty apathetic and everyone just wants to get out of that hell hole, so you see smuggling rings shipping people out hidden in truck beds and ships, all too often with tragic results.
As far as the apathy, I wouldn't count out our own country. I guess we don't have people smuggling themselves accross the border to Canada though. Yet.
The who
Re:The continuing rise of China. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Good for China! (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the problems that American science faces is the degree to which it relies on money where determination and ingenuity will often get the job done. This often results in no science getting done when the perception is that there isn't enough money to do any.
The Chinese are very good at getting things done without a lot of money because lack of funds is their native enviroment. As an example, if you were stranded in the woods you would likely starve to death, because you couldn't find a place to buy food. A person raised in the woods simply eats. Reverse the situation though, put the woodsy guy in the city and he can still scrounge a meal or two completely on his own, without a dime in his pocket, because he doesn't think about needing money, he thinks about finding what he needs, so he goes about and finds it. If he has to go hungry a day or two he doesn't waste time fretting about not having money, he simply thinks of that as a normal part of life and continues looking for what he needs until he finds it.
Now let's apply the same idea to a technology race. I posit a bicycle race from NYC to LA. The two participants start with the clothes on their backs and ten bucks each seed capital. They're allowed to get more money, but they have to earn it on their own.
My neighbor, representing "Western" science, would solve the issue this way; he'd go out and get a job (50% of the procedes of which will go to supporting the job itself. One of the first things he's likely buy in this bicycle race is a car, then fancy clothes that are worthless while bicycling cross country, but that he needs to wear to work, etc.). When he has enough money he'll books on bicycling, maybe join a gym, order catalogs and start making his list of required equipment, then, when he as enough money, he'll but the stuff and after a year, maybe two, he'll set off in the actual bicycling.
Me, representing "Eastern" science will use the ten bucks to buy a couple of wrenches and a screw driver. I'll be on the road in a week, maybe two, scrounging what I need along the way (including a bit of work to have some money in my pocket). I'll be sipping a Pepsi on Venice Beach in a month, maybe two.
What's more, I'll already be a colonized native of Venice Beach, with a job and local connections, long before the other guy arrives and has to compete with me.
China can get to Mars first without spending much money, compared to us, and the first one to establish a base is the likely long term winner, no matter how "primitive" they are in their manner of doing it.
Hell, they could still beat us out on the moon, even though they're starting 40 years behind, because we went there first, but then abandoned it.
It's not the guy who plants the first flag on the mountaintop who wins. It's the guy who builds the first castle there. Once the mountain stronghold is built you just try and go knock him off the mountain.
KFG
The helicopter freezing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Helicopters suck donkeyballs in thin air. They also guzzle fuel like their is no tomorrow. Check docu's on the artic. Ever seen a chopper in it?
Basically the area to be travelled in is to high, to far and to cold for helicopters to operate in.
However walking there is a proven techinique. It has worked for decades. Why develop a 1 use aircraft when you can simple hire some idiots^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrave men to haul your stuff there?
Re:Excellent teamwork (Score:4, Interesting)
Did you guys consider using a small RTG instead of batteries? Are there good reasons for using batteries instead of an RTG (cost, environmental, etc?)
Re:How to make Dry Ice - It appears... (Score:1, Interesting)
take a small flat non-deformable round thing....
r = 0.5cm
Area = pi*r*r
= pi * 0.25
=0.785 square cm
I weigh 75 KG which converts(google)to approx 165lb
165lb spread over 0.785square cm
=210lb/square cm
Convert(google) square cm to square inches
=210lb/0.155sq in
=1354lb/sq in
1354 psi
So if I stand on a 1cm* diameter 'thing' I am exerting 1354 psi on whatever is underneath it, which is, in this case a bonaqua bottle top very similar to the bottletops I used before. Its not deforming much at all, just a slight indentation where the small object was touching it.
OK, the direction I am pressing on it is opposite to the direction the gas would be pushing on it, but I doubt that would make much difference, stronger in the correct direction if anything...
* the thing I was standing on is actually much smaller than 1 square cm... So the pressure would be higher...
Re:The continuing rise of China. (Score:1, Interesting)
2. Again, except for the coolness factor, is there really hard evidence that these missions yield more tangible results than ESA's Mars Express, for example?
3. I assume you're not talking about the flu vaccine. Ah, no, none of that would have been produced in the US anyway.
4. As far as quality/price of internet access for the people is concerned, the US is nowhere near the top anymore.
5. Ok, so now they're undoing things they screwed up 50 years ago. Not to worry, the current administration will screw up enough other thigns for later generations to fix as well. Kyoto *cough*
6. Their success only gets amplified by NASA's incompetence and lack of vision.
7. The Russians had GLONASS for a long time. The Europeans, with the Chinese and others, build Galileo. Another fine display of how much other countries trust the US.
The only boundary that many Americans seem eager and capable of pushing these days is in the realm of self-righteousness and complacency.