100-Year-Old Photo Negatives Discovered In Antarctica 114
An anonymous reader writes "A box of 22 photographic negatives from Robert Falcon Scott has been discovered after lying nearly a century in the famous explorer's hut. From the article: 'The photos were taken during Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party, another failed exploration whose members were forced to live in Scott's hut after their ship blew out to sea. The cellulose nitrate negatives were found clumped together in a small box in the darkroom of Herbert Ponting, Scott's expedition photographer, the trust said. The trust took the negatives to New Zealand, where they were separated to reveal 22 images.'"
Re:so (Score:4, Insightful)
Well it is an Antarctic [wikipedia.org] "fucking hut", so I imagine they'd prioritized that just a bit under "maintain climate observation equipment", "take new pictures", "inquire about those sparse supply shipments", and "avoid freezing ass off".
They've improved at all of 'em, but bad things still happen, so forgive them for not heading over to fetch some (historically important) photos hastily enough. There are reasons Scott ended up in that hut. :)
Re:Space suits? (Score:5, Insightful)
The antarctic is alot colder than space... Not in absolute terms. But in real world terms as it applys to humans and their stuff.
In space you have very little heat loss because it doesn't transfer very well to a vacuum. Why spacesuits do double duty as cooling units to keep you from overheating. The whole no air thing is a great insulator and your only losses are radiation.
On the pole however. It's cold. AND filled with air... Cold air. Moving cold air. Lots of it. You have much greater heat loss than just radiation.
You'd freeze in a space suit on the pole. Likely pretty quick too.