Question: what kind of generator do you use for power in Antarctica? plus how do you get wi-fi?

Beth Healey answered on 13 Oct 2015:

‘Morning! This is Adrianos from Greece, I am Beth’s predecessor as a research doctor for the European Space Agency in Antarctica and I am filling in for her today due to connectivity problems over there. Having spent a year at Concordia Station myself, i could tell you that the Base is mainly powered by engines similar to those found on ships. Such engines burn fossil fuels, so we have to store quite a large quantity to be on the safe side (the engines provide power and heat to the Station, which are crucial to keep us alive)! We have spare engines too, in case the main ones malfunction. The reason for using petroleum engines is that till now they have proven to be the only completely reliable method of providing constant heat and power to a Base that lies in the heart of Antarctica. We are also testing renewable power sources, such as solar panels, which however are hard to maintain during the polar winter. If these prove reliable too, we can slowly substitute fossil fuel energy with renewable source energy in Antarctica.

At Concordia we get wifi through satellites. The internet connection is a rather slow and limited at times since it’s not a cable connection. We have a bandwidth of 500 kbps to share among 13 people plus some experiment equipment that uploads data automatically. What is more, few satellites pass over the Earth’s poles and we have to rely only on them. In short, we can’t really watch any videos online, we try to use the internet carefully and efficiently 🙂