Small Station In Queen Maud Land

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30558, 29 September 1964, Page 18

Small Station In Queen Maud Land

Plans for the establishment of a small scientific station in the heart of Queen Maud Land about January, 1966, have been made by the United States National Science Foundation and Belgium.

Like Eights Station in Ellsworth Land, the projection plateau station will be flown to the site in ready-made housings units. It would be used particularly for meteorological and glaciological studies, said a senior National Science Foundation representative (Mr P. M. Smith) in Christchurch yesterday. Mr Smith said the new station would probably be occupied by 11 scientists, although the final number could be slightly fewer. The establishment of this plateau station will be carried out at the end of the second leg of a 5000-mile traverse from the Amunsden-Scott South Pole station to the Belgian Roi Baudouin base on the coast. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration thought it might learn something from this project, from a logistics point of view, that would be of assistance in its own projected lunar probes, said Mr Smith. Mr Smith said the traverse would be a hard, difficult project for all concerned. The route was over the highest part of the Antarctic continent—lo,ooo to 12.000 ft above sea level. The temperatures permitted only a two-month season, and the area was the farthest inland from any coast. Mr Smith said that in the establishment of Palmer Station on Anvers Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula, this season most of the work would be done by ships. But one of the reasons whv the site was chosen was that an area nearby could be used by skiequipped Hercules f'tould the occasion arise. Research Trailer As an adjunct to this station, which will be devoted to glaciological and biological studies, the N.S.F. plans to build a 120 ft research trawler for work off the Antarctic Peninsula near the station. Three years ago the head of the office of Antarctic programmes of the N.S.F. (Dr. T O. Jones) predicted a westward swing in research to-

wards the Weddell Sea area and Queen Maud Land. Mr Smith said that this was now coming into effect He emphasised it was because of scientific considerations. Although there will be an ; intensification of operations lin this part of the continent: this does not mean that the Americans are to give up flying into the continent by way of New’ Zealand. “We just intend flying to a particular ■ area in which we will be w’orking in the most expeditious way possible, he said. It was possible that occasional flights might be made from Chile, said Mr Smith. Chile also had good harbour facilities for shipping at Valparaiso and Punta Arenas. Fixed Projects Mr Smith said about 150 United States scientists would carry out some 50 field projects between October and March. In addition, he said, more scientists of other nations would be working in co-operative projects in Antarctica with the United States this season than perhaps ever before. The N.S.F. and the United States Navy were closely 'studying the problems of | long-range planning. Organisation between the tw’o bodies was better now than at any previous stage. But before the N.S.F. would be able to carry out the many projects it had planned there would be a need for additional ski-equipped Hercules and some replacement of other aircraft such as the DC3s for the Naval support force. Mr Smith tomorrow will fly to McMurdo Station in one of the two Navy Hercules at present at Christchurch.