Prototype automated Antarctic station

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32778, 1 December 1971, Page 16

Prototype automated Antarctic station

An automatic, unmanned, geophysical observatory which will be erected at Arrival Heights, near McMurdo Station, this summer, could be the prototype of other automated laboratories in Antarctica.

The new observatory, a project of Stanford University in California, will be tested next winter to prove the suitability of two types of electric-power generating equipment for cold environment operation. Developed at Stanford University with support from the National Science Foundation, the observatory last winter underwent mechanical and structural tests at Byrd Station, apparently very successfully.

“Substitute for people” “The coming thing is a substitute for people,” said the representative of the National Science Foundation in Christchurch (Mr W. Seelig). "A proper instrument might do just as well as a person.” The instruments in this observatory would obtain scientific information automatically and transmit the data to the United States, he said. This would be done by radio, the communication being relayed by a synchronous satellite over Hawaii to a receiving centre in California.

The Arrival Heights site for the automated observatory is on the edge of precipitous cliffs facing north. It is about two miles north of Scott Base, and a slightly lesser distance from McMurdo Station.

The two types of electrical generating, equipment are a propane gas-burning thermoelectric generator, and a wind-driven generator.

The observatory includes a cylindrical aluminium instrument capsule about 6ft in height, an Bft dish antenna for the satellite communication link, a tubular tripod mount, and telemetry equipment. Holds promise The project holds promise of increasing the amount of scientific data collected at remote sites, decreasing the costs of collecting it, and eliminating, the personal hardship involved in manning small isolated scientific outposts.