How’s it to have an Antarctic expedition?

Quan Ronghui, member of China's 37th Antarctic expedition team, finished his year-long scientific missions last month, kicking off his return journey from the Zhongshan Station in Antarctica.

Also a research fellow at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Qian shared his Antarctic experiences with Guangming Daily reporters.

China kicks off her 37th Antarctic expedition. (Xinhua/Zhang Jiansong)

Frequent repairs on equipment

“So our expedition began at the end of 2020, and my job was to collect and process data, while operating and maintaining radar and other equipments.” Qian sounded in high spirit.

"It was rather cold and dry in the Antarctic," said Quan, adding extreme weather would lead to equipment failures, so frequent repairs were needed. "No spare parts were available in the polar region, and I could only look for something else, or think up other ways."

Quan recalled in repairing the high-frequency radar, he detached a CPU from a computer, but there was no silicone grease for thermolysis. “I looked for it here and there, and finally found one small tube from an electronics engineer.” Quan added the radar has an operating system different from Windows.

The field investigations were also hampered by unpredictable weather. In the event of a heavy snowstorm, the visibility was almost zero, and the team members may get lost or injured. “Before field work,” said Quan, “we would check the weather forecast and avoid going out alone.”

Quan Ronghui(R, 2nd) and his workmates in Antarctica (File photo/Guangming Daily)

Bittersweet experiences in cold region

Nights are long and cold in Antarctica, and the severe weather brought mental stress to most the Chinese expeditionists. It also took a while for Quan to adapt to the new conditions.

“The glacier cracks in Antarctica can be as deep as almost 100 meters, and a blue beam can be seen emitting from the deep cave like a miracle,” said Quan. During the scientific tours outside, he often caught sight of fantastic stones in the shapes of flower, arch or insect.

“Antarctica is a natural skiing field,” said Quan, who also had a daily routine of climbing onto a vaulted area near Zhongshan Station as special exercise in his one-year Antarctic expedition.

The second floor of the station is equipped with a meeting room, a clinic, a canteen and a gym, where ping-pong was Quan’s favorite pastime. He was also in charge of the reading room, most of whose books were donated or brought by his workmates.

As for the food, Quan said the first half of the year saw rich meals with diverse foodstuff, but in the year’s second half, only onions, potatoes and other storable ones were available. Luckily, Zhongshan has a small greenhouse that allowed the researches to taste cabbage or cucumber twice a month.

China kicks off her 37th Antarctic expedition. (Xinhua/Zhang Jiansong) 

“I’ll miss the polar-region days”

Most of the Chinese expeditionists regarded the Antarctic odyssey as something unique in their lifetime. And so did Quan.

In spite of the challenges, Quan collected around 63TB data that are useful for national projects of China, as well as for the international projects that involves cooperation between Chinese scientists and their peers in Japan, the US and Norway.

As the mentor, Quan didn’t forget his students at the Nanjing university, and he had weekly phone calls for the majors of aeronautics and astronautics, asking about the projects progress and encouraging them in their studies.

Thinking of the homeland that was tens of thousands of miles away, Quan also missed his family and called them to ease his loneliness from time to time. Quan disclosed teamwork held the key in Antarctica, citing as an example the challenging altimeter set-up that involved 700kg of wire cable.

“Antarctica is the only pristine area in the world, which needs care by scientists,” said Quan. “Maybe it is the place where the future of the earth is in store, and I’ll surely miss the days in the polar region.”

Quan Ronghui(L, 1st) works with his colleague in the Antarctic field. (File photo/Guangming Daily) 

Reporting by Cui Xingyi and Liu Yawen (Guangming Daily); Trans-editing by Wang Shixue