Doctor needed for mission to white space
It is cold, dark, dangerous and lonely but the views and experience are unforgettable. ESA is looking for a medical doctor to run experiments at the Concordia research base in Antarctica.
Each year, ESA sponsors a medical doctor to spend around 12 months at the polar station run by the French IPEV polar institute and the Italian PNRA Antarctic programme. For nine months the base is cut off from the outside world, with no travel possible to or from the base, even in emergencies.
The crew of up to 16 people need to be prepared for anything, with little oxygen in the air, low humidity, outside temperatures as low as –80ºC and no sunlight for four months. The experience is hard to recreate anywhere else on Earth. ESA is studying the effects of living in such an extreme environment because it is similar in many ways to a mission in space.
The doctor’s task will be to run physiological and psychological experiments on the crew. This year’s ESA-sponsored researcher is Evangelos Kaimakamis, who arrived at the base in January.
Evangelos explains, “Living here is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The crew is amazing and we are becoming a tight group. Working here is fulfilling and could change your career perspective.
“The experiments are very interesting and keep me busy most of our days. Living in such a remote place away from civilisation is really a unique experience.
“The night sky is astounding and as the Sun has not fully set yet, it will only get better.”
If you have a year to spare starting from November, a medical degree and a healthy sense of responsibility and adventure, apply for this unique experience at the end of the world. Aside from doing your part for science and the benefit of humankind, you are promised some of the best views in the world.
Apply through the link to the right.
