20 years in Antarctica
For two decades, ESA has sent a medical doctor to brave the cold and more for 13 months at Concordia station in Antarctica, one of the most remote places on Earth. This unique environment – isolated, confined and extreme – mirrors many of the psychological and physiological challenges astronauts face in space. By studying life at Concordia, scientists can better understand these effects, develop countermeasures and prepare for future human missions beyond Earth.
Concordia station
Concordia station is jointly run by the French and Italian Antarctic programmes, IPEV and PNRA. Since 2005, it has operated year-round on the Dome C plateau in East Antarctica, roughly 1100 km inland from the French coastal base Dumont D’Urville. On the icy plateau at 3200 metres above sea level, the crew lives on thick ice, but thin air, coping with chronically low oxygen levels.
For four months each year, the Sun never rises above the horizon, plunging the station into a continuous polar night where temperatures can plummet to -80°C. During this time, no aircraft can reach the base. The crew is completely on its own, even in emergencies.
These conditions make Concordia an invaluable testbed for human spaceflight, from the isolation and confinement a crew would feel on a several-month trip to Mars, to the low-pressure and low-oxygen conditions an astronaut would experience during a spacewalk, as well as the need for full autonomy far from home.
Behind the lab coat
What does it take to spend a year at Concordia? ESA selects one medical doctor annually to live and work far away from their home in this extreme environment, running biomedical research on themselves and on the small winter crew. The selection process is rigorous, and reminiscent of astronaut recruitment. In fact, two members of ESA’s astronaut reserve have wintered over at Concordia station: Carmen Possnig in 2017 and Meganne Christian in 2018.
Candidates must hold a medical degree, have laboratory experience, be in excellent health and pass medical and psychological tests. They also need to speak English and be a citizen of an ESA Member State. Additional skills help, such as fluency in French or Italian, a background or interest in space, multicultural experience and familiarity with remote environments and adventurous challenges.
The selection and preparation of a Concordia doctor spans an entire year. Applications open in December, followed by interviews and tests in spring. In May, a panel from ESA, IPEV and PNRA selects the doctor, who then begins training at ESA’s ESTEC site in the Netherlands.
Preparation continues during the summer across Europe, including a week of outdoor rescue training in the French Alps and meeting with the science teams organising the experiments for Antarctica.
After summer, the doctor meets the winterover crew at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre, continues preparing for their experiments, and collects pre-baseline data from all crew members to enable comparisons of their health before and after their stay in Concordia. By November, the crew departs for Antarctica, just as the selection process for the next doctor begins.
At the station
The crew reaches Concordia around November, during the Antarctic summer. At this time, the station is bustling with activity – planes arrive with scientists, fresh supplies and up to 80 people share the base. But by February, the cold winter sets in and the population drops to just the winterover crew of about 12. Each person has a vital role, from ESA’s research medical doctor – who also leads search and rescue – to specialists in station maintenance, glaciology and the cook who keeps morale high and makes sure the crew receive the balanced and healthy diet they need.
For the medical doctor, the job is twofold: running biomedical experiments and serving as a research subject. This work demands careful planning. Crew participation takes extra time on their schedules, so clear communication is essential. Questionnaires are provided in French, English and Italian and the purpose of the data collection is explained to encourage involvement.
Experiments are coordinated to avoid overwhelming the crew, and spare parts and redundancy are taken into consideration. Concordia’s setting is also taken into account; the dry environment can lead to static electricity disrupting equipment and constant darkness during the winter can make it difficult to keep accurate morning and evening measurements.
Throughout the year, science teams stay in close contact with the ESA doctor to troubleshoot and keep research on track. The data collected before, during and after each winterover helps scientists understand how our human body adapts to one of the harshest places on Earth.
Read here a summary of the results from two decades of research at Concordia station.