'Polar Pod' floating laboratory is set to drift around Antarctica to research the Southern Ocean
CNN
The Polar Pod vessel has been designed to flip onto its side and "orbit" Antarctica, collecting data on how humans have impacted the Southern Ocean.
French explorer and environmentalist Jean-Louis Etienne has spent the last 10 years designing a scientific vessel capable of braving the terrifying waves and winds found there. His floating laboratory, called the Polar Pod, will stand 100 meters high and weigh 1,000 tons. The structure will be towed horizontally from the east coast of South Africa to the powerful current surrounding Antarctica. It will then "flip" vertically by filling 150-ton seawater ballast tanks, a feature inspired by the US oceanographic platform FLIP.The vessel has no engine and will be driven by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, drifting at about 1 knott per hour. The top of the structure -- 20 meters above the water -- is where the crew will live, sleep and work. The submerged portion keeps it steady. "It is 80 meters below sea level, fixed in very calm water -- that's why it's very stable," Etienne tells CNN.
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