Two British explorers are on a trek across Antarctica. A penguin waddles on ice in the Weddell Sea. The image was taken by Enrique Aguirre Aves.
Two explorers are on a 2,268-mile (3,650 kilometer) journey across Antarctica to learn more about the ability to survive on Mars.
The Chasing the Light mission is a trek across the southernmost part of the planet that could give space agencies a better understanding of the psychological and physical impact of other worlds.
The men are braving freezing temperatures and katabatic winds up to the recorded maximum of 200 mph (320 km/h) as they make their way across the continent.
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The Chasing the Light mission says that the environment in Antarctica is useful for a range of human and biological research. The scientists will be able to observe a rare scientific story of human adaptability, which will ultimately contribute to human centred space exploration.
NASA, the European Space Agency, and a few other organizations are collecting data from smart devices as the men walk and ski their way south. Outside of kites that pull them along, the men are on their own. They are towing two sleds that carry their food and equipment, as well as samples of their blood, saliva, urine and feces, across the trek.
NASA is testing the explorers' ability to estimate distance visually, which can be unreliable when placed in an alien environment. The 1971 Apollo 14 mission is a famous example. While walking across the moon, astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell decided to return to Earth after they realized that it was more than a mile away. The two were only 50 feet from the crater's rim.
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Key environmental data, including ice levels, radiation and wind speed, have been obtained by the men. The Chasing the Light mission says that the two take will fill in a "satellite data gap" and could provide important insights into climate change.
The pair's journey was extended by an additional leg to reach the "Pole of Inaccessibility", the hardest part of the continent to reach. The route had to be shortened due to the weather.
"This continent demands respect and flexibility as you can rest assured that nothing will go according to plan and you can only hope that you can adapt accordingly and make that decision at the right time," Packshaw wrote in his day 27 entry to the team's live journal. "Which is what we are doing with this call." Onwards.
Live Science published the original article.
