Alex writes: Our team celebrated our Easter weekend here in Antarctica.   Everyone helped out.  Giorgio, our chef, impressed us all again and made us each a large chocolate Easter egg.

Concordia

Credits: A. Kumar

We had a picnic outside the main Concordia base building, in the EPICA workshop.  EPICA stands for the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica.  It was a multinational European project for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica.  It achieved its main objective to obtain full documentation of the climatic and atmospheric record held in Antarctic ice. Evaluation of these records provided 800,000 years of climate history.  EPICA is an example of the many ground-breaking international research projects led by the French Polar Institute and Italian Antarctica Programme that are conducted here at Concordia Station.

All the time, we live, breathe and stand on 3233 metres of world history held in the ice below our feet.  The group stands here together alone.  We have become a team and it feels good.

Over the past week Barbara, the Station’s nurse, and myself had devoted our full time and attention towards screening crewmember’s health. As part of a European Space Agency ‘Long Term Medical Study’ we spent the week testing blood, urine and recording body vital signs. We trained members of the medical team to conduct basic surgery as well as in venipuncture – taking blood samples from colleagues.  Under my supervision, our mechanic took blood from our plumber’s arm.  Our glaciologist took blood from our astrophysicist’s arm and then processed the samples using lab equipment.  The training was successful, we now have a competent medical team. I look forward to teaching them more.

Alongside my other ESA research projects, it is important to monitor our adaptation and acclimatisation to the altitude and isolation in this extreme environment.  The health of the crew is all important to the success of our mission.  Each person is crucial, they provide skills and knowledge required for the safe operation of the station. The station leader, the chef, the plumber, the electrician, the mechanic, the chief technician, the fire team and dare I say the medical team.