> > Brunnen-"was explaining to Stephen the other day how I missed out on a chance to go and work in Antarctica -- ANTARCTICA!!!! -- just because I didn't leave school at 15 and become a janitor. Blah."G
>
> Interesting. I was just watching a Nature show on Antarctica's McMurdo Station out near the Ross Ice Shelf. Let's see, temperatures there can reach a balmy 8°C in the summer, and a bracing -50°C in the winter. There are five months of total darkness followed by five months of 24-hour sunshine. On-land wind speed occasionally reaches 100 knots (185 kph. The Katabatik wind can reach 400 kph, apparently). All that darkness/brightness, cold, hostile atmosphere, and isolation is ideal for training people for space missions. I bet highly introspective persons who can handle being alone are probably designed to rule in Space.
>
> Wolfspirit

Meanwhile, near the other pole...

The Mars Arctic Research Station is up and running. If you have CNN, you'll be able to watch footage from M.A.R.S. all week long. It's basically a training camp for a Martian exploration, based off of Dr. Zubrin's book _The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must_.

Yesterday, they had their first full day of operations (day one of a successful landing) and went on an EVA.

-Faux "wouldn't mind going to Mars" Pas