Preparations for a distant and dangerous journey begin long before the official start of the expedition.
Arthur Ivashko, maintenance and repair expert of the 10th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition: "The most important thing is that we have products in glass containers. We pack glass containers in special materials. The boxes can fall, be beaten, so everything must be tightly packaged."
Alexei Zakhvatov, mechanical engineer at the 10th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition: "When you find yourself in Antarctica, it's as if another world, these are absolutely different living conditions, there is no politics, there is a friend's shoulder and support of relatives. At the same time, if you find yourself at the stations of other countries, you always have a friendly attitude and mutual understanding."
The study of the animal kingdom of Antarctica, in other words biology is perhaps the most promising direction, as well as climate studies
Alexei Gaidashov, Deputy Head of the Republican Center for Polar Studies, Head of the 10th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition: "The data that are processed by the World Meteorological Organization and used for both local and global forecasts."
Many data are already used in ecology, medicine and pharmacology.
Vladimir Kurchenko, Head of the Laboratory of Applied Problems of Biochemistry, BSU: "Melanins are one of the possible biopolymers that protect against the action of ultraviolet radiation and these pigments can be the subject to studies amd subsequent use in medicine. Melanin pigments effectively absorb not only in the ultraviolet spectrum, but also absorb X-ray irradiation of electromagnetic waves."
A trip to the Antarctic is not compared with flying to space. The conditions are almost identical. However, polar science is not measured by other categories, it is a strategy for the future.
One of the novelties of this season is the regular transmission to Minsk of urgent meteorological information from Antarctica. Data will be sent to the national hydrometeorological service for processing. This will certainly help to clarify the forecasting of natural processes.
