Salute to the Sun
Image: After four months of darkness, the Sun finally rises on 11 August at Concordia research station in Antarctica. The crew are understandably reverent.ESA-sponsored medical doctor Stijn Thoolen (left) and engineer Wenceslas Marie-Sainte (right) are part of the 12-member crew spending an entire year at Concordia. For nine months they are holding down the base in one of the most isolated, confined and extreme environments on Earth, with no way in or out of the station. They run experiments in human physiology and biology, atmospheric physics, meteorology and astronomy, among other disciplines, as well as maintain the base – one of only three to run year-round on the Antarctic Peninsula.Four months of complete darkness is quite the challenge, one researchers are very interested in studying from a physiological and psychological point of view. From questionnaires to blood and stool samples, the crew are poked and prodded to understand how better to...