A steady supply of food is vital to the survival of the settlement. Luckily test cases showcasing the technology
to grow food in Antarctica already exist. It should be obvious that any farming would have to be done inside using UV grow lights and maximizing the use of space. Below are the details of how to go about farming a land dead for an eon. Power Source This topic will be dealt with more in its own research article but sufficed to say a combination of solar, wind, and miscellaneous other power sources will be needed to supply the heat and light needed to keep food production viable. Techniques There are a few different ways to go about farming in Antarctica. The first, aquaponics, is to be dismissed for two reasons: 1. It requires tools and chemicals being imported fairly regularly and, 2. Water is much harder to heat than air or soil. As such aquaponics presents additional challenges for farming. And, indeed, the test cases mentioned before don't use hydroponics, instead opting for plants in soil with grow lights. So assuming you are using grow lights there is another choice to be made: do you let the plants grow to maturity or do you harvest the plants after a week or two as microgreens? Microgreens are wasteful from a resource standpoint but are quick, which is useful (generally two weeks to grow). Depending on the plant it might be more advantageous to harvest them as microgreens rather than let them grow to full size. This depends on the plant's likely output, the size of the seeds, and the food needs of the settlement at a given time. Potential Crops Not all crops are created equal. For lettuce, cabbage, and beets pretty much the entire plant is edible. While pumpkins, squash, and tomatoes have only a small proportion of the plant that is edible. Most plants fall into a middle area between these two extremes. The other consideration is whether a plant needs insects for pollination. In theory, bees could be kept in Antarctica for their honey but it is good to know what plants can get by without them. Crops infographic: [1] Space How much space needs to be set apart for farming? This question leads into another one about the amount of construction materials needed. To figure this out let's do some math. Calculations estimate that 4000ft2 is needed to feed one person which is a space of a little over 63x63ft. This is a lot but its also where efficient use of space comes in. Using grow lights a room with a standard 8ft high ceiling can have three tiers. This would roughly be a 36x36ft room. Or put another way, about the size of a small house. So lets calculate how much space would be needed for a small population of 100: 4000x100=400,000ft2. This is roughly 632x632ft. Or 365x365ft with a three-tiered set up. The map linked here details how much of the Cape Adare site this would actually cover: [2] Livestock? Raising livestock is possible but as they require their own food to be raised it is useful to start with the space calculations and go from there. In terms of which animals should be raised there is an obvious answer; sheep. Sheep have a bit more to offer than other livestock. While they do provide meat, more importantly they also provide wool. Wool is a great insulator and is unappreciated in this role when it comes to housing. Raising sheep removes another material that would have to be imported. Sheep eat roughly half of what humans do by weight. This could also be an answer to the problem of food wastage as sheep can eat the parts of plants humans find unpalatable. I'm sure someone is wondering at this point why I haven't suggested eating penguins, seals, and skuas. The answer is two-fold; 1. the diet of these animals is primarily fish which imparts a not-completely-desirable taste to the meat and, 2. The settlement will face enough international outrage without stories of the people killing penguins added to the mix. Both points are potentially possible to overcome but would take time and this website is for plans that can be made before any landing on the continent is made. That said, founding a settlement near a penguin rookery is pragmatic in order to have an emergency food supply near by in case of a serious disaster (and because they are entertaining to watch). In conclusion the technology and know-how to grow food in Antarctica exists and procuring a steady food supply is not a hindrance to future settlement.
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Figuring out the best location to found a settlement is vital to the eventual success of this endeavor. Over the past few years several candidate locations have been discussed. Each has their own pros & cons. Cape Adare and the Langhovde Hills are discussed below. While no final decision has been reached by the ASRG, the examples here serve as test cases of the challenges other settlement sites would present in varying degrees. This article may be updated from time to time with additional candidate sites as well as new information on older sites. Cape AdareClimate Unlike the interior of the continent the coastal regions are relatively mild. Average winter temperatures range between -25 degrees Celsius and -30 degrees Celsius. Summer temperatures range between -5 and -10. Having observed the temperature at Cape Adare for an entire year using a weather forecasting website there was not a single day where temperatures rose above 0 degrees Celsius. This climate is roughly equivalent to a Canadian winter stretched out over the entire year. Which, if you like winter is not a terrible thing. However, wind chill in winter is a serious concern as Cape Adare is prone to high winds of up to 240kmh in winter due katabatic processes which would require buildings be well constructed, windbreaks erected, and everything be well insulated. Consistent wind power generation is a possibility but would require either the turbines being protected from the wind's full force or the use of specially designed 'heavy' turbines that take more force to rotate. All of which means that winters are likely to be spent primarily indoors and this needs be taken into consideration during the design phase of the settlement. Climate Tracking: Link Terrain Cape Adare is part of a long peninsula extending north-west from the continent and is primarily comprised of basalt. A large triangular beach takes up a portion of the southern side of the peninsula. The north side is a long stretch of sheer cliffs. As such the beach, Ridley Beach, is the main way of accessing the cape. Heading up from the beach is a large barren plateau. Cape Adare is part of the less than 1% of Antarctica which is not ice covered. Due to the limited access routes this location is highly defencible. Ancient volcanic activity formed the peninsula as a series over overlapping volcanoes. While speculative, it is possible that layers of volcanic ash could exist and be used to enrich soil for crop production. Lava tubes, if present, would provide additional space for storage as well as future tourist attractions. Cape Adare is backed by the Admiralty Mountains which are heavily glaciated. There is potential for mining various minerals as very little prospecting has been done on the continent to date. While this mountain range would likely play a small role in the settlement's early history it presents a natural area to expand to at a later date. However, Cape Adare does not provide easy access to the interior via land due to several glaciers. Access Cape Adare is typically free of its sea ice from early February to the middle of March. While this creates a very limited window for supplying the settlement the flip side is that it makes attacking the settlement a logistical nightmare as any hostile action against the settlement becomes difficult once the sea ice returns. Ideally, a settlement site needs to be accessible but not too accessible. Another location, Cape Burks shared many similarities with Cape Adare but was simply not accessible enough. The Antarctic Peninsula has the opposite problem. A larger problem is its position under the main flight route to McMurdo Station which makes hiding the settlement for any amount of time difficult. Economic Potential The Cape Adare location presents a number of economic opportunities (some already touched on). Tourism remains a small, but growing, opportunity and Cape Adare has both a large penguin rockery and the first man-made structure built on the continent. With a permanent settlement at Cape Adare additional tourism operations become possible. For instance, skiing and other winter sports. While the scientific community is unlikely to look fondly on the settlement's existence in the early days, the fact remains that the settlement is a convenient 'jumping off point' for expeditions to the surrounding areas. As long as it doesn't impinge on the settlement's sovereignty it will, of course, support the continued study of the continent across all scientific fields. While mining is possible it will require prospecting to be carried out first with one exception. The Antarctic ice sheets are excellent at catching meteorites and making them glaringly obvious to people searching for them. Meteorites are valuable with some rarer types being worth thousands of dollars. This type of 'mining' is likely to be the first type that could be carried out. Industrial activities are likely to be primarily for a domestic market due to the settlement's isolated location. Survey Images [1][2][3][4][5] Langhovde HillsClimate The Langhovde Hills feature a similar climate to Cape Adare but somewhat warmer with temperatures rising above 0 degrees Celsius on a fairly regular basis. Explorer reports detail that the area receives a fair amount of snow which then melts during the Antarctic summer. Similar again to Cape Adare the area is subject to katabatic winds with the key difference being multiple hills and ridges in the area that could act as natural windbreaks, which Cape Adare lacks. Climate Tracking: Link Terrain The rock that makes up the hills and several other ice-free areas to its south is a type of banded granite with an overall brown to orange colouration. The Langhovde hills feature several mountains, ponds, and valleys making it a much more complex terrain than Cape Adare. These features end in several bays and coves which are dotted with islands. In the south, Mount Heito and Mount Minami-heito rise to over 300 meters and are flat-topped. While the glaciers at Cape Adare block access to the interior, the glaciers surrounding the Langhovde Hills facilitate it as the glaciers in question are extremely slow moving rendering them more stable for traversing. Due to the common origin of the Langhovde Hills and Sri Lanka it can be speculated that Graphite, Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, Quartz, Feldspar, Kaolin, Apatite, (Phosphate Rock), Silica Sand, Garnet sand, Mica, Calcite and Dolomite could be found there. Sri Lanka is also famous for its gemstones. As always, prospecting will need to be carried out to confirm these suspicions. The area does have at least one confirmed salt flat. Access The complex terrain of the Langhovde Hills makes for an area with several accessible as well as several highly defencible points. Unlike Cape Adare, the Langhovde Hills are neither common flyover areas nor a seasonal stop for tourists. It is somewhat south of a research station operated by Japan which is not ideal but they have already surveyed and studied the area so it is not clear how common it is for them to travel south. It should be noted the Japanese research station is on an island which may make travel to the Langhovde region difficult after the breakup of the sea ice which is when any settlement effort would be arriving. Sea ice clears from the region somewhat later than Cape Adare which shortens the timeframe for unloading supplies. As discussed with Cape Adare, this is also a blessing. The complex coastline and waters dotted with small islands makes it difficult for large ships to get close which would work to the settlement's advantage. The Langhovde Hills is the site of a snow petrel colony which is an internationally protected bird sanctuary. The sanctuary occupied a central valley and extends from the coast almost to the glacier. To limit international outrage this protected areas should be respected (and, indeed, protected by the settlement's own laws). The limitation on disturbing the area by foot traffic and aircraft makes it almost a natural boundary in its own right which could be of strategic use. Economic Potential The Langhovde Hills front a large area of blue ice which is valued for the quantity of meteorites that can be found on and within it. As noted in the Terrain section there are potential mineral resources. Due to its more remote location this location does not have the same tourism potential as Cape Adare. Survey Images [1][2][3] |
Published ResearchAs the project develops and gaps in understanding are filled finalized plans will be posted here. The end goal being a comprehensive plan for settling Antarctica. All plans subject to update as new information is learned. Archives
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