When the Hesperides left the shipyard in 1990, Ana Garcia was only two years. Today is one of the 60 members of the military crew embarks bound for Antarctica on a scientific mission. , far from the rest of “gray” , traditional color of most “A Dream” Navy ships. They will be added in different batches, scientists with an eye toward land and frigid waters.
The historic Cartagena Arsenal Military says goodbye to May the most advanced ocean exploration ship of the Navy. Orange stain his helmet southern seas and ice, road 28 Antarctic campaign and celebrate in frigid waters, its 25th anniversary, and in March.
Although one of its primary roles is to serve as support for Spanish base Gabriel de Castilla y Juan Carlos I, “in the science ship also produces” recalls Antonio Quesada, manager of government programs for polar research.
“This year we have assembled teams that are released worldwide.” In ship not only serve the 70-until researchers at different stages-for samples, but “longer able to place studies by analytical ‘on-line’.”
Among others, the phytoplankton. That tangle of bodies floating in the ocean “produce aerosols and is to study how they do it and how they are involved in the generation of clouds and precipitation,”
A laboratory storm proof
The ship has undergone various reforms and testing just completed. “Throughout the year, is mostly out,” says Captain Rafael Bruno, Deputy Commander of the Hesperides. “We sail seas demand the best of its 60 members , not a very large endowment, but very selected and worked in all professional fields.”
This implies that even scientific personnel undergo certain ‘protocols’ military, facing security, although “cohabitation is generally like a good avenue family.” That does not mean to limit risk and living conditions.
Forget the supposed peace Lab on earth. Ensign Alberto Roman recalls how “years ago, in the Drake Passage, we were completely lopsided in heavy seas, 40 ° tilt. I saw people praying.”
No less extreme are the working conditions on the continent. “The Hesperides support is essential,” says Jordi Felipe El Mundo, head of the Base Juan Carlos I to be shipped from Chile in November. “Not only as a human and equipment transport can not always be eating cans” jokes
Glaciers 3D and islands deform
project. latest to the Base Juan Carlos I will be “ drilling a glacier , a hole of up to 130 meters for which we will need, among other things, hot water,” said Philip. It will also be flown with a device type unmanned drone to map it in 3D.
These studies are essential to monitor climate change. So are the air and water analysis for contaminants produced in the rest of the planet and arriving there. “We try to study how water can capture gases such as CO2 or CO”. Scientists are also very attentive to the disappearance of the ‘eternal ice’ or ‘permafrost’.
During this campaign also the team follow the Gabriel de Castilla Antarctic volcanism , application in crises such as El Hierro. And, from the botanical point of view shall have the duty to eradicate an invasive grass, introduced in the sixties.
In total, 15 scientists from 12 countries programs depend on this boat, having electric propulsion has no more candles to blow that on 12 March at his 25th birthday. It was not until early May, when you can celebrate it in Spanish waters, on his return to Cartagena.
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