Best Route to the South Pole

Adjunct engineering professor Steve Arcone is using the latest radar technology in hopes of discovering the first practical overland tractor route to the South Pole. The purpose is to allow a cheaper way of transporting supplies for a new South Pole station. Deep and frequent crevasses have stymied mapmakers who are attempting to find a viable route. The United States hasn't attempted a ground traverse with large loads since 1959.

Working for the ArmyCorps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, Arcone and a team of researchers are mapping the dangers hidden below several proposed traverses. Arcone spent fall term in a helicopter looking for crevasses masked by the surface layers of Antarctica's ice shelves and glaciers. Traveling 20 feet above the ground at 30 knots, he used 500 megahertz impulse radar with extremely high resolution to map hidden crevasses and the depth of snow bridges that could support the convoy. He plans a test traverse this year. A ground-based radar will continue to monitor the route, while a convoy of supply tractors follows. Even with around-the-clock shifts, the tractors' top speed of five miles per hour will stretch the 1,200-mile trip from the seaside McMurdo Base to the pole into two weeks.