White Mars: living far away from any form of life
This is a modal window.
The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.
Formal Metadata
| Title |
| |
| Title of Series | ||
| Number of Parts | 132 | |
| Author | ||
| License | CC Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported: You are free to use, adapt and copy, distribute and transmit the work or content in adapted or unchanged form for any legal and non-commercial purpose as long as the work is attributed to the author in the manner specified by the author or licensor and the work or content is shared also in adapted form only under the conditions of this | |
| Identifiers | 10.5446/44922 (DOI) | |
| Publisher | ||
| Release Date | ||
| Language |
Content Metadata
| Subject Area | ||
| Genre | ||
| Abstract |
|
EuroPython 201883 / 132
2
3
7
8
10
14
15
19
22
27
29
30
31
34
35
41
44
54
55
56
58
59
61
66
74
77
78
80
81
85
87
91
93
96
98
103
104
105
109
110
111
113
115
116
118
120
121
122
123
125
127
128
129
130
131
132
00:00
Degree (graph theory)Local ring2 (number)Multiplication signText editorBit
01:19
Slide ruleBitDegree (graph theory)TouchscreenSpacetime
02:38
Form (programming)Video gameAveragePlateau's problemEigenvalues and eigenvectorsMetreOrder (biology)Perfect groupNormal (geometry)Clique-widthMultiplication signIntegrated development environmentSpecial unitary groupEuler anglesVideo gameSimilarity (geometry)Exception handling2 (number)Computer animationXML
03:57
AverageTotal S.A.Plateau's problemMetreMultiplication signPlateau's problemOrder (biology)Military basePhysicalismAverageUniverse (mathematics)
05:37
Traverse (surveying)MetreCubic graphPower (physics)RotationElectric generatorSoftware maintenanceElectric generatorFreezingOrder (biology)AdditionDegree (graph theory)MetrePower (physics)
06:45
Object (grammar)Traverse (surveying)Control theoryIdeal (ethics)Source codeProcedural programmingSoftware testingMultiplication signProgramming languageField (computer science)Different (Kate Ryan album)Projective planeComputer programmingGroup actionOpen sourceInternetworkingFrequencyBand matrixSpacetimePersonal computerSoftwareOptics
08:32
Special unitary groupMultiplication signAsynchronous Transfer ModeComputer animation
09:27
BitPlateau's problemEquivalence relationParticle systemPresentation of a groupSheaf (mathematics)InformationResultantMathematical analysisSurfaceMetreVelocityRight anglePrisoner's dilemmaModemIntegrated development environmentCross section (physics)Drill commandsComputer animation
13:42
PressureProjective planeValidity (statistics)Presentation of a groupAugmented realityCategory of beingCycle (graph theory)Core dumpFile formatSocial classWeightMathematical analysisCross-correlationDrill commandsSampling (statistics)Position operatorTwitterGraph (mathematics)ResultantParameter (computer programming)Decision theoryWave packetWeb pageMixed realityInformationFocus (optics)ConcentricComputer animation
17:57
Goodness of fitNeuroinformatikIntegrated development environmentNormal (geometry)2 (number)
19:13
Physical systemBitDirection (geometry)Suite (music)Level (video gaming)Instance (computer science)FrequencyComputer simulationColor confinementEmailDifferent (Kate Ryan album)DiameterPlanningMultiplication signMaxima and minimaSurfaceMetreSpacetimeComputer programmingInteractive televisionWordAnalogyNormal (geometry)CubeReal-time operating system2 (number)MereologyMultilaterationComputer animation
22:40
BitMassMultiplication signWater vapor2 (number)Computer animation
23:37
Instance (computer science)CollaborationismSampling (statistics)Software testingColor confinementProjective planeSound effectMultiplication signData miningStress (mechanics)Computer animation
24:38
AdditionSimilarity (geometry)Pattern recognitionObject (grammar)Task (computing)Condition numberProjective planeInstance (computer science)Student's t-testSoftware developerComputer animation
25:17
EmailPlanningSoftware developerDivisorComputer animation
25:56
PhysicalismData acquisitionPosition operatorForcing (mathematics)Computer scienceInterrupt <Informatik>Video gamePermanentSpacetimeComputer hardwareSoftwareDependent and independent variables
26:41
Meta elementEquals signCurveDegree (graph theory)WeightObservational studyMeasurementInformationCASE <Informatik>Coordinate systemSpacetimeIncidence algebraWordSoftware crackingEvent horizonMereologyDependent and independent variablesPhase transitionMathematicsRefractionPoint (geometry)PlotterPolarization (waves)State observerStreaming mediaMetrePropagatorCore dumpEndliche ModelltheorieReflection (mathematics)Staff (military)Perfect groupWater vaporParticle systemSphereCartesian coordinate systemClosed setStudent's t-testContinuous trackInteractive televisionDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Sound effectComputer simulationRotationWaveECosNoise (electronics)Computer animationSource code
32:12
Different (Kate Ryan album)Power (physics)NeuroinformatikTelecommunicationForm (programming)Operator (mathematics)Server (computing)Endliche ModelltheorieSampling (statistics)Stress (mechanics)Software testingSynchronizationMetreGroup actionPhysical systemEvoluteWeightValidity (statistics)Multiplication signConnected spaceObservational studyDemosceneInstance (computer science)Data storage deviceProcess (computing)Integrated development environmentAdaptive behaviorEmailPiLevel (video gaming)2 (number)Scaling (geometry)MereologyCellular automatonComputer simulationService (economics)Web 2.0Visualization (computer graphics)Software maintenanceDistanceBand matrixSpacetimeBitLocal area networkSystem administratorComputer animation
37:42
SpacetimeFrequencyJoystickSoftware testingCognitionVideo gameMassComputer animation
38:44
Point cloudForm (programming)QuicksortProjective planeMeasurementPhysicistPolarization (waves)Different (Kate Ryan album)Observational studyMatter waveSoftwareThermal radiationHeat transfer
40:06
MetreOrder (biology)Point (geometry)MeasurementStatisticsTouchscreenReal numberCondition numberCollaborationismWaveGreatest elementMaxima and minimaIntegrated development environmentExpressionMultiplication signRow (database)Thermal radiationPlotterComputer animationSource codeXML
42:38
Revision controlTheory of relativityEndliche ModelltheorieGoodness of fitWaveMeasurementSet (mathematics)
44:13
Revision controlMusical ensembleComputer iconSoftware developerComputer animation
45:02
Regulator geneComputer simulationOnline helpProcedural programmingStructural loadAreaInstance (computer science)Atomic numberComputer animation
46:18
Dynamical systemGroup actionDirection (geometry)Goodness of fitSpecial unitary groupComputer animation
47:30
Video gameMusical ensemble
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:05
Okay, then we get to the second keynote of EuroPython. Are you ready? You're ready as well? Okay, yes, you're ready.
00:21
I have one question. We've been with EuroPython to Florence, Bilbao and Rimini. And who thinks it's too cold here in Edinburgh? Who thinks it's too hot in Edinburgh? I wasn't aware of so many locals around, so.
00:40
Okay, but if you think like 22 degrees in Edinburgh is too cold, let me tell you about some guys in Antarctica. They probably have like minus 80 degrees Celsius now. And we're now going live to basically the other side of the world. You see them already sitting there. They're more isolated than the astronauts on the ISS,
01:03
because there's only certain time spots where they actually can leave the Antarctica station. And they're going to tell you a lot about their work, their research, the team in a bit. So please give them a warm welcome to Antarctica.
01:30
I was supposed to be there with you also this year. But actually, I'm a little bit far from Europe. This, as Alison told you before, is Concordia station.
01:43
It's the European outpost in Antarctica, in the middle of Antarctica. And it's a French-Italian facility. And during the winter season, it hosts 13 other people, these guys. And we are, yes, more isolated on Earth,
02:04
more than the astronauts in the International Space Station, because between February and November, there is no way to move from here. And no one can come, because the temperature is really low. It can be lower than minus 80 Celsius degrees.
02:23
And now I want to share a little bit of, I share the screen, because I want to show you a little bit of slides. And so we will see in about five minutes.
02:46
Just one second. OK. Oh, it's not OK. OK.
03:01
Perfect. So Concordia is 1,200 kilometer far from the closest base on the coast. And there are 3.2 kilometers of snow and ice under it. There is lack of oxygen, because the air is right by it as it is at 4,000 meters of altitude
03:21
at normal latitudes. And it's ugly dry, because this is the largest desert on Earth. There is no life here, except for us. And the last time we saw the sun was exactly 80 days ago. Concordia is the most similar place on Earth to another planet.
03:41
And that's why the European Space Agency is making biological research on us, in order to better understand how the human body behaves in a such extraterrestrial environment. So imagine to have a continent 1.5 times larger than Europe,
04:05
totally covered from a layer of two kilometers of ice and snow. That's Antarctica, the highest continent on Earth, with an average of altitude of two kilometers from the sea level. Approximately 61% of all fresh water on the Earth,
04:23
basically potable water, is here. If you melt all this ice, the fresh water at the sea level will increase everywhere of 38 meters. During the Antarctic winter, between February and November, the total population of the continent
04:41
is more or less the people in your room. Most of them live in the coast, and a few in the middle of the plateau. In fact, there are only three permanent places in the middle of Antarctica. Concordia base with 13 people, Vostok base, managed by Russia with 13 people as well,
05:03
and also a USA base with 45 people. The population here is here in order to perform scientific research. Because I hope this place will be taken as an example for the rest of the world, because it's a huge laboratory for science, where
05:22
nations cooperate peacefully to reach a common purpose. The goal is to know more about our planet and the universe. OK, to have power, we use three generators.
05:46
One generates until 100 kilowatts, and two until 150 kilowatts. We consume about 5,000 liters of fuel per month. And this fuel is similar to kerosene with additives in order to move down.
06:02
It's freezing temperature is 55 Celsius degrees. It's stored outside the base, and we keep about 25 cubic meters always warm in order for them to be immediately available.
06:25
The fuel and the majority of the food comes here transported by some caterpillar, like the one we use in the picture. And it's driven by around 12 people. It's a long trip of about 15 days.
06:44
1,300 kilometers started from the coast. And they usually travel twice a year, exclusively during the summer season, of course, because in wintertime, Concordia is not able.
07:04
As I told you before, we are here to perform scientific research in different fields. One of them is astronomy, and that's my duty. And we have two telescopes observing the sky, the optical frequencies. The one you see in the picture on the left
07:22
follows just one star for all winter, because we expect the transit of a planet. We are lucky also some months. And why is this place so important for astronomy? Because there are no artificial lights and no humidity, and so the sky is really clear.
07:42
Also because we have three months of dark, so we can observe continuously, as we can only from space. Python is the most used programming language here,
08:01
but programming is hard, and contributing to open source projects is almost impossible, because we only have 512 kilobit of bandwidth for all the stations. We don't have the internet on our personal computers, and to access the network, we use a common desktop.
08:24
Now I show you just a couple of pictures before introducing my colleagues. This one is Concordia at sunset. I took this picture at the beginning of the winter.
08:47
That's the last time we saw the sun. It was 80 days ago.
09:03
And this one is Cephe under the moon. So this picture is the beginning of the winter. OK, now it's time for Coco. Colleen will speak about glaciology.
09:39
So hello, everybody.
09:40
I'm Colleen, as I just told you, Marco. And me, I'm a glaciologist here. I will then speak a little bit about glaciology and with a point. OK, so why we study glaciology here?
10:08
Here, glaciology is a tool to better understand our surrounding climate, so in the present day, but as well in the past. And here is a very good environment, because we don't have a lot of pollution around,
10:22
because it's really desertic. And because we are three kilometer above the ice. So here on the cross section, you can see where we are. So it's not really complicated, but it's Concordia here.
10:44
So it means that we are on what we call the high plateau of Antarctica. And here is a very good to realize ice corridor. Why? Because as we are on the plateau, we are almost in the middle of the ice cap.
11:02
And so there is absolutely no velocity. So no velocity means that the layer of ice are not disturbed, going in the depths. After is very good, because we have a lot of ice, three kilometers. And the accumulation of snow equivalent ice
11:21
is very, very low. And we have approximately two millimeters of ice corresponding to one year. Why we are doing some ice core? It's because, so I told you, we want to understand better
11:43
the climate of the past. So the snow, when it's falling, it captures some air and some particles of the atmosphere. After, it's going to compact it and become ice. The ice is an impermeable material.
12:03
And so those bubbles of air stay in prison into the ice. So in practical, this is what we are doing. So on the first picture on the left, you see the ice, which is into the drilling instrument. Just under it, you see the ice coming out,
12:23
the drilling instrument. And on the right, this is the section of ice that we analyze. And what we analyze on it, we don't analyze all the ice, but we analyze the bubble of air, which are in prison and the ice. And so as this is snow accumulation at the beginning,
12:41
if you remember, in the surface, this is the present day, more or less, whereas the more you go on depth, and the more you can find information of the past. With EPICA, we drill for three kilometers. And so we arrive to 800,000 years ago.
13:04
So we arrived to get some information about the long, long time ago. So the main results of this, I am. And so main of, I tell you that we analysis those ice car, but now we have analyzed only one quarter of the ice car
13:23
and all the rest is kept here, because BioNTech is the biggest printer in the world. So why not keep the ice here? So the main results of EPICA, it's really what we're talking now in the present day.
13:43
It's the correlation between the temperature, the greenhouse gases concentration. So here on the graph, you can see that when the concentration is, the pressure, sorry, is going up. The CO2, for example, at mid-10, are following the same train.
14:00
So with EPICA, we can have a focus bar about the consequence of the augmentation of greenhouse gases on the temperature of the atmosphere. But we wanted, there is another project now running because EPICA finished in 2005-06, more or less.
14:23
And so we want to perform another drilling at 40 kilometers far from Concordia, where we think that we can find some ice of 1 million years ago, or up to probably 1.5 million years ago. So why we want to perform another drilling
14:41
and the way it is interesting on it. The project is called Beyond EPICA, Oldest Ice. And we are interested in going more than 1 million years ago because the cycle of glaciation and interglaciation until 1 million years ago was a cycle of 100,000 years.
15:03
Whereas after 1 million years ago, the cycle are way more shorter. And this is like the cycle takes more or less 40,000 years ago. This formation, we have things to sediment course
15:21
or some like information of the ubiquity of the earth and this kind of parameters. So that's why if we arrived to perform a drilling after 1 million years ago, then we think that we can have more information about why the spread of glaciation becomes shorter.
15:44
And there is as well a technological goal on this, is because EPICA was what we call the destroyed drilling. It means that we put the drilling instrument to the ice. We take the ice, we bring it up into surface,
16:02
then we bring it to Europe. And in Europe, we make the analysis. Whereas here we develop, so you can see on the picture. Here you have the heating of fingers. So it melts the ice when you go down. And after somewhere on this tube, you have a spectrometer.
16:21
The spectrometer is what allows us to analyze the bubble of the gas and so the fast position of the atmosphere. It's way more fast than to take out all the ice, car and everything. And so normally in one year, so in one summer plane, we will perform all this drilling
16:43
and so have immediate results on the composition of this bubble of gas. So this is the new project of the project. Unfortunately, the drilling and those huge project are performed only in summer,
17:02
because the problem is that in the winter, the drilling like, yeah, it's more complicated to puff the drilling because of instrument, because the electronic inside, because you have more chance to put your training instrument like a stock on the ice.
17:22
But we are still doing a glass yolo during winter, but it's more small scale, so more in the surface. And so here you can see for example, that we are making a wet field snow. So you dig a hole in the snow and you take samples, you take some physical properties
17:41
of the snow to better understand the climate, the present climate and the climate of the past. And so for the glass yolo, I will stop here. And thank you for listening. Thanks.
18:03
Yeah, hello everybody. I am Sibrena Verso and I'm the station leader of the base, but I'm also a glass yoloist. But don't worry, I'm not gonna talk about snow again, because actually glass yolo is not my background. Normally I'm a biologist, I'm doing space biology. And well, the reason why I'm here is not so much
18:22
for my background in glass yolo, because I've been trained specifically for coming here, but it's because I've been doing other missions in isolated and confined environments. One of which I'm gonna talk about as soon as we can get our computer to work, just a few seconds.
18:50
Okay, it's coming.
19:17
Okay, it's coming.
19:24
So this is a mission I was talking about, it's called ISD-4, and it's a mission which is funded by NASA. And the purpose was to simulate a one-year mission on Mars. And the reason why NASA is funding this program, it's because, and the reason why NASA
19:48
is funding this program is because it's planning to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, even though their exact plan is not very accurate yet. But there are still some questions to answer, including whether astronauts, after spending months
20:01
in isolation and confinement, would still be able to perform at a high level and would still be able to work as a team. And to answer this question and some others, NASA is funding a program called HI-SEAS, which is basically simulations of missions to Mars, which happen in this dome here, which is about 11 meters in diameter, and which is isolating the slope
20:22
of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. And there, crew of six people spend different periods of time, growing from four months to one year. There was one one-year mission in which I took part. And there, during this mission,
20:41
the six people live as if they were on Mars, which means, for instance, that they don't interact in real time with anybody, because the only way to talk to people is using emails with a delay in 20 minutes in both directions, which means that you send an email, it takes 20 minutes to arrive, and then after the person has answered, it takes, again, 20 minutes to come back to you.
21:02
So for a year, I have not talked to or seen anybody besides my five crewmates. Another important part of this is that the crew members are never exposed to fresh air or sunlight, because once they go outside, but once or twice a week maximum, they have some analogs of spacesuits, which I'm gonna show a bit later.
21:24
This is how it looks inside the dome. I'm just going in for a few seconds for the, okay. So this is how it looks inside the dome. As you can see, it's like, basically, it looks like a bit like the atmospheric movie theaters. So it's quite voluminous, it gives an impression of space,
21:42
even though the surface is quite small. And we have basically one big room on the lower floor, and then you have a main dining with some bedrooms. It's the drawers that you can see. And those bedrooms are basically the size of big closets, and there is very, very little sound insulation, which is actually funny, because just by listening,
22:01
I could always know where my crewmates were and what they were doing. There was a lot of, let's say, proximity. You really had no intimacy. As for resources, we were basically behaving as if we were on Mars. And so for food, for instance, we only freeze dried food, or mostly freeze dried food.
22:22
I can see some examples here with some cubes of dehydrated chicken, dried cherries, dried vegetables, and so on. Simply because on a trip to Mars, you would basically bring some food that you can store or extend it for a time. And we did grow a little bit of fresh food
22:40
using basically what we could find. But to be true, the amounts were quite limited. There you can see our first harvest of cherry tomatoes. As you can see, it's not crazy amounts. And this is our bathroom,
23:01
and you can see that there is a toilet, but the toilet, since we have to spare as much water as possible, was a dry toilet, which means that you go there, you do what you have to do, and then actually you have to take care of turning what you produce into some things that smells a bit less. And water also would be, as I said, water would be very precious, and you can see that we have a shower, which would be quite a luxury for Mars mission.
23:22
But since we're saving as much as possible, we're taking about two showers of about 30 seconds each a week. And then we're collecting the water and using it for cleaning the ground. What we're doing most of the time was research. We all add our own research projects
23:41
because all researchers or engineers or something approaching, which were mostly test subjects. Here, for instance, you can see that I was taking some hair samples from a crewmate of mine, which was an analyze for looking at stress hormones. We also gave urine samples, saliva samples, we had questioners, we had various tests,
24:03
we tested some technologies, for instance, the drug reality goggles to say mitigate the effects of isolation confinement. Our sleep was monitored, our physical activity was monitored. We also had some called sociometric badges,
24:21
which is basically some devices that we're wearing around our necks, and we're able to know who we were talking to, how we were talking to them, how close we were, and so on. We also had some experiments outside. We had, for instance, some collaboration experiments where we had some objectives that we had to reach together
24:42
and where we interacted was rated. We also had some geology tasks to perform in real conditions as we were doing similar work in Mars. We were working on the ground outside or under the ground in what is called lava tubes.
25:04
And in addition to that, we also had our own research projects. There I was working, for instance, oh yeah, that's me when I was younger. I was PhD student back then, and I was working in the development of technologies that could allow you to produce what you need on Mars
25:22
from what is already there using microbes. So yeah, that's me, and that's mostly why I'm here. And here I'm not doing biology simply because it's so-called outside that you have no plants, no animals, and even microbes do not proliferate. So if you find them, just work it by the wing, don't really divide.
25:41
So that's basically why I came here. Thanks for your attention.
26:01
Hello, everyone. My name is Moreno Paricevic. In the real life, I work as computer scientist for the Italian National Research Council. And here in Concordia, I cover the position of electro science, which basically means that I take care of both the hardware and the software side of data acquisition or the experiments
26:23
we are conducting here. I'm responsible for 12 experiments in geophysics, among which the permanent observatory for seismology, geomagnetism, and space weather. Usually when you think about Antarctica,
26:41
you see something like this. You should see a picture. So you should see the continent covered by ice. And what's important to make research in this part of the world is that, is because the southern atmosphere,
27:02
as you can see from the next picture, is covered mostly by the oceans, 80% is water, and Antarctica itself, they cover the south part of the planet. And the southern atmosphere is not as densely populated as the northern one.
27:20
We have less observatories, we have less stations. In Antarctica, it's extremely important to have as much as possible observation points. And we have one here for various experiments. And concerning seismology, the continent resides completely on a stable tectonic plate,
27:42
as you can see in the picture. And so it means there are no local events. Whatever we are registering here with the seismometers are events that happen somewhere else in the world. And so there's no much noise from activities. Our station is isolated, so there are no,
28:02
especially in winter, there's no movements or anything that can interfere with the measurements. And of course, earthquakes use a seismic wave that propagates inside the planets. And they carry some information due to the fact
28:21
that the propagation is affected by some phenomena like a reflection and something that resemble refraction as well. And there are some effects that are introduced in the propagation of the waves, like the date, the changes of phase, or polarization, attenuation, there are ecos and so forth.
28:42
And all the information, this way it carries, is a lot of information, a lot of insights about the inner part of our planet. And most of the information we have about the planet, like the solid core, the solid inner core, the liquid inner core, the lower one to the upper mantle and the crust,
29:02
all becomes from this kind of stuff. As you can see, this is just a plot of an earthquake. You can see, oh, you're going to see that, not seeing yet. Okay, that's it. And you can see that there are several waves that propagate with different speeds
29:20
and different, depending on the material, the air crossing and so forth. So this is an example of what we detect here with the steam heaters. But as well, we can detect other phenomena, like in this case, it is an eruption of a volcano at Hawaii in May of this year. And as well, we can detect some local events.
29:41
In the next picture, you're going to see some spikes. And those are just the ice cracks. And that happens sometimes when the difference in temperature is higher. In this case, it was a delta in temperature of like 20 degrees. And the ice was literally cracking,
30:01
and we can detect it as well. As well, we detect the activity. And in the next picture, you will see it is the traverse, the ride, the caterpillar that brings the container with fuels, the food, and all the material we need on this station.
30:21
As well, since we are located close to the South Pole, we are studying magnetism, of course. And as you probably know, we have a North and a South Pole, geographic poles. And they are related to the rotation axis of the planet. But as well, we have magnetic poles.
30:41
And these poles, the North side with the geographic poles, and they are continually moving. And so the measurement we are taking here allows us to track the motion of these poles. And as well, we have what we call the geomagnetic poles that belongs to another coordinate system.
31:04
And these correspond to a perfect default as for the center of the planet. And that is usually used for numerical modeling. And I'll also explain why Aurora Loval is centric above us
31:22
and not on the South Pole or the magnetic pole. The South Pole corresponds to the Amuxox Coast Station. And the magnetic pole is 100 kilometers far away from the coast, close to the DDO, the De Montreuville French Station on the coast.
31:41
And the geomagnetic pole is close to us. As well, we conduct studies concerning the space weather, so the interaction between the solar activity and the magnetosphere, the atmosphere. And this phenomena is particularly important close to the poles, because there are particles that
32:01
are injected into the atmosphere and that can interfere well with various human activity, both in space and on the planet, and especially for what is concerned about the satellite operativity and telecommunication as well,
32:23
the power grid, the electricity distribution basically. Here, I take care of about 50 computers of different form factors, from recommended servers to add to devices, appliances, Raspberry Pis,
32:44
or Pinos, whatever device we can use for that acquisition. We use Python mainly for processing of data, validation of data, visualization of data. But most of the data we collect are sent to the search groups in Europe,
33:02
where the data is further analyzed and then contributed to create models at geographical and global scale. Concerning the telecommunication here, I haven't seen yet, take care of the maintenance and the administration of the local network and as well of the telecommunication
33:22
via satellite and via radio. We have a satellite connection of 500 kilobits per second, so we are very interested in whatever activity we are conducting here. For instance, for this conference, the bandwidth is a little bit dedicated to the connection of the device, as it wouldn't be possible. And as well, we are sharing the same connection for email,
33:43
whatever other service that we have stationed, web browsing, research, and whatever. And we send all this data to Europe. So a larger part of the bandwidth is dedicated just to send this data via SSH, R-Sync, and whatever is still known to Europe,
34:01
where the other groups are analyzing this data. And, okay, we are cutting, sorry. Okay, it's time for.
34:21
Hi everybody, my name is Carmen Bosnik, and I'm here working for the European Space Agency. And so ESA sends a doctor down here every year to study the adaptation of the human body to this extreme environments here.
34:40
And this is a perfect spot to do this because Concordia is the best and elegant we have on Earth to a base on Mars, for example, or to a long distance space flight. This is, of course, because of the extreme environment we have outside, so we have the cold that forces us to dress up accordingly.
35:00
Before we go outside, we have the three and a half months of darkness, the complete isolation during the winter months, and a small crew size, so we are 13 people for nine months. And all this makes it a perfect place to study for future human space flight missions. So I have four different experiments
35:21
for different scientists, laboratories throughout Europe, two of which are concerning the immune system. So what I do is, well, basically, I study my crew members here. I take monthly blood samples and urine samples and stool samples and hair samples and saliva
35:41
and all that fun stuff. And I analyze it in a little lab I have here. And with two studies, I'm looking at the evolution of the immune cells in the isolation, which is very interesting because of, as Leanne told you, we have no microbes outside that could attack us. And since we are always the same 13 people inside here,
36:03
there's also nothing new coming from us anymore after a few months. So we are looking at how the immune cells react to this kind of stress. And what we can see now is that in the first months, also because of the hypobaric hypoxia we have here,
36:21
in the first months, actually the activity of the immune cells is decreasing because they have nothing to do. But as soon as it turns to chronic hypoxia status, we can see that the immune cells are actually having an overreaction and doing more than they would usually do back in Europe, for example,
36:41
which is also why we usually get sick as soon as the new summer people come in around November. So this is quite interesting. And then another study looks at the acclimatization of our bodies to the hypoxia and all the high altitude practically. So you can never really adapt to this,
37:02
but you can acclimatize. We are at 3,300 meters, which is about 3,800 as it would be around Europe. Yeah, so basically this is also blood tests
37:20
and urine tests and lots of questionnaires on the altitude sickness. And well, the fourth experiment is concerning the decrease of piloting skills and fine motor skills. So Mario is going to put a picture. We have here is a simulator of the Soyuz capsule,
37:44
which is of course the space rocket that currently brings astronauts to the ISS. And yeah, you can see it here. So this is, well, it's like a computer game basically. It's the cockpit of the Soyuz with three monitors,
38:00
two joysticks. And what we do is we fly the Soyuz to the ISS and we dock. And my crewmates do this every month and I monitor their skills. And along with other fine motor tests and cognitive tests and more questionnaires, I look at how their skills are improving or decreasing or staying the same during the isolation period.
38:23
And this of course is very important because if you send a crew of astronauts to Mars, for example, you want to make absolutely sure that once they arrive, they will still be able to land the spaceship on Mars and return safely home back to Earth as well, of course. So yeah, that's what I'm doing here.
38:44
Okay, we take just a couple of minutes. Hello everybody, I'm Filippo Caliguaglia, I'm a physicist.
39:01
And I'm here for taking care about around the three projects mainly. These projects concern meteorology, so all kind of meteorological measurements. The study of the solar radiation. We have a solar radiation observatory
39:23
linked to like a worldwide network for measuring radiation, incoming, outcoming and all sort of all this kind of different wavelength. And also I'm running a measurement through a lighter facility which allows us to study the lower stratosphere
39:47
where the polar stratospheric clouds form and dissolve and enhance the dissolution of the ozone. And as you can see in this picture that will soon arrive from Antarctica to Edinburgh,
40:03
I hope. This is our lighter facilities, facility which is located in a shelter outside the base around some hundred meters out of the base. And in the next picture, you will see the facility
40:31
for the measurement of the solar of the radiation and the radiometers measuring longwave and shortwave are located on a device called the solar tracker
40:44
which allows this instrument to follow the sun and perform these kind of measurements. And at the end, as I told you, we are measuring temperature, humidity and so forth.
41:01
And I will just briefly show you a plot and you will probably recognize that it has been made with Python. And okay, and this is one of, this is a plot showing wind chill which is an interesting measure
41:23
that combine temperature and wind speed and allows us to have just in a glance have an idea of what's the weather like outside. As you can see from the statistics in the bottom of the screen, we reached the temperature of wind chill temperature
41:40
of minus 99 while the minimum temperature, real temperature we reached during this winter. Until now, it's around the minus 77.1 which is not a record but I can tell you that it's already quite a fresh environment,
42:01
very fresh and cold environment. And lastly, every day I'm performing a radio sounding. It means that I'm launching a balloon full of helium in order to track the condition of the atmosphere, of the lower atmosphere. It means from the ground until 30 kilometers in the summer
42:23
and only 15 during this time of the year. And for this reason, with the collaboration of my crew mates, we prepared a special balloon, a special edition balloon just to celebrate this Skype with you. And so please Mark, help me.
43:01
We will launch this balloon tomorrow evening and we hope that it will reach a really high elevation altitude and it will measure for us, with measure temperature, relative humidity and all these kind of variable that are really important for studying atmosphere,
43:22
for meteorological reason and for a better understand and better improve our models. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Caleb. So I don't know whether you can actually see this.
43:41
Oh, actually, it's switched. You can't see this. So this is the audience. So please give hand to Antarctica waving. I hope you can see this. So this is for a room. We have like another five minutes for two questions.
44:00
If you have a question, please come here and be quick because we already have a little delay, so. Which Python version do you use? Oh, good. Is that a trick question? Which Python version do you use? No, this is a trick question. No. Oh, which Python version do you use, asks Jill.
44:27
Python 2.7. Caleb was coding in Python 3.6.
44:45
I'm not yet at the development level, but I'm working hard, so maybe we will meet in some years, a few years, the next Python. I have a question about this NASA experiment on people behavior.
45:05
There's a question on the NASA experience on the people behavior. So how NASA to make sure that people are safe during these experiments and are there any regulations that must be followed on such experiments?
45:22
And how does NASA make sure that their people are safe during these experiments? People are monitored quite extensively. There are cameras inside the dome that fill continuously the common areas for research, but that would allow to detect an emergency.
45:40
Then there is an emergency fund that can be used like exactly if there is an emergency and there is like the simulations need to stop for safety reasons. We have a way to contact help. And then there are some procedures which have been developed for basically any possible emergency. For instance, if there is a volcanic eruption,
46:01
there would be a helicopter taking us up. So we were isolated, but we were quite many dogs, so there was no... Like NASA is very careful about the safety of the test engines. No, it's easy. Why should I repeat all the questions? Come upstairs and ask the question directly.
46:20
Just, it's easier. Hello, next question here. All right, hi. So I was wondering, I think three months of darkness now, how has this affected your group dynamics for better or worse, or better maybe both one example for better and one example for worse?
46:45
I have to say that it's fine also because in the middle of the winter, the 21 of June, there is one week of holiday. It's called mid-winter, and it's one week of parties,
47:00
so we enjoy it all together. It's really fun because you know that the sun is coming, so it's a good week. We wait this week from the beginning of the winter. Okay, so thank you very much.
47:22
I think this was the farthest away ever keynote for EuroPython ever and probably also the coldest one. So thank you very much. I think this gave us all great insight into your work and how is life in Antarctica. Yeah, and thanks again and again.