Oct. 25 – The 2013-2014 XXIX Antarctic summer campaign is part of PNRA (the National research program in the Antarctic) and it was launched yesterday with the opening of the Italian Mario Zucchelli Station in Antarctica, the MZS is located in the Terra Nova Bay, in the Ross Sea. The National Research Council plans and coordinates the base’s scientific research, while shipments and the technical and logistical actions and responsibility for the operations are entrusted to ENEA (tge National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development). The CSNA, the National Scientific Commission for Antarctica, guarantees for the scientific evaluation of the strategic objectives, and it reports on the PNRA’s projects to the Ministry of Education (Ministry for Education, University and Research), sponsor of the campaign. Before opening the base, the CNR had to deliver materials and transfer the scientific and technical staff, as well as open an office in Christchurch (Nz). The first group arrived by helicopter after a first stop at the American base in McMurdo, their duty as technicians and logistics experts is to restore access to the base; the scientific activities will begin with the arrival the first group of researchers, scheduled for the end of October. Before operations may begin, it is essential to create a sea-ice runway, 2.5 m thick, to allow the Hercules aircraft to land. A group of Italian and French technicians (12 in all) will be transferred from November 6 at the French-Italian Concordia base and will spend nine months in complete isolation. The next winter campaign in Concordia, now in its ninth year of activities, will begin on February 7 and will end on November 6, 2014. The research activities will be carried out mainly in marine and earth biology at the MZS, and atmospheric physics, astrophysics and glaciology at the Concordia. Between December 2013 and January 2014, 500 km from the MZS base, a remote camp will drill the ice to help reconstruct the climate of the last 2000 years. The Italica will bring supplies to the MZS bas via land, and it will then embark upon a 30 day scientific campaign in the Ross Sea and, later, a campaign of scientific research for about 30 days in the Ross Sea. The reopening of the MZS base is also an opportunity to remember, ten years after his death, the Italian pioneer Mario Zucchelli and his commitment to the success of this ambitious Italian project.
