Here is my paper on UAVs in Antarctica. Please read and tell me where it is weak or missing something. David Bushman Sensis Corporation

Reducing the Environmental Impact of Research at the Antarctic Dry Valleys Using Unmanned Aircraft

Introduction

The Dry Valleys of Antarctica is the largest ice area on the continent and is very cold and very dry. Scientists estimate that the Dry Valleys have been this way for 14 million years[i], known by some as “one of the oldest landscapes on the planet[ii]. This cold, dry seemingly unchanging area is also fragile. According to SCAR, “this ancient desert landscape and its biological communities have very little natural ability to recover from disturbance[iii]. Footprints left in the 1950s can still be clearly visible today[iv].

When explorers first observed the area, they described the Dry Valleys as “a valley of the dead,” but more recently, researchers have described the area as the “hotbed of life” in Antarctica outside the Peninsula. When water becomes available for short periods of time each year, primarily from glacial melt, many organisms re-hydrate and explode with life. There are numerous types of algae, fungi, bacteria, and worms that live in the soil, lakes, ice, and rocks. The largest of these creatures, the nematodes, can be found in some locations as numerous as 5,000 per kilogram of soil. These small creatures can dry up, losing 99% of their water during the winter when they enter a state called anhydrobiosis. In this state the dry nematodes can be blown by the wind. Algae and other microorganisms can also dry up or enter a state of status[v]. In this condition, they are very fragile and easily destroyed when trodden underfoot or crushed by equipment. Life in the Dry Valleys is also waning, surviving off nutrients introduced when a lake formed 40,000 years ago[vi] and subsequently drained, or from external sources known as spatial subsidies that include bird droppings, or wind blown microbial mats or surface foams (from the ocean)[vii]. These surface nutrients can easily be disturbed through walking or other surface activity.

In another study of the salt environments in the Dry Valleys, scientists have found organisms living in salt saturated conditions. The high concentrations of salts lower the freezing point of the water, as drop of as to much as minus 56 degrees Celsius. Of extraordinary was the discovery that some of these microbes were from a common species of Penicillium bacteria, and colonies of fungi, Beauveria bassiana, that thrive on insects. Researchers theorize that these microbial colonies have been in place for millennia, perhaps tracing there origins to times when Antarctica had a much warmer clime[viii]. This discovery also points out that the unintentional introduction of microbes from visitors can have extraordinary consequences if those microbes find a niche where they can take hold.

The Dry valleys of Antarctica also represent one of the best analogue sites to Mars that can be found anywhere on Earth. This is particularly true for exploring where life in these extreme Antarctic conditions could teach us how life could have survived on Mars. Biology is not the only science with interest in the Dry Valleys as an analogue to Mars. Glacial impingements in the Dry Valleys, along with soil formation[ix], salt deposits, wind erosion[x], weathering[xi], and many other geologic topics. The Dry Valleys of Antarctica are in many ways the primer Mars analogue site on Earth.

In 2004 the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) organized the second Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA): McMurdo Dry Valleys, southern Victoria Land McMurdo Dry Valleys. These areas were set aside under the ASMA in order to facilitate scientific research while maintaining stewardship of the environment—that is, to minimize the cumulative impact of human activity. Some of the objectives to reach these goals are to minimize the possible introduction of alien plants, animals or microbes, the use of fossil fuels, the impact of transportation, and the footprint of facilities and scientific experiments[xii].

How Does the ASMA Propose to Preserve the Antarctic Dry Valleys?

In order to preserve the Dry Valleys of Antarctica for research and for future generations, the ASMA has established certain objectives for conducting research in this area. These objectives include[xiii]:

• Facilitate scientific research while maintaining stewardship of the environment;
• Ensure long term protection of ecosystem integrity and special features;
• Conserve the scientific, wilderness, ecological, aesthetic, and educational values or the Area;
• Minimize cumulative environmental impacts of human activities;
• Minimize the possibility of introduction of alien plants, animals, and microbes to the Area;
• Promote the use of transportation modes having the least environmental impacts;
• Minimize the use of fossil fuels for the conduct of activities in the Area;
• Minimize the footprint of all activities in the Area, including the proliferation of field camps.

To achieve these objectives, the ASMA has identified a need to reduce damage to the area by reducing helicopter traffic, vehicle traffic, and significantly reduce and control the foot traffic in and throughout the Area to protect sensitive sites, unique features and delicate ecosystems. To minimize impact, ASMA calls for reducing pressures on the Area by reducing logistics to and removing everything from these sites.

How Unmanned Aircraft Can Help Preserve the Dry Valleys of Antarctica

Unmanned aircraft can reduce the environmental impact of conducting research in this Area in several ways. High altitude long endurance unmanned aircraft can potentially be operated off Antarctica from bases on in New Zealand or South America. These aircraft can fly over the Dry Valleys to conduct research without any significant impact on the Area or its biota.

Not all research can be done from remote aircraft. Small unmanned aircraft can assist in research that must be conducted in the Area. Small unmanned aircraft can be launched from safe camp locations to conduct reconnaissance flights in place of using fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. Aircraft equipped with the right sensors can help target locations of scientific interest and help identify safe routes into and out of the area to minimize the impact of researchers have conducting science in the area. In some cases, small airplanes or small unmanned helicopters can collect data for the scientists (temperature, pressure, humidity, solar flux, air samples, water/ice samples, soil samples, etc.) without the scientists entering the area on foot. Unmanned airplanes can support operations in these areas for many hours at a time, and can be used to deploy and recover remote instruments.

Although helicopters will still be needed to transport researchers and equipment into and out of the Area, the use of unmanned aircraft can significantly reduce the logistics required to support the science team and thus the environmental stress on the Area. With the replacement of some helicopter or airplane operations with unmanned aircraft, there are also benefits from reduced logistic and operating costs and improved safety reducing manned flight requirements.

By adopting the use of unmanned aircraft in Antarctic research we will also be developing research methodologies that could find their use on Mars exploration expedition. Working to help preserve the unique environment of the Antarctic Dry Valleys can end up paving the way toward enabling a greater capability when we explore the mysteries of Mars.