Contents: Scientists going stir crazy Tourism notes

The international experience of exploring and setting up research bases, and the way tourism is handled in Antartica may provide some useful parallels to setting up Moon bases or bases in other parts of the Solar System, as well as give ideas for space tourism.

Although Antartica is not as hostile an environment as outer space, there are still some significant parallels. All food and resources have to be delivered. There is a regular cadence of delivery and personnel flights. For periods of time, living and travel is restricted. People live in permanent shelters with special life support requirements. Leaving the base structures requires specialized dress and equipment (at some times, especially winter). Scientists and base personnel may feel isolation (especially when over-wintering).

Here is something interesting about Antarctica stations:

Scientists going stir crazy [edit section]

• Roombas anthropomorphized - see https://spectrum.ieee.org/south-pole-roombas
  • One of the Roombas was kidnapped, then recovered, then covered in fur like a pet

Tourism notes [edit section]

Tourism to Antartica has steadily grown in the last 30 years. These days (mid 2020s), cruise ships, flights, and expedition ships regularly go to Antartica during the Southern Hemisphere summer. About 122K tourists visited Antartica in the 2023-24 season, and about 78K made landings.

An expedition ship excursion costs about $15k USD per passenger for a 11-day cruise with 5 to 10 landings. Non-landing cruises (drive-bys) are less expensive and are done by regular cruise ships.

Special precautions are taken to reduce damage to expedition landing spots, such as limiting shore party size to under 100 (or 50) and sanitizing all gear (especially boots) before and after the excursion, to avoid contaminating landing areas.