RV Polarstern
| PFS Polarstern | |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | RV Polarstern |
| Operator: | Alfred Wegener Institute |
| Port of registry: | 22x20px Bremerhaven, Germany |
| Route: | Arctic and Antarctica |
| Builder: | Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft at Kiel and the Nobiskrug at Rendsburg |
| Laid down: | 22 February 1981 |
| Completed: | 1 December 1982 |
| Identification: |
IMO Number 8013132 Call sign: DBLK |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Icebreaker research vessel |
| Displacement: | 17,300 Tonnes |
| Length: | 117.91 metres (386 ft 10 in) |
| Beam: | 25.07 metres (82 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 11.21 metres (36 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power: | 4 engines, 14,000 kW (20,000 bhp) |
| Speed: | 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 44 maximum |
RV Polarstern (meaning pole star) is a German research icebreaker of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. The Polarstern was commissioned in 1982 and is mainly used for research in the Arctic and Antarctica.
Polarstern was built by the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft at Kiel and the Nobiskrug at Rendsburg. The ship has a length of 118 metres (387 feet).
Polarstern is a double-hulled icebreaker. It is operational at temperatures as low as -50°C. (-58°F) Polarstern can break through ice 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) thick at a speed of 5 knots. Thicker ice must be broken by ramming.
On September 7, 1991, Polarstern, assisted by the Swedish arctic ice breaker Oden reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels.[1]. Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a common tug of war and a football game on an ice floe. Polarstern again reached the pole exactly 10 years later[2] together with the USCGC Healy.
On March 2, 2008, one of the vessel's helicopters crashed on a routine flight to the Antarctic Neumayer II base. The German pilot and a Dutch researcher were killed, three other passengers injured.[3][4]
On October 17, 2008, Polarstern, as the first research ship ever traveled through both the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage in one cruise and thus circumnavigated the North Pole.[5]
In popular culture, Polarstern is also the name of the first track of Eisbrecher's (German for Icebreaker) first album, Eisbrecher. Throughout the track, narrations are given specifying the dimensions and specifications of an enormous ship, blowing the measurements of the real icebreaker out of proportion (e.g.: length of 236 metres).
External links
- Official site
- Current position of the Polarstern
- Secrets of the seas: Jurassic shrimp, hairy crabs and giant microbes, news article featuring The Polarstern
References
- ↑ Fütterer, D. et al. (1992) The Expedition ARK-VIII/3 of RV Polarstern in 1991, Reports on Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, 107, 267 pp, hdl:10013/epic.10107.d001 (pdf 6.4 MB)
- ↑ Thiede, J. et al. (2002) POLARSTERN ARKTIS XVII/2 Cruise Report: AMORE 2001 (Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge Expedition), Reports on Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, 421, 390 pp, hdl:10013/epic.10426.d001 (pdf 8 MB)
- ↑ "awi.de - sad times (ANT-XXIV/3 Weekly report No. 3)". http://www.awi.de/en/infrastructure/ships/polarstern/weekly_reports/all_expeditions/ant_xxiv/ant_xxiv3/9_march_2008/. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
- ↑ "Pooljaar.nl - The crash in retrospect (article in Dutch)". http://pooljaar.nl/ijzer/2008/03/13/terugblik-op-de-crash/. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- ↑ "idw-online.de - Research around the North Pole". http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news284090. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
de:Polarstern (Schiff) fr:Polarstern nl:Polarstern ru:Поларштерн (судно) sv:RV Polarstern
