13th FEB 2019: The 2018 -2019 Antarctica Unexplored Dome Fuji expeditionary arrived in Madrid, Spain yesterday, 74 days after their departure to Antarctica, where they have traveled more than 2,500 kilometers in 52 days and have remained a total of 54 days on the polar ice plateau, exploring and performing top level science.
Three of them – Ramón Larramendi, Manuel Olivera and Hilo Moreno – arrived at the Madrid Barajas airport Adolfo Suárez, while Ignacio Oficialdegui flew to the Bilbao airport, since he lives in Pamplona. Upon their arrival in Madrid, they had a great reception by the Tasermiut South Greenland EXPEDITIONS staff, co-sponsor of this expedition and directed by Mr. Larramendi. Media also attended, such as TVE, the EFE agency or the Onda Madrid radio station.
After more than 2,500 kilometers of route through the interior of the Antarctic, bearing temperatures down to 42º C below zero, the expedition members have arrived in good condition, except for some frostbite on the tips of Manuel Olivera’s fingers, from which he is recovering.
They have returned without the WindSled, which they have left at the Russian base of Novolazárevskaya, in Antarctica, waiting on future expeditions. “We are convinced that this journey is the beginning of new exploration and science in Antarctica and leaving it there is the best sign that we have full confidence that it will be like this,” said Larramendi. With this decision there is now a windsled in the Arctic, Greenland, and another in continental Antarctica.
Some of the scientists who have collaborated in the expedition went directly to the airport to collect the samples that the expeditionary have on the projects. Colleagues arriving from: the MicroAirPolar team, Autonomous University of Madrid, whose managers are now on the Antarctic coast collecting more data; the Helios project (University of Alcalá de Henares-University of Valencia) came Josabel Belliure, who took the frozen samples in a thermal box; and the SOLID project (by CAB, Astrobiology Center) was also there to pick up the devices that have been tested for future large class space missions.
The news of the this scientific expedition campaign has gone around the world. It has illustrated how the WindSled is a fundamental platform to have efficient and non-polluting science in one of the most fragile and complex places on the planet.