Chat with Vietnamese-based scientists in Antarctica

Vietnamese-American physicist Nguyen Trong Hien, a scientific member of BICEP, a study of Berkeley, Caltech, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) and UC San Diego is currently participating in a new research project in South Vietnam. Pole.

The unique laboratory on earth

Referring to Antarctica, people have imagined extremely cold weather and harsh working conditions?

Right. Antarctica is the coldest, highest and driest. Because the earth's axis of rotation is 23.5 degrees above the sun's orbit, the north and south polar regions of the earth have 6 consecutive days of day and continue with 6 months of night.

In winter, the temperature drops very low, sometimes below - 75 degrees Celsius. If more wind effects are added, it is sometimes much colder. The waters around Antarctica will freeze (raising the area of ​​Antarctica to double), no ships can travel.

Under these conditions, the aircraft will be difficult to operate and, if operated, is not safe.

Therefore, from mid-February to the end of October every year, most residents on all stations will have to leave Antarctica, leaving only a few custodians and stopping all activities in and out.

Each station has a service team to handle daily living issues. Each experiment sent one, and the two stayed behind to look after and operate the equipment.

At the Amundsen-Scott station where I am doing the experiment, there are more than 250 people living here in the summer, most of them are service and construction workers, scientists usually only occupy a certain number. In winter, there are only about 60 people left.

Physicist Nguyen Trong Hien at Antarctica 1/2007
(Photo: TP)

Thanks to its geographical and climate characteristics, Antarctica is a unique and unique laboratory on earth. It can be said that three key areas of science have used the advantages of Antarctica and have brought many highly topical results.

It is the discovery of ozone holes that warn of global warming, the study of the formation of the universe, and surveys of biology in the harsh environment of Antarctica - things This involves determining the existence of extraterrestrial life .

How is the current infrastructure in Antarctica developing, sir?

It has been almost a hundred years since the return to fate of British explorers. The life of the Antarctic inhabitants has advanced.

From the rudimentary vehicles that rare explorers pioneered for the purpose of holding out, just over four generations later, Antarctica is a scientific base with state-of-the-art infrastructure.

Our new station is a fully integrated complex (meeting room, dining room, gym, every bedroom with telephone and internet .) for 150 residents, can travel without wearing a cold shirt.

Only bath for 2 minutes

How many Vietnamese people have come here and when?

Our Vietnamese have been in Antarctica for at least twenty years. In the list of the current NSF contractor, I see that there are over ten Vietnamese people, but it is unclear whether they work here or not.

I know that at least 3 people have come to work in Antarctica. The first one is probably Mr. Bui Hien, the communication officer who has been in the winter of 1989. I myself also spent the winter of 1994 as the scientific director and representative of the National Science Agency of the United States. States

The third Vietnamese stayed in the winter as Mrs. Ta Thi Xuan in 2004 and she still continues to work here as a technical inspector.

How do all activities in Antarctica take place?

Antarctic water is taken from ice, people melted ice to use for daily activities, so very limited.

Here people only get a bath twice a week and every two minutes. Every day people only wash clothes once. This is quite strict and completely self-discipline.

In the observatories in the world that I have come across, perhaps the Antarctic food (Amundsen-Scott Station) is the best. People choose chefs and food for Antarctica very carefully.

This is important by two things. First, there is nothing to do in Antarctica, so a delicious meal makes people very excited. Secondly, the cost of food, even expensive food like lobster, filet minon beef is also much cheaper than the cost of transportation.

Therefore, buying delicious food is not a problem. That is, the delicious and expensive food is only a very small part of the station's budget.

In addition to scientific research, does Antarctica organize sports and cultural activities?

Yes. There is also a festival here. It was held in January. In 2006 there was a comedy group titled Two Minutes. That is the funny story about this two-minute bathing rule.

Around after Christmas, Antarctica has a ' Round the World ' race, a 3-kilometer long circle around Antarctica.

Since air pressure is only 2/3 of the pressure level at sea level, winning this race is not easy. I used to go . the final race in 1992 (that year more than 150 participants).

And what is your job to study this phase?

As a member of the BICEP experiment, I was responsible for manufacturing equipment and testing the sensor system (camera) of BICEP. BICEP has been operating well for a year in Antarctica.

Here, my colleague and I gathered more technical data to help analyze astronomical data and prepare BICEP for a new monitoring season.

Thank you!

Lan Anh made