No way to reach the outside world, neither by ship nor by boat.
Only the same nine people around for months.
A Brucker will experience these difficult conditions in her new job.
Because she was hired for a year at a research station in Antarctica.
Fürstenfeldbruck -
You can hardly imagine a more lonely place.
The Neumayer III research station in Antarctica, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, is 4400 kilometers from the nearest city - Cape Town in South Africa.
The closest neighbors live more than 200 kilometers away in the next research station.
In the Antarctic winter, from March to November, the station is not accessible from the outside.
Ships cannot approach them because of the large amount of sea ice, and the air is too cold for aircraft, with temperatures of up to minus 50 degrees.
This is exactly where the Fürstenfeldbrucker Theresa Thoma will work for the next year.
Even as a child, the 26-year-old loved tinkering with electronic devices.
From the age of twelve she was active in electronics tinkering in the Brucker local association of the German Amateur Radio Club, and ultimately received her own callsign, DC1TH, after passing the amateur radio test.
And it didn’t stop at the hobby: Theresa Thoma did a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and her master’s degree in computer science at the Munich University of Applied Sciences.
With the academic awards and the amateur radio certificate, she was well prepared for a job advertisement from the Alfred Wegener Institute.
“At first I thought it was a crazy idea, but then the thought just stuck to me,” says the 26-year-old.
And it was taken.
The application was followed by a month-long training phase together with the rest of the ten-person wintering team.
It consists of five researchers, three technicians, a cook and a doctor.
“For example, we camped on a glacier for a week,” says Thoma.
In addition, there were many team building measures and of course instructions on the technology on the station.
This was followed by several weeks of quarantine.
Shortly before Christmas, after several weeks of quarantine, the Fürstenfeldbrucker set off with the ship “Polarstern” in the direction of Antarctica.
It takes four weeks for the ship to arrive at the Ekström Ice Shelf. At the research station, the Fürstenfeldbrucker will primarily take care of the station's IT equipment and solve computer problems.
But that is only one of her tasks: The amateur radio operator will also lubricate the wind turbine of the penguin observation station and read out data from the underwater microphones for observing the marine mammals.
“In addition, we're all in the station fire department in the wintering team,” says the 26-year-old.
Because there is nobody else on site in case there is a fire.
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The red snowsuit is part of the protective clothing.
There are several layers of warm clothing underneath to survive the cold polar night.
© tb
One of the biggest challenges in the Antarctic winter is the cold.
For the 60-day polar night you have to dress very warmly.
“We have long underwear, then another layer of long fleece underwear, another layer of clothing and a red snowsuit over it,” Theresa Thoma lists.
If that is not enough, there are also down jackets to put on.
In addition to several layers of gloves, it is also very important that the ski goggles fit snugly.
"Otherwise frostbite easily occurs at the temperatures," explains the 26-year-old.
But even in the polar night, the Fürstenfeldbruckerin and the rest of the wintering team are not completely isolated.
There is a satellite internet connection.
With only one Mbit, which the ten people also have to share with the research data, this is not particularly fast.
But it is enough for making phone calls or e-mails, to stay in contact with the outside world.
After a little over a year at the Antarctic research station, Thoma will not be back home until February 2022.
Sven Behrens
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