Mars special
Endurance expeditionDEALING WITH DARKNESSSurviving the long polar nights was by
far the most difficult thing for Dr
Healey and her fellow researchers.
‘The sun connects you with life back at
home,’ she says, ‘so when you lose that- for 105 days we lived in total darkness
- it really did feel like a different planet.
‘Much of the research on Concordia
looks at the effects a long space flight
could have on a crew, so I was
monitoring our biochemical markers
for signs of stress caused by our
confinement. For instance, it’s difficult
to maintain regular eating and sleeping
patterns. I also looked at how having
only artificial light affected our eyesight.
‘Before I went to Concordia I was a
bit smug, as I’d worked in the Arctic
and never had any problems with
24-hour daylight, but 24-hour darkness
is very different. You go into a state of
hibernation almost, and become very
slow at doing things. You also lose
cognition and get forgetful because
your thyroid function is affected by
the low light levels. You really have to
write everything down.
‘At the end of my experience, I felt
absolutely drained. Physically I don’t
think I could have done another
overwinter. I couldn’t sleep for four
days at a time, my hair and skin were
in really bad condition, and I lost loads
of weight – we all did.’
Concordia base is home
to around 60 scientists in
the summer months, but
during the winter, just a
skeleton crew must find
a way to survive with
limited contact with the
outside world‘I had always been fascinated by explorers who went South.
It is the last great wilderness and much of it is untouched.
I had already travelled to the North Pole, so thought I knew
what to expect, but Concordia is very different. Disembarking
from the plane was like stepping into a void; the ice was
absolutely flat, and life just does not exist there. I remember
when I first arrived, the chef was keeping the slugs that came
in with the fresh fruit and vegetables as pets, which I thought
was a bit odd. But after being there for 12 months without
seeing a single animal, I could sort of understand it.
‘Our crew was four women and nine men,
and my job was to monitor our physical and
psychological health. Before travelling South,
we all had human behaviour and performance
training, which is the same training astronauts
have before they go to space. It’s all about living
and working together as a team and being aware
of what might cause conflict.
‘The human element is probably the greatest challenge of
Concordia, particularly as the weather means you are confined
to base for long periods. Those of us who found a connection
with one or two people coped much better than those who
just tried to get on with everybody. Certainly, making a couple
of good friends was absolutely key to my time on the ice.
‘We were a very mixed group in terms of age, experience,
cultural background and motivation. The others were all
French or Italian, although English was our common language.
One had never left France before – his first ever flight was
to Antarctica! There were so few of us that
everyone did several jobs: the plumber was also
trained to assist in the operating theatre, and the
chef was also a fireman. As well as being the
base doctor, I was also tasked with conducting
scientific experiments to discover whether any
bacteria can survive in extreme cold – and
therefore might survive on Mars.