Halley – at the edge of ice-station design

Halley the 50-year-old Antarctic survey station where the hole in the ozone layer was discovered, is by necessity in one of the most inhospitable parts of the earth. Its resident staff are exposed to temperatures down to -55degreesC and winds up to 150 km/h, Everything they build eventually gets embedded in a moving ice shelf. As such, the first four stations were abandoned after ten years or so. The current station, Halley S, is radically different from previous designs in that it uses a mix of Jackable and ski-mounted structures, However, there is still room for improvement, particularly in regard to energy use, and Halley 6-already on the drawing board-is likely to be a further major step forward in sustainable ice-station design.

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