A bird's eye view of the first ever 'zero emission' scientific station in Antarctica

'Bird's eye view' sounds better than 'drone's camera view'...

You think it's cold where you are right now? Colder than Mars, you say? Well, down at the Princess Elisabeth scientific station, on the Utsteinen Ridge in Antarctica, it might be summer right now, but they can teach everybody else a thing or two about cold weather (you don't want to stick around for winter down there -- and I think it's pretty safe for me to write "down there" for pretty much anyone reading this. If you are reading this from the station, please drop us a note in the comments!).

© Antarctica Princess Elisabeth station

The station is interesting for many reasons, including because it aims to be zero emission is is powered by wind and solar power. They've also used great design and construction techniques (including lots of insulation, of course) to take passive advantage from solar energy. They even use smart grid concepts locally on the station to be as energy efficient and optimize between their various energy options.

A drone was brought to the station and recently did its first overhead flight with a video camera. The view is beautiful:



Here's a view straight down:

Vimeo/Screen capture

The look of the station is a bit familiar. I almost expected to see some of these guys off in the distance...

Star Wars Wiki/Promo image

Here's another great video from the residents of the stations. Fans of penguins and leopard seals rejoice!



Via Antarctic Station official website, treehugger.com

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