On August, 31th an important milestone has been achieved in the framework of the SIMACE project: integration and testing completion of the micro-climate station prototype that will be installed in Antarctica next winter.
The station aims at the measurement of the micro-climate conditions in which microbial communities adapted to hostile environments. It will measure and transmit via satellite some ground and air parameters to the University of La Tuscia, institution responsible of the overall project funded by the National Program for the Research in Antarctica (PNRA).
CIRA is responsible for the definition, design and integration of the station prototype and especially of the data transmission that represents the actual "added value" of this solution with respect to the previous ones. One the proper operation of the prototype will be verified, maybe more such stations will be integrated and installed in different Antarctic sites.
The station is made up of sensors and datalogger, passive and active thermal conditioning subsystems, a power system based on batteries and supported by a wind turbine and a radio-modem to transmit data through the Iridium satellite constellation.
Part of the functional tests of the station prototype were executed in one of the climatic chambers of the CIRA Space Qualification Lab.
Just after the milestone achievement, the station has been dismounted and packed to start the long journey to the polar continent whose first step is the ENEA site in Casaccia (Rome) to be then boarded on a ship towards Lyttelton, New Zealand and finally reach the Italian Antarctic station "Mario Zucchelli" in November.
In the middle of the Antarctica summer, between the end of December 2017 and the beginning of January 2018, the station installation by CIRA personnel is programmed at the Trio Nunatak site located at 1400 meters above sea level.
