The Star: May 10, 2018

18 Thursday May 10 2018
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The Star
News
Cutting-edge technology in search
Antarctic studies
associate professor
Wolfgang Rack is
going on an expedition
to the Weddell Sea to
try and uncover the
wreckage of Sir Ernest
Shackleton’s sunken
ship, Endurance,
using cutting-edge
technology. He talks to
Julia Evans
FOLLOWING IN the footsteps
of polar explorer Ernest
Shackleton is something many
Antarctic scientists only dream
of.
But for Canterbury University
Associate Professor Wolfgang
Rack that will be a reality in
January when he joins an expedition
with the hope of discovering
Shackleton’s ship 100 years
after it sank in the Weddell Sea.
“Using a ship makes it possible
to go to places you can’t go by
air, it’s normally very difficult
with the sea ice . . . you need an
icebreaker,” Prof Rack said.
Where countless expeditions
have failed to find the wreckage,
Prof Rack said this trip has a
EXPLORER: Canterbury University researcher Wolfgang Rack is going to Antarctica.
higher chance as the technology
being used is similar to that
searching for the Malaysian
MH370, thought to have crashed
in the Indian Ocean four years
ago.
Just last week, the search for
the airliner discovered two 19thcentury
wreckages off the coast
of Australia,
Prof Rack is one of two Canterbury
scientists set to board the
South African icebreaker ship,
Agulhas II. The other is yet to be
named.
The expedition will cruise
to the last known location of
Shackleton’s ship, recorded in
the diaries of Akaroa navigator
Frank Worsley.
Once there the autonomous
underwater vehicles will be sent
down. The AUVs can get to
depths of nearly 6000m, while
the ship is thought to be about
3000m down.
“It’s the first time this technology
has been used like this . . .
the expedition has a lot of firsts,”
Prof Rack said. “It’s ice-breaking
but it’s also ground-breaking.”
He said he grew up hearing
the stories of Shackleton and
the crew of the Endurance,
which was caught in sea ice and
crushed in Antarctica’s Weddell
Sea.
“His heroic achievements are
amazing. Losing the ship, but the
whole team survived. It’s a story
like no other.”
But even if the ship is not
found, he said it would not be
a wasted trip. “Just being in a
place he has been and where the
ship sank will be incredible . . . a
highlight.”
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