Mobile Antarctic Research Station Opens

Britain's new Antarctic research station, Halley VI, has officially been opened Wednesday, the British Antarctic Survey announced.

The new state-of-the-art research facility is the sixth research base built by the U.K., on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf. The research station will be home to more than 50 scientists who will be performing their research work on the coldest continent.

The first research facility was built in 1956 to study the Earth's magnetic field and the near-space atmosphere. Since then, four more research bases have been set up. The newly-opened Halley VI replaces Halley V facility that worked for 20 years.

Interestingly, the new research facility is different from the other stations. For instance, Halley VI has the ability to move on giant ski-like supports, in a bid to avoid being stranded on an iceberg. Ice Shelf, at the site where Halley VI is located, is moving toward the ocean at the rate of nearly half a mile every year. Moreover, ice and snow gets accumulated quickly on the surface of the frozen continent, burying any structure built on the ice shelf.

To overcome these problems, the new research station is built with extendable legs that can be moved on huge ski-like devices. The structure has eight individual modules that are interconnected. These modules are stocked with retractable hydraulic legs that will enable them to stay above the rising snowfall. When the station needs to be moved, it can easily be towed to a new location, according to io9.com.

The station was built at a cost of $40 million and weighs 26 million pounds. It is designed in such a way that it will be able to withstand temperatures as low as minus 69 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Halley VI is the latest NERC-supported Antarctic research station that demonstrates NERC's long-term commitment to Antarctica. We look forward to the excellent science that is made possible by Halley's unique location on the Earth's largest ice cap," Duncan Wingham, Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), said in a statement.

Click here to look at the new British Antarctic Station.