Aug 28, 2021
‘Polar Pod,’ a 100 m high “vertical boat”
Between climatic issues and the study of oceanic fauna, the doctor-explorer Jean-Louis Étienne, 74, should leave at the end of 2023 to explore the Southern Ocean aboard the Polar Pod, a “vertical” boat capable of withstanding the extremely rough seas of “Fiftieth Howling” near Antarctica.
The motor will be the circumpolar current that goes around Antarctica and the South Pole, and have six wind turbines. Polar Pod's "flipping" action is achieved by filling seawater ballast tanks, and is inspired by the Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP).