Original subtitles

[squawk]

CAPTAIN WALKER: I love driving the ship.

Breaking out the ice pier...

Right, try to keep it straight.

And it's a delicate touch to do that,

and I'm gonna miss that ship driving.

This is the last time I'm gonna be at sea.

I will be retiring soon.

So this is a really emotional trip for me.

What an amazing, distinct pleasure

to see the last great unexplored place on Earth,

and I don't want to see Antarctica fail as a continent

because I fail.

But there's always that little doubt in the back of my mind.

[alarm sounds]

Mac Ops, this is Polar Star.

We have a collision imminent.

Come on [bleep]. We're so close.

MAN: You're good and steady there.

It's not too flat. You're only getting 39.

NARRATOR: Scott Base,

New Zealand's permanent Antarctic research station,

supports nearly 100 missions over the busy season.

MAN: Oh, yeah, we got a signal.

NARRATOR: But by the last month of summer...

MAN: Just about to head out for our first day of coring.

NARRATOR: While some teams are still racing to complete

their scientific expeditions...

MAN: First core.

MAN: First of many!

NARRATOR: Others are almost out of time.

MAN: So we'll put our stuff in the back, then.

MAN: It's our last chance.

The sooner we get it out, the sooner we get to go home.

NARRATOR: The Mt. Erebus team

lost 11 flight days to bad weather.

And after spending 12 weeks

trying to create an image of the magma flow

inside Antarctica's most active volcano,

they only have 36 hours left.

GRAHAM HILL: We've got 133 locations

that were in our survey design.

We've currently got a good measurement at 95 of those.

So we're not looking like we're gonna quite manage

to get the job done this season.

It's hugely frustrating,

but time for us to mobilize

and go down and get everything off the mountain.

We'll be back next season,

and if we leave stuff out over winter,

it would freeze up,

and I don't know if we'd be able to get it

when we came back next year,

if we could even find it after a winter's worth of storms

and snow accumulation.

Each one of our instruments

is about a hundred thousand dollars.

So we have just, you know,

about a million dollars' worth of instruments.

If we lose one of those,

we wouldn't be able to complete this work.

MAN: Not quite sure I enjoyed his takeoff that much.

Feel like I almost got a haircut, but...

GRAHAM: You didn't need that top three inches anyway.

MAN: Check the data, see if it was any good.

Collecting information, Graham?

GRAHAM: Looking pretty good, I think,

so we'll pull this one out.

DANNY UHLMANN: 7 Papa Hotel, we can start loading.

We have six sites all over the mountain

where we have to get all the gear back,

as long as it's collecting good data,

because the entire value of the project

is basically stored on a hard drive.

GRAHAM: Yeah, so this instrument's been here

for about two weeks.

We've got a lot of data,

and because it's been heating up and cooling down

there's been a lot of meltwater that's refrozen,

and it makes it very difficult to get everything out.

DANNY: OK!

Good!

GRAHAM: Success. On to the next one.

DANNY: This site is one of the more concerning sites for me

because it's a confluence of two big glacier systems,

and that gives the possibility

for lots of activity in the glacier,

and hence crevasses.

We need to manage that risk

and decide if it's acceptable for what our goals are,

so the helicopter pilot trusts me

to help pick a nice spot that's safe.

[laughing]

GRAHAM: Definitely been some snow since we were last here.

Alright, Michal, what do you see?

Not working. Really?

[bleep] Power failure.

The instrument shut itself down.

It's no good.

We put two solar panels on to keep it, to keep it going,

so we've got a bit over 100 watts of solar panel

attached to these things,

but the instrument has shut down.

DANNY: So what's the story now?

GRAHAM: Reset it.

To get an accurate picture,

we need all of the measurements before we do the modeling,

so you have to reset that instrument and try again.

This thing got buried in the snow,

and it generates heat, so it melted some of that snow,

and then it got cold and it froze,

and I'm just trying to de-ice it a bit

and get lots of power going into our battery.

NARRATOR: With their time on the ice

ending in less than two days,

resetting the gear for one last data point

is a $100,000 gamble.

DANNY: Is everything running, Graham?

GRAHAM: Science is happening.

We have one day to pick up these sets of instruments

before we leave base.

We'd like to have them for a minimum of four days,

but we don't have the time.

So we'll have to give it a 24-hour time window.

If the weather changes and it's stuck,

there's not much we can do.

All we can really do is hope we'll get it back.

MAN: Morning.

It wasn't quiet over there.

MAN: I heard him snoring at some point this morning.

MAN: Him, too. He was snoring, too.

MAN: I was snoring at some point.

NARRATOR: The Dry Valleys team

has been tirelessly crisscrossing

some of the only parts of Antarctica

not covered in snow and ice...

MAN: Aw, my legs are sore.

NARRATOR: Traversing 50 square miles on foot.

MAN: After a day like yesterday,

if you didn't snore, there was something wrong with you.

MAN: Considering we sucked in half the Dry Valleys yesterday.

MAN: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Over the past few weeks,

they've sampled soil and microbial life...

WOMAN: Get the best samples as you can.

NARRATOR: And studied weather patterns...

MAN: Every now and then the wind picks up.

NARRATOR: To help predict what could be in store

for the future of our Earth.

CRAIG CARY: All over the world, things are changing.

The problem is

it's really hard to know that something is actually happening

before it actually does.

The Dry Valleys offers

the largest terrestrial ecosystem on the continent.

If we can get an understanding of where the baseline is,

then we can constantly monitor from that baseline

and look for change.

More walking today.

KURT: Slightly overweight middle-aged man.

[laughing]

Too old for this [bleep].

NARRATOR: Scott Base choppers will be here

to pick up the team in 15 hours.

MAN: Time to go back to Scott Base.

MAN: It's an early start this morning,

and we've got to break the camp down.

MAN: Got my stuff packed.

Looking forward to a shower.

NARRATOR: But not everyone is ready.

CRAIG: Yeah, so I mean science in the Dry Valleys

has gone really well.

Uh, we've knocked off pretty much all of our sample sites,

except two of us, that's Kurt and I,

are gonna go up the mountain over there,

and, uh, hit off the last sample site,

whilst the rest of the team down here

takes care of pulling together the camp.

KURT: It's gonna be a fairly long day.

CRAIG: Yeah.

KURT: The science may only take 30 minutes, an hour maybe,

but four hours of walking to get to that site.

CRAIG: You ready? Let's do this.

The Dry Valleys are unlike anyplace else on Earth.

Every step you take is actually an exceptionally unique one.

You're walking in an area that has never been experienced

by another human being.

You kind of get completely captivated,

but at the same time,

your body feels incredibly tired.

The impact from walking hits you,

and it's pretty tough.

Stop for a second.

Awesome.

A mummified seal.

Actually pretty, pretty good condition.

KURT: Yeah, it is for up here.

NARRATOR: This valley is 30 miles from the ocean,

and it's so cold and dry

that dead organic tissue can be preserved for decades or longer.

CRAIG: You know, this guy has probably been sitting here

for a couple of hundred years.

You know, they've come a long way to get here.

These guys are not very good at navigating when there's a storm,

and they get lost,

and they continue to walk until they, they die.

The dryness of the system will slowly dehydrate them,

and then they'll just shrink and become mummies.

The question is, really, is how they got here,

because it's really difficult to get from the ocean

into this valley.

It's one of these, uh, Dry Valley mysteries.

Move on to our next sites.

KURT: Still got quite a lot to go.

WOMAN: Mac Ops, Mac Ops.

Coast Guard cutter Polar Star.

We are currently ops normal, breaking ice off Hut Point.

NARRATOR: The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Polar Star's mission

is to clear a path through the sea ice

so shipping vessels can resupply the continent

with vital food, fuel, and equipment.

CAPTAIN WALKER: XO, you want to get on radar

so that you can tell us how close we are to Hut Point?

WOMAN: I got about 1.2 nautical miles on the Vega.

CAPTAIN WALKER: OK.

WOMAN: We're right on the perimeter.

Speed of seven knots.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Sounds good.

NARRATOR: The crew is in the final stretch of their mission,

and the shipping vessel Ocean Giant

is bearing down on them.

But before the 15,000-ton behemoth can get to shore,

Captain Walker still has to carve a turning basin

out of the ice.

CAPTAIN WALKER: This is a pretty good position

for the turning basin.

MAN: Alrighty. Rudder, midship.

All back, four.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Our first channel is only

as wide as the Polar Star.

It's basically 80, 85 feet wide,

then we would wanna get it out there about 300 feet wide

with a pond in the ice,

so that those large container ship

and the large tanker can maneuver and turn around.

MAN: We'll start coming around,

and then we're gonna continue to take a notch off each.

Once the stern of the ship is through,

we can start making that turn towards McMurdo,

and then we'll slowly just take chunks off the channel

until we can come to port,

and then we're gonna do a parallel cut down.

We want to break everything up into as small as we can get.

NARRATOR: The Polar Star

is specifically designed for this task,

but she can't do it all at once.

The ship has to cut a series of herringbone notches

along a loop,

then smash out all the ice in the middle.

It's a precision maneuver,

like trying to perform surgery with a sledgehammer.

CAPTAIN WALKER: We're gonna try to get going

almost to 2-7-0 as much as you can,

and put left full rudder on it.

This is probably the most critical part

of the whole mission,

and we've already lost time, with the instrument problems,

mechanical problems, engineering problems.

This is my last time ever

to serve on a Coast Guard cutter

in command.

I have to be very careful

because there's just way too much at stake.

Alright, Mr. Lynne, when we go in here,

we're gonna initiate our large turning basin

and start a big left-hand turn,

and it's gonna be a very violent left-hand turn.

Got it?

LYNNE: Yes, sir.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Alright, let's do it.

Start to turn.

Give her left full, and give her some headway.

Don't be shy about it.

Once we start the turning basin,

there's really no way to get relief.

We've got to just turn, muscle through it in the turn,

and she'll mill quite a bit.

You just keep the rudder over and power through it.

She's turning.

[rattling]

Something's going wrong.

She's falling off here.

WOMAN: Five knots, and coming down.

[alarm sounds]

MAN: You get that? We've got an alarm.

It's number two, I think.

[bleep]

CAPTAIN WALKER: Come on.

If we're disabled and I fail,

this is not a great send-off for my career.

WOMAN: Four and a half knots.

MAN: Bow, got to take up starboard shaft.

WOMAN: And coming down.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Roger!

All stop.

MAN: All stop.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Main control to Con,

how we looking on our starboard shaft?

Roger. Thank you.

NARRATOR: The Polar Star suddenly has no propulsion,

and with just 24 hours before a resupply ship arrives,

the crew has to scramble to figure out why.

WOMAN: MK-1, how's it going?

MK-1: Uh, not good.

We found big cracks in the mounting brackets

for the thruster bearings.

WOMAN: OK.

NARRATOR: These cracked mounting brackets

hold thrust bearings,

which help the propellers drive the whole ship forward.

If they fail, there's nothing to keep the shafts

from driving the engine forward toward the bow of the ship.

WOMAN: Captain, we've experienced weld failure

on the support structure for, um, the thrust bearing.

All of the welds have upwards of 6-inch failures.

So, I'd like to take the time now to get in there,

lay a couple of lines of weld down

and do a once-over to make sure everything's ready to go.

CAPTAIN WALKER: EO, our whole reason we're down here

is to escort that supply ship in here,

and they're gonna arrive here tomorrow at 1300.

It's critical to the success of our mission

that those repairs get completed on time.

WOMAN: Yes, sir.

CAPTAIN WALKER: I can give you 24 hours. That's it.

WOMAN: 24 hours, sir. Aye, aye.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Thank you, EO.

CRAIG: I say we just go up a couple hundred meters up there.

KURT: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Craig and Kurt have made the five-hour hike

to their last sample site.

CRAIG: Right there is the spot, eh?

KURT: Yeah.

NARRATOR: And even though the sun is shining,

the temperature has dropped 10 degrees

and wind has increased to 20 miles per hour.

KURT: It's time to get to work.

CRAIG: It's getting cold.

When you're hiking, what you have to be really careful of

is that you don't sweat,

because as soon as you stop and you're not generating that heat

and you start doing some work,

that sweat automatically becomes a disadvantage.

You good?

KURT: Yeah.

CRAIG: You wanna go this way with it?

KURT: That's fine.

CRAIG: But the project requires

putting yourself in very difficult

and extreme environments.

And we have the responsibility to do the work.

KURT: 20 passes are through here?

CRAIG: Right, and then single on there.

KURT: And then single out there.

CRAIG: Believe it or not, even though you're sitting up

in, you know, in the United States someplace,

it seems a long way away,

but what we're seeing now is that Antarctica is the key

that has the ability to and will affect

the rest of the planet.

[wind howling]

The wind's picking up.

As soon as the wind starts to blow,

the whole thing changes very quickly.

NARRATOR: The often violent winds in the Dry Valleys

move organic material from place to place,

allowing these microscopic ecosystems to survive.

But they can also whip up dry sand

at up to 90 miles per hour.

[bleep]

CRAIG: God, it's going right across my eyes.

I'm like half blind in my right eye.

When you're working,

the temperature can drop in a wind,

but at the same time, it starts to lift the sand up.

And so you can be working

and just being sandblasted into your face.

I've had the coating on my glasses

completely taken off in a matter of seconds.

KURT: Just a mouthful of sand.

You start trying to focus,

and all you hear is the grinding noise of sand.

You can feel it.

It stings on the skin.

My corneas are sandblasted.

CRAIG: I think we should duck into that little side

of that dune over there

and take a break.

KURT: Yeah.

CRAIG: It's called a bothy bag.

KURT: Kind of like a tent with no poles.

CRAIG: Yeah.

He'll grab one side, I grab the other side.

Get out of the wind,

temperature goes up about 10 degrees,

and it's nice and toasty in here.

Just a fantastic opportunity to get out of the wind

and just relax a little bit.

I'm exhausted.

We need to get back at a respectable hour.

KURT: Yeah.

WOMAN: That's amazing.

WOMAN: Beautiful.

NARRATOR: 60 miles from the Dry Valleys,

on the shores of Cape Evans,

there's a structure that's been painstakingly preserved

in the harsh conditions for over a hundred years.

WOMAN: Let's get the gear out.

You've got two GoPros, I've got two GoPros.

WOMAN: Yep.

NARRATOR: Built by pioneering explorer

Robert Falcon Scott in 1911

and abandoned after his tragic death in 1912,

it's like a time capsule.

WOMAN: These are warm GoPros.

NARRATOR: And Barbara Bollard-Breen

and her team are here to open it

and create a 3D model

that will give researchers all over the world

virtual access to this extremely remote piece of history.

BARBARA BOLLARD-BREEN: This is the most pristine

environment left on our planet.

We have to protect it.

It's our obligation to protect it.

And what I'm hoping to do is take Scott's hut

and this beautiful surrounding environment

and allow others to actually go into the hut

and experience it in 3D.

So, as part of our training, we need to make sure

that no salt comes into this actual building

because it's quite corrosive to metal.

We need to make sure our feet are cleaned.

We're not allowed to touch anything.

Everything in there is an artifact,

and it's just taking those memories away with our eyes

and just leaving no trace of our presence here.

Alright, this is exciting.

*

REBECCA: Wow.

BARBARA: Being at this really special protected place,

you just feel like you're a continuation of history

from the early explorers through to now.

NARRATOR: In June of 1910,

Scott and his comrades embarked on an Antarctic expedition

bent on reaching the South Pole.

This base camp was built to house all 16 men,

19 ponies, and 34 dogs,

and sustain them for two years.

BARBARA: They were scientists.

We're scientists.

We're connected,

and it really is pretty special to be able to be there

and continue that science.

It's great.

Oh, my goodness. There's the smell.

[laughing]

That is seal blubber,

and that has been there since 1911.

This is what they used for fuel, to keep them warm.

That's incredible.

Oh, look at that!

I can see some of the seagrass insulation that they used.

They've got Hessian bag on the back,

then a layer of seagrass,

and then another Hessian bag,

and they nailed in some rivets,

and that gave them extra warmth.

This is the stables.

They had ponies in Antarctica.

The ponies didn't survive.

It's not really the right climate for ponies.

[gasps]

It's still on its chain!

Unbelievable.

Gosh, it would've been a harsh climate for the animals.

REBECCA: I can't believe how well it's preserved.

BARBARA: I'm so excited about opening that door,

having a look inside Captain Scott's hut.

REBECCA: Ready?

BARBARA: It's amazing.

Here we go.

[creaking]

Oh, my God!

*

REBECCA: You ready?

BARBARA: I'm ready. Are you ready?

REBECCA: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Barbara Bollard-Breen and her team

are here to create a virtual version

of a historic hut that's over 100 years old

in order to help protect it.

BARBARA: Here we go.

NARRATOR: And she's about to step inside for the first time.

[creaking]

BARBARA: Oh, my God!

Wow.

REBECCA: I don't even know what I was expecting, but...

BARBARA: It's so beautifully preserved,

it's unbelievable.

REBECCA: And this is how they left it

when they headed out to the pole.

BARBARA: It's as if they're just waiting

for everyone to come back.

NARRATOR: On October 24, 1911,

British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and 16 men

left this hut on an expedition to the South Pole.

They were the second group ever to make it there,

but on their way back,

they were caught in a blizzard that lasted nine days.

On March 29th, Scott wrote in his journal,

'We shall stick it out to the end,

but we are getting weaker, of course,

and the end cannot be far.

It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.'

Months later, the party was found frozen to death,

over a hundred miles from the safety of this shelter.

BARBARA: Amazing.

REBECCA: It's stunning.

It's preserved so well,

I feel like we're the first people to discover it.

BARBARA: God, everywhere you look,

there's just something unbelievable.

REBECCA: Their boots and hats on the shelves.

BARBARA: It's amazing.

You can almost feel their presence here, can't you?

REBECCA: You can.

You can just imagine it with people in the bunks.

*

BARBARA: Sitting around the table,

sharing a meal.

*

REBECCA: Working in the kitchen.

BARBARA: The dishes are there.

Sugar...cocoa...

[laughing]

REBECCA: Oh, my God.

'The Illustrated London News.'

Saturday, February 29, 1908.

BARBARA: Wow.

REBECCA: It cost sixpence.

BARBARA: Isn't that something?

NARRATOR: The hut is 25 feet by 50 feet,

and Barbara's team has just a few hours inside it

to complete their mission.

REBECCA: Time to get to work.

[laughter]

BARBARA: How about you go down the center,

I'll come this way, and see how we go?

REBECCA: OK.

BARBARA: We're making a virtual reality mosaic

of the inside of this hut by having multiple cameras

at multiple angles and multiple heights.

REBECCA: When we process them on a computer later,

we can get a 3D image of the hut.

BARBARA: We take thousands of images,

and then I stitch those images together

to create 3D orthomosaics.

We actually have to make every second count

because we've only got a limited amount of time here.

REBECCA: It's a very remote location.

We've got one shot at this,

so it's a little bit nerve-racking,

but we want to do it right 'cause we can't come back again.

CRAIG: Wanna break this down?

KURT: Yeah.

I'll just clean up, just do the last bit of this.

CRAIG: OK.

NARRATOR: In The Dry Valleys, Craig and Kurt are out of time.

CRAIG: The walk back.

KURT: Seems to be getting heavier

every time we leave a site.

I suspect Craig is loading my bags full of rocks.

NARRATOR: They only have five hours until the chopper arrives,

and they still have a six-mile walk back to camp.

CRAIG: Hey-ho, let's go.

It's a long hike.

Invariably we do very, very long hikes,

but right now we're running pretty far behind,

so we have to walk back to camp pretty quickly.

[bleep]

It's gonna be much quicker for us to cross this stream

than it is to walk around the entire lake--

probably an hour and a half difference.

And that also will get us there

about the same time as the helicopter.

There's a little deep bit right there, see?

KURT: Yeah.

CRAIG: I mean, the only way to get across that

is you got to strip down, take your shoes off,

and wade across.

KURT: Ah, let's just make a decision and do it.

You go first?

CRAIG: No, you go first.

NARRATOR: Craig and Kurt are wearing waterproof boots,

but anything deeper than a few inches could flood them.

And that's a recipe for potential frostbite.

CRAIG: You got to do it fast

and get your socks and boots back on.

KURT: No pain, no gain.

CRAIG: How deep is it?

KURT: Deep enough to hurt!

CRAIG: You're my hero!

CRAIG: What do you think?

You think you could do it in boots?

KURT: Yeah, I think if you're careful and you did it quick,

you probably would be able to.

CRAIG: Of course, I'm not gonna find your, the path you took,

so I'm gonna end up doing something stupid.

Ugh!

Sorry, Kurt.

KURT: They hurt.

CRAIG: We had to send somebody out there to do the testing.

All in the name of science.

KURT: Right.

CRAIG: If we can get back soon, that'd be good.

This season was my 17th deployment to Antarctica,

and it was as exciting as it was on the first one,

and I think the reason for that

is that we're walking where nobody's walked before.

It's essential that we maintain this continent

as pristine as possible.

It's the last vestige of true,

a truly pristine environment on the planet.

[helicopter approaching]

MAN: K-0-2-0 Miers, over.

Roger that, RBR, ready and waiting.

Hello, hello.

KURT: Hello, hello.

MAN: Just in time.

CRAIG: How's it going?

WOMAN: It's completely taken apart.

CRAIG: Well, if it's any consolation,

we were working into the wind all day,

but this season has been completed.

MAN: Get ready for the helicopter, which will arrive.

NARRATOR: After 14 days in the field,

the team is returning to Scott Base,

and they're bringing data that could help provide a warning

if the planet reaches a tipping point in the future.

CRAIG: This season, I think, was a success.

The canary in the coal mine as far as the Dry Valleys,

I think there are facets of the ecosystem

that could easily be that for us.

We got some of these baseline measurements done

so we can really understand how change is happening,

because you need a place to mark as time zero,

and from there you can monitor.

You good to go there?

As humans we are designed to explore.

MAN: Helicopter incoming.

CRAIG: It's deep within us,

and I don't think there's anywhere else on the planet

that you can actually see something

absolutely brand new,

that you're pretty darn certain

that no one else has actually ever experienced before.

*

I mean, you know, what's that worth?

It's worth everything, you know, to me.

*

*

*

[grinding]

MAN: You think it's good, Brooks?

BROOKS: Huh?

MAN: You think it's good to put a root pass through there?

Alright.

NARRATOR: For the last 24 hours,

the Polar Star's engineers have been working nonstop

to get the ship up and running

in time to rendezvous with the Ocean Giant.

MAN: We can only do so much

with the windows of hours that they give us.

I mean, there's dry docks that have months to do these jobs,

and we just have overnight.

There's a few spots that we're a little worried about,

but we do the best with the time that we have.

WOMAN: How's it going?

BROOKS: We did the best we can do.

WOMAN: OK.

[phone rings]

CAPTAIN WALKER: Aloft Con, Captain.

WOMAN: Captain, um, MPA went through the weld failures,

and essentially repaired those welds,

but if we hit any excessive vibration,

we're gonna want to immediately go down there and inspect,

just to make sure we're not gonna have

a catastrophic failure.

That's just something for you to pay attention for.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Thank you. Appreciate it.

The overriding pressure that I experience

is making sure that the continent

can survive for another year,

and that's a responsibility I don't take lightly.

The container ship is only ten hours away,

and despite the fact that the ship is falling apart,

I think we can safely do this.

So, we need to proceed with caution.

You know, it's too much at stake here,

with the container ship coming in.

Alright, Ops, are you ready for this?

MAN: Yes, sir.

Now the weather decks are secured, aft of frame 143.

CAPTAIN WALKER: When the engines are firing,

it's a pretty amazing sound.

You almost want to sigh with relief.

Alright, proceed with our turning basin.

Give her left full rudder,

and see if we can get the ship to grab into that notch there.

LYNNE: Yes, sir.

Give me left full.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Keep your eyes tuned, OK?

It's a very delicate maneuver to take 14,000 tons

and try to shave off all that ice

into little maneuverable blocks

so the large container ship can maneuver inside there safely.

But we man up, and we do what we have to do.

Looks like a large plate.

Let's break that in half.

Because I believe that the science that is being conducted

has great potential.

[rattling]

LYNNE: Ice is moving.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Come on, get up there.

Get up there.

Come on.

We're so close.

DANNY: Right now it is, um...

It's 5:15 pm.

It's dinner time for all the normal humans,

and we're about to go to work

because we just got a call that said

we got our schedule pushed forward,

so we got to push forward by a few hours.

NARRATOR: It's been a long, grueling season

for the Mt. Erebus team,

and they should be packing for home.

DANNY: Graham, what's happenin'?

You have a good sleepy time?

GRAHAM: It would have been nice to have a longer snooze.

DANNY: I saw some light out on the slopes there.

Hopefully it's worth it.

NARRATOR: But it's been 24 hours

since they reset the instruments at site 92,

and this is their last chance to get the data

and the gear itself back in one piece.

GRAHAM: It can be a very difficult thing

to recover everything off the mountain,

but when, you know, equipment is this expensive and valuable,

it all comes back.

[engine slowing]

DANNY: Thanks, Heff.

Graham, you're gonna have a peek, right, at the data?

GRAHAM: Yeah.

These are some of the most expensive measurements

ever, ever made in the world.

Just the amount of resource and infrastructure

that goes into making these is...is huge.

So you don't want to make a mistake,

because it's a lot of expense and time for us to mobilize

and go down and do this work.

Gonna see what we've got on our flash card here.

Pull it out of the ground and call it job done.

DANNY: Is everything running, Graham?

GRAHAM: So it's charged itself up, which is good.

And we've got a really large file size,

so that's a good start.

Let's see what the data quality looks like.

DANNY: What's the story now?

You good, Graham?

It's collecting information?

GRAHAM: It is. Yep.

DANNY: Start digging!

GRAHAM: With the amount of time we've spent

on and around and all over that volcano,

we've got, you know, 30 odd sites still to do.

Unfortunately, we're finished this season.

[bleep] You guys are fast.

Did alright. Got it done, time to go home.

DANNY: Sweet baby Jesus. That's awesome.

I've been to a lot of places, and for me Antarctica's

still the most beautiful landscape on Earth.

But, yeah, it's a rough place.

Working here in Antarctica

is very, very hard on people's bodies.

*

It truly is not an easy place to live,

and the whole life down here,

I will say, it kind of degrades you.

You kind of look a bit haggard and a bit worn down

either emotionally or mentally or whatever,

and when the project feels incomplete,

you're going to be feeling even worse.

NARRATOR: Graham's last data point

is just one of 132 he needs to create his final model.

GRAHAM: Yes, there are some chunks

that look pretty good in it.

So, a successful day of work is looking at that piece of data

that you collected that day,

and as you add more and more data,

the model becomes more accurate and more complete.

This is just the raw data that we've collected.

But of course, the big picture

is seeing what the whole thing looks like

at the end of the project,

and you need to take little steps

to understand the big picture,

so every little study helps.

NARRATOR: Each measurement

looks like a series of lines on a graph,

but when all 132 are combined,

it will create a picture of the volcano's inner structure,

magma reservoir, and flow.

Until the data set is complete,

the volcano remains a mystery.

GRAHAM: 50 good sites at least this year,

which is more than we managed last year.

We had a few where we had a little bit of trouble with

that we'll try again next year,

but all in all we've had a real successful season.

[screeching]

*

BARBARA: It's pretty amazing.

NARRATOR: Barbara and her team have photographed every inch

inside Robert Falcon Scott's historic hut,

but they still need images of the outside.

BARBARA: Great.

LEN: Now we've got a sudden lull in the winds,

so we really need to spring into action.

BARBARA: Yup.

NARRATOR: The Polar Fox drone

is outfitted with three high-definition cameras

to document the landscape

without leaving a single footprint behind.

BARBARA: Prepare to launch.

NARRATOR: The Antarctic Treaty of 1959

establishes and protects Antarctica

as a continent of peace and science.

All nations adhere

to environmental protection protocols,

particularly in Antarctic specially protected areas,

or ASPAs.

Like this one.

MAN: OK, we're good to go.

Takeoff mode.

BARBARA: You can't conserve an area

unless you know what's there.

MAN: Launch.

MAN: Launched.

BARBARA: Woo-hoo! The plane's up.

Yeah! [laughing]

Where is she? There she is.

Awesome. You can see her flying beautifully.

She's looking great.

We always have eyes on her.

This is exciting.

These places, these protected areas,

are special.

They're fragile ecosystems,

they have historic significance.

It's important to protect them

because these are the last places on the planet

that are remote enough that we can protect.

Our UAV's filled with sensors, or cameras,

and the cameras are taking thousands of photographs

as we speak.

[camera shutter clicking]

Ash is monitoring the flight path,

so he's controlling it by computer.

There. Eyes on.

ASH: Yep.

BARBARA: Great job, Ash. Look at that.

This is a huge moment for this team.

This is our first flight in Antarctica with the Polar Fox.

We've had this machine specially made for the conditions here,

and it's just so exciting,

so exciting to have it up in the air.

NARRATOR: The team's mission has been a huge success,

and their preliminary 3D modeling is already underway.

BARBARA: The results are mind-blowing.

People can now go into the hut,

look at things on the wall,

and to be able to see that and experience it in 3D...

And that's the hope--

that people can connect with this environment

and understand how special it is

and why it needs to be protected

and why we as humans need to look after this environment.

*

CAPTAIN WALKER: She's coming around, very nice.

NARRATOR: The Polar Star's emergency welds

are holding together,

and the turning basin is nearly complete.

[rattling]

CAPTAIN WALKER: Once Mr. Lynne finishes his turn,

it really becomes a matter

of breaking big pieces into little pieces.

We had a handful of damage control men

that stayed up working for 24 hours

to fix those cracks in the thrust bearings,

and it's amazing that it comes down to that last-minute hour.

It's like something that Steven Spielberg would make.

When we get out to the mouth, let's turn around and sit,

uh, just at the entrance.

It looks like maybe a large plate.

As we go outbound, let's break that in half.

NARRATOR: The basin is open,

but it's still full of floating ice.

And the Ocean Giant is now just five miles away.

MAN: Alright, everybody, this is gonna be the brief

for the close ice escort of motor vessel Ocean Giant.

We will be rendezvousing with them at 1300

in the mouth of the channel.

At that time we'll go into

the Restrictive Maneuvering Doctrine,

all spaces will be manned.

We will not be letting their bow

come within 300 yards of our stern.

Alright, anything else, Captain? We'll proceed to the GAR.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Very well. MAN: Alright.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Get her underway, Ops.

NARRATOR: The Polar Star

has to guide the container ship to shore

at a distance of less than 1,000 feet.

And if they collide, it could sink her instead.

CAPTAIN WALKER: This is probably the most high-risk maneuver

that a ship captain can perform.

You have a ship that I'm escorting in at 80,000 tons.

That's a lot of weight when they're only 300 feet apart,

and you're not gonna be able to stop those ships from colliding

if something goes wrong.

MAN: Aloft con, fantail. We see 1,100 yards, over.

CAPTAIN WALKER: Roger.

It's something that goes against all safe navigation practices

in the normal world,

but this isn't the normal world.

This is Antarctica.

Ocean Giant, Polar Star.

Good afternoon, Captain.

I would like to have you remain 300 yards or more off our stern.

Over.

That escort is the really critical part

of the whole mission.

It's very, very mentally fatiguing

and physically fatiguing to sit there

and have the weight of an entire continent on my shoulders

and the safety of two ships.

It's gonna be up close and personal.

We'll stay in constant communication,

try to maintain speed.

This is going to be the last time I'll do that.

Once we escort that last ship in,

that's where I feel the weight on my shoulders relieved.

LYNNE: Now set the Restrictive Maneuvering Doctrine.

*