Co-hosts Tom Hill and Eleanor O’Rangers had the opportunity to interview Rich Overbeck, who is currently wintering over at South Pole Station!

As many of our listeners may know, expeditions to our planet’s polar regions are considered to be an extreme environmental analog not unlike what would be encountered on the surface of Mars, for example. Indeed, as Rich will tell us, part of his motivation for wintering over “on the ice” was because it’s the closest he can come to traveling to Mars in his lifetime.

In Part 1 of our interview, we’ll get to know Rich and what it takes to qualify for supporting winter missions to the South Pole. We’ll learn about Rich’s typical day at the Pole, how long he’ll be down there, what the most challenging aspects of life at the Pole are for him and his fellow crewmates. We’ll also discuss what surprised Rich the most when he travelled there for the first time about twenty years ago. We’ll have the opportunity to dispel at least one myth about life at the Pole, and gain insight to a surprising benefit from hydroponics—aside from a supply of fresh greens-- that has never been mentioned by planetary scientists and researchers, to our knowledge.

This episode was recorded via Zoom on February 12, 2022, so by the time this episode is posted in April, the pole is nearly enveloped in 24-hour darkness, something which Rich is actually looking forward to. As Rich says, the night sky… is just incredible.