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The ridge upon which the Princess Elisabeth Station is rooted is looking more and more like an ant hill. Construction has been going on for 2 months already, with over 50 people having already set foot on the site. This film shows you Utsteinen village and was shot from the plane that flies new team members in.

As project director and chief engineer of the Princess Elisabeth station construction, Alain Hubert, founding president of the International Polar Foundation (IPF), presents the genesis of the IPF and of the Princess Elisabeth project (Copyright credits: IPF and CAPA TV). The construction of the first "zero emission" research station would not have been possible without the contribution of project manager, Johan Berte, program administrator Nighat Amin, and the station's dedicated and supportive volunteers, engineering team, contractors, advisors, cooperating institutes and organisations, suppliers and collaborating sponsors.

The last stage of the construction involves laying the insulation layer against the building, including down on the floor. This work requires a lot of precision and an insulated layer of high quality. The material measures 40 cm thick and covers over 400 m2.

The scientists, who were supposed to arrive in Utsteinen on January 27th, ended up arriving later than expected due to the bad weather. The weather conditions in Utsteinen have brought serious trouble to the inhabitants of Utsteinen; the building of the southern scientific platform had to be postponed. The weather, along with the strong winds, surprised the team which is not used to heavy rainfalls in Antarctica.

Zorigto Namsaraev is a microbiologist and works as a researcher-scientist at the Center for Protein Engineering at the University of Liège (Belgium). In the framework of the BELDIVA project, he studies one of the few indigenous life forms in Antarctica known as cyanobacteria.

Sanne Bosteels is a field guide at the Belgian Army. As the only field guide to be sent south for the 2010-2011 season, he will be responsible for the safety of outgoing expeditions. In this video, he shares his impressions on his first expedition last year, and his experience of life in Antarctica.

After having witnessed perpetual sunlight, Antarctica is now showing its true nature. The time has come for a good storm. When the wind blows, snow gets in through the slightest crack, making the base camp vulnerable. It is important to clear the place up, to protect the tents and to shelter the lightest equipment so that the storm doesn't destroy everything.

The International Polar Foundation (IPF) and global satellite operator SES S.A. have successfully completed the installation and tests of the SES satellite ground station in Antarctica.A crew of SES specialists joined the BELARE team to run tests and launch the operations. The new infrastructure will now make a significant contribution to scientific research by offering real-time data transfer from Antarctica, and will allow the Princess Elisabeth Station to be monitored online, thus ensuring best efficiency from the micro smart grid capabilities in energy management.

Vinciane Debaille is a Research Associate at the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS). This year, she will head to Antarctica to head the SAMBA project with her colleague Steven Goderis (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). As was the case for the JARE 51 project from last year, the aim of the SAMBA project will be to bring back meteorites to Belgium for study.