Proposing an International Collaboration on Lightweight Autonomous Vehicles to Conduct Scientific Traverses and Surveys over Antarctica and the Surrounding Sea Ice

We have continued to develop a concept for use of autonomous rovers, originally developed for use in planetary exploration, in polar science on Earth; the concept was the subject of a workshop, and this report summarizes and extends that workshop. The workshop on Antarctic Autonomous Scientific Vehicles and Traverses met at the National Geographic Society on February 14 and 15, 2001 to discuss scientific objectives and benefits of the use of autonomous rovers. The participants enthusiastically viewed rovers as being uniquely valuable for such tasks as data taking on tedious or repetitive routes, traverses in polar night, difficult or hazardous routes, extremely remote regions, routes requiring only simple instrumentation, traverses that must be conducted at low speed, augments of manned traverses, and scientific procedures not compatible with human presence or combustion engines. The workshop has concluded that instrumented autonomous vehicles, of the type being developed for planetary exploration, have the potential to contribute significantly to the way science in conducted in Antarctica while also aiding planetary technology development, and engaging the public's interest. Specific objectives can be supported in understanding ice sheet mass balance, sea ice heat and momentum exchange, and surface air chemistry processes. In the interval since the workshop, we have concluded that organized program to employ such rovers to perform scientific tasks in the Fourth International Polar Year would serve the objectives of that program well.