Astroskin in Antarctica

February 03, 2014

And they're off!

XPAntarctik's 8 fearless explorers have left Ushuaia yesterday and are sailing aboard "Spirit of Sydney" towards an unexplored part of Antarctica. Their journey is set to last 45 days.

An ecological trek

This team of 4 women and 4 men have committed to carry out this expedition without any external help nor motorized means of locomotion. They will travel by sailboat, ski and their own sets of muscles when crossing the Drake passage, climbing treacherous mountains and glaciers. What's more, they will have to travel with their waste as they have decided to make this trip "traceless". A beautiful ecological vow!

Astroskin, the future astronaut smart shirt

One of the goals of this expedition is to document how human body adapts to extreme adverse conditions.

Taking advantage of these almost space-like conditions, the Canadian Space Agency has asked our explorers to wear and test Astroskin, an intelligent garment developed by Canadian company Carre Technologies (who already sells Hexoskin). This smart shirt is able to collect, process and share many vital signs such as heart rate, heart rate variation (HRV), breathing rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, sleep quality and activity level. The Agency plans on equipping its astronauts with a future version of Astroskin, monitoring their vitals in real time during space missions so it makes a lot of sense to test them fist in the extreme and unpredictable environment provided by Antarctica.

Go XPAntarctik!