The 150 crewmembers of the US Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star arrived on January 17, in Antarctica along with a resupply vessel during Operation Deep Freeze. This is a joint military service mission to resupply US interests in Antarctica.
The 42-year-old Coast Guard cutter is the US’s only operational heavy icebreaker, and the crew is making their sixth deployment the resupply of McMurdo Station, – the US’s main logistics hub in Antarctica. Operation Deep Freeze is a joint military service mission in support of the National Science Foundation.
Every year, the Polar Star crew creates a navigable path through seasonal and multi-year ice, to allow a resupply vessel to reach McMurdo Station. The supply delivery enables Antarctic stations to stay operational year-round, including during the winter.
The Polar Star arrived after completing an 18-mile trip through the ice to McMurdo Sound, where 400 containers will be offloaded from the supply ship Ocean Giant.
However, during the trip, the ship experienced several problems such as:
- One of the ship’s electrical systems began to smoke, causing damage to wiring in an electrical switchboard;
- The ship experienced a leak from the shaft that drives the ship’s propeller, which halted icebreaking operations;
- The Polar Star also experienced ship-wide power outages while breaking ice.
