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April 20, 2003
The past few years has seen some incredible
advances in adventure transmission technology. Whilst it is possible to
fly bulky gear almost anywhere in the world for brief, stationary
transmissions, it has been impossible to send out multi media from a
polar expedition on the move or mountaineering high camps. The gear
needed has simply not been light enough. And so expeditions has phoned
in dispatches, eventually dotted down by webmasters and illustrated by
pre-shot pictures.
This all changed two years ago, as an
ExplorersWeb polar expedition used a text message satellite for
occasional picture transmissions from an Antarctica expedition. Already
the next year, the same expedition used wearable computers for
transmissions of daily dispatches and pics. That same year, the
expedition repeated the feat, this time on the Arctic Ocean, using palm
held computers, small dig cams and clever software.
Next vision was obvious - video! Three North
Pole expeditions have battled for the honor this year. The North Pole
challenge did the first near real time footage
 transmission
as they stepped of the plane. Then came Ben and made the first near real
time video from the actual trek. But the question remained - who would
do the first video transmission from the North Pole itself? Jeanette
Plummer almost got back on the ice for the mission. The North Pole
challenge were first up for some time but got passed by Ben only days
ago. And today, the battle is over. Ben reached the North Pole 13.45 GMT
April 20, and transmitted a video clip. It's only a second long, but
it's the first live polar adventure video in human history from the
North Pole. Congratulations to Ben and to the other NP teams
participating in this relay for exploration technology. Faster, lighter
and without limits. Those are the modern explorers. And such is their
technology. Guess we'll just have to see who gets to Mars first, the
biggest (NASA) or the swiftest (the explorers). Time will tell.Link: | |||||
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