US building highway to the South Pole

New Scientist ^ | 13:52 23 January 03 | Fred Pearce

[onedoug]

Pave it. Pave it all!

[ChicagoRepublican]

We're going to step up the development of missions in the Antarctic, and Alaska. In a few years NASA will set up training bases, and we'll attempt to build bases completely out of robot probes. With humans landing on Mars in a decade or so we'll need the practice. After all the first landing will set up a permanent base up. The United States is truly moving humanity into a glorious path civilizations thousands of years from now will look up to.

[ErnBatavia]

You're right - since this highway is in "the South"...

[Junior]

I wonder how long it will be before the first Stuckey's is built.

[pabianice]

So much for the cover story. My bet is that it will have a military application.

[ErnBatavia]

Another roadside bidniss is in the works...

[davisfh]

"it makes fiscal sense to pay down the debt before we pay for this kind of nonsense. the south pole will still be there when we pay off what we owe."

Looks like we may have a difference of opinion here, Roland. But then, that's part of what America is all about isn't it. Just go back and read the name of this web site.

Didn't make a lot of fiscal sense to send Columbus to the Americas either, did it. It did turn out rather well though, didn't it? And besides, if we wait until every debt is paid off before we launch further scientific investigations, we'll never progress past where we are right now.

I recall reading that some member of congress back in the late 19th century proposed closing the U.S. Patent Office. He thought that everything that could be invented had been. I'm very happy that we didn't listen to him.

[mvpel]

They need a nuclear reactor down there, that way they wouldn't have to lug so much fuel down there. http://www.atomicengines.com/

[Peter Zimbelman]

Am I the only one to see the "biddness" potential of a 1600km downhill run? Some places would be flat (ice skating and hocky) while the medium slope for bobsleding and the steep roadSIDE for skiing. How about a 62 mile ski run?

[lavaroise]

I can see a great place to incarcerate muslim terrorists and their liberal friends away from attention.

[Stingray51]

And the road is unlikely to pave the way to exploitation of Antarctic natural resources, as this is banned under the Antarctic Treaty until 2041.

This is what the EnviroSocialists would like to do to Alaska. I say start drilling.

[johnny7]

Could be a route above Lake Vostok... largest underwater lake on the continent.

3 miles below the ice, Lake Vostok simmers under a canopy of methane.

As large as Lake Ontario, Vostok remains warm from deep, fissures in the Atlantic rift.

It's been sealed in ice for 5-10 million years.

[Axenolith]

If you or I were Presdent, yeah.

Dude! Lets run! The platform will be "NO STUPID S**T"