The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) says its research vessel Akademik Fedorov has successfully completed yet another Antarctic voyage and returned back home to the Greater Port of St. Petersburg.
“During six months of intensive work in the southern latitudes, the vessel traveled 34,600 nautical miles. The polar explorers who completed the program at polar stations of the 70th Russian Antarctic Expedition, as well as the seasonal team of scientists from the 71st Russian Antarctic Expedition, returned to St. Petersburg aboard the research vessel Akademik Fedorov,” the AARI press office said.
The RV Akademik Fedorov visited during its seasonal operations, the Russian stations of Progress, Mirny, and Novolazarevskaya, the Molodezhnaya field base, and the Gora Vechernyaya station of the Belarusian Antarctic Expedition, and carried out marine scientific research along the vessel’s route in the Southern Ocean.
Another vessel of the AARI, the diesel-electric RV Akademik Tryoshnikov, also completed all of its seasonal missions in Antarctica. The vessel carried out missions at Bellingshausen Station, Progress Station, and the Molodezhnaya field base.
During the expedition, the research vessels crews and RAE scientists ensured the delivery of polar explorers, supplies, and scientific research en route.
The RV Akademik Fedorov was built at Finland based Rauma-Repola Shipyard in 1987. According to AARI, the vessel is capable of breaking through smooth 1-meter-thick first-year ice at a continuous speed of 2 knots and using ramming icebreaking method — through 2,5-meter-thick ice.
Key particulars: LOA: 141.2 m; Breadth overall: 23.5 m; Displacement: 16 200 tonnes; Designed draft: 8.5 m; Operational speed: 16 knots; Ice class: Arc7; Crew: 75 people; Number of researchers: 175.
