A museum called Terra Antarctica: Mainland of New Knowledge will open in Ukraine in approximately one year’s time. According to the National Antarctic Research Center at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the museum organizers are looking for premises and preparing exhibits.
The nucleus of the museum collection will consist of equipment from the Academician Vernadsky Ukrainian Antarctic Station, as well as household appliances, personal effects, photos, and archival documents of the members of past expeditions.
A number of secrets will also be revealed. Visitors will learn whether the continent of Antarctica holds the planet’s largest oil deposits, whether there was once an Antarctic civilization, and why Antarctica affects the global climate.
The museum’s developers are now considering their location options: making it part of the network of Kyiv museums or creating entirely separate premises with an eye to expanding the collection.
“One of the exhibits will be dedicated to famous Antarctic researchers, including Brusylov, Chubynsky, and Sedov. Our station is now hosting the 13th expedition. Some instruments have broken down or are simply obsolete, and they will be on display at the museum,” said Dr. Volodymyr Vashchenko, deputy director of science and technology at the National Antarctic Research Center.
“Other items will include documents about the ships on which our expeditions traveled to the station, means of communication (Morse code was once used; today it’s computers), etc. We are considering how best to illustrate the way entire dynasties of polar researchers emerged in Ukraine. For example, the grandson of the distinguished researcher Omelchenko has spent two winters at the station. There are other examples,” he added.
The museum will function within the framework of the National Antarctic Research Center’s program, which includes the creation of a Web site to illustrate the work of our Antarctic researchers, and a series of popular science films about Antarctica.
“Now anyone can visit www.antarctida.org.ua and read the memoirs of members of Antarctic expeditions, commentaries by experts on the importance of research on this continent, and view photographs and short videos about how our researchers live there,” Dr. Vashchenko explained. “This electronic popular science journal is a virtual contact site for all those who have a special interest in this icy continent, from inquisitive schoolchildren to experienced scholars.”
The films about Antarctica will show how Ukrainian researchers live in extreme conditions and what is happening in the deeps of Lake “East,” which is covered by a four-kilometer ice shield. These films are based on Arctic researchers’ amateur videos and footage taken during the expedition to Ukraine’s Antarctic station.
According to Dr. Vashchenko, the new Antarctic program is bound to be popular with Ukrainians because it is not simply a compilation of updated information on the work of our Antarctic researchers. It also reveals captivating facts recently discovered about this continent. Ukraine’s Antarctic researchers hope the program will be instrumental in helping people adopt a more protective attitude to nature and promoting the quest for new knowledge.
