At the weekend, the "Tara Polar Station", a sensational watercraft, passed through the Kiel Canal (NOK). What looks like a mixture of high-tech mirrors and a UFO is in fact a globally unique mobile polar research station on a test voyage.
The "Tara Polar Station" caused quite a stir on the Kiel Canal yesterday, Sunday 25 January. The 26 metre long and 16 metre wide research vessel with an unusual, almost UFO-like design passed through the Kiel Canal on its return journey from Finnish waters. The specialised ship was developed for a special purpose: It should be able to be locked in the Arctic pack ice and drift with it to enable scientific research in this extreme environment.
First successful test drift in the Arctic
The "Tara Polar Station" completed its first test mission in the Arctic in the summer of 2025. After the launch in Lorient, France, and a stopover in Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen, the actual test phase began. On 6 July, the ship met the German icebreaker "Polarstern", which made its way into the pack ice. The station then deliberately allowed itself to be enclosed by the ice in order to test its behaviour, equipment, scientific protocols and autonomous life in this extreme environment. The test drift took place between 82 and 83 degrees north latitude.
The drift in the pack ice posed completely new challenges for the crew. Their chief engineer Luc Airiau described the unfamiliar situation at the time: "We are used to avoiding ice, but now we were surrounded by blocks of ice weighing several tonnes that crashed against the hull." Every impact and every sound echoed through the station - a test under real conditions for the ship's structure and engines. The crew had to learn to deal with the unpredictable movements of the ice, which sometimes broke, formed new channels or piled up into structures several metres high.
On the trail of the "Fram": the route of the "Tara Polar Station"
Following the successful test phase in the Arctic, a second was carried out in the northern Baltic Sea off Finland, the return route of which led through the Kiel Canal at the weekend - a unique experience for the sailors on the canal. She is currently in the North Sea on her way to the English Channel with the port of Cherbourg as her destination. From there, she is due to set off for the Arctic later this year on her first scientific drift, called "Tara Polaris I".
How long this drift will take can only be estimated, as it has only been carried out three times in the entire history of Arctic research. Fridtjof Nansen first embarked on the adventure of a slow-motion drift in the ice around the North Pole with his "Fram" in the 1890s. It took him and his crew more than three years to get from one side to the other.
The sailing schooner "Tara" undertook its second transpolar drift in 2006. At one year and four months, it took less than half as long as the "Fram" to drift from one ice edge to another. Finally, an expedition by the German icebreaker "Polarstern" in 2019/20 took less than a year.
For the upcoming expedition of the "Tara Polar Station", the researchers are expecting around one and a half years of drifting in - or rather: on - the ice. Among other things, the results of the research trip should help to make weather forecasts more precise and gain a better understanding of the Arctic ecosystem and its protection.
Science meets technology: the "Tara Polar Station"
The "Tara Polar Station" is a French research platform that combines futuristic design with Arctic functionality. It belongs to the French "Tara Ocean Foundation", which is dedicated to ocean research. With its dimensions of 26 metres long and 16 metres wide, the station looks like a UFO on the ice - an association that is reinforced by the geodesic dome on the thick, oval aluminium hull. The elongated-oval, almost disc-shaped design is the result of collaboration between polar ship designers and special vehicle manufacturers.
The design focussed on optimal adaptation to the transpolar drift. Unlike conventional research vessels, the "Tara" is not intended to actively navigate through the Arctic, but to freeze in the pack ice and drift with the slow, circular movement of the ice over a period of months. The curved, egg-shaped hull ensures that the ship is not crushed by increasing ice pressure, but is literally pushed up onto the ice and sits on it. The 20-millimetre-thick aluminium hull is specially designed for these extreme loads - similar to that of the legendary "Fram" on historic polar expeditions.
The drive system was also chosen accordingly: It consists of an HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) engine that runs on hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO). This drives a protected fixed propeller with a nozzle and ice protection. The engine dimensions were deliberately reduced in order to maximise space on board and limit the environmental impact. When cruising, the station reaches a speed of seven to eight knots.
Self-sufficient laboratory with living space and sauna
The centrepiece of the habitable areas is the 30-tonne geodesic dome, the "geode". Constructed from triangles, this dome structure is extremely resistant to Arctic storms and offers excellent thermal insulation thanks to its optimised surface-to-volume ratio - essential for temperatures as low as minus 52 degrees Celsius. The Geode houses the kitchen, saloon, wheelhouse, offices, a sick bay and even a sauna.
A 1.6 metre diameter shaft runs through the entire ship and gives the scientists direct access to the ocean beneath the ice. Researchers can take samples and use measuring instruments via this shaft, known as the "moon pool", without having to leave the protective shell of the station.
The station offers space for 12 people in winter and up to 20 in summer. The energy supply is provided by solar panels and a wind turbine with a lithium battery pack as well as biodiesel generators.
