Spanish polar explorer Ramón Larramendi is set to lead a scientific expedition that will travel around 3,400 kilometres across the interior of Antarctica over roughly 80 days, without using fossil fuels for transport. The Wind Sled Antarctica 2026-2027 project will carry instruments to conduct 16 research projects (source in Spanish) in some of the most inaccessible regions on the planet, with the aim of expanding knowledge about ice, climate change and polar ecosystems.
"The wind sled is, in a way, completely unique in the world," Larramendi tells 'Euronews' in an interview in Madrid's central Plaza de España. The explorer believes that the vehicle he has designed is an exceptional combination of traditional techniques and advanced technology, conceived to cover long distances without combustion engines or aerial resupply.
The expedition will leave Spain on 18 October and is scheduled to return in early February. The route will start near Russia's Novolazarevskaya base, in Queen Maud Land, and end at the French-Italian Concordia station on Dome C, after crossing the Pole of Inaccessibility and skirting the vicinity of the Pole of Cold.
A wind-powered vehicle to cross Antarctica with zero emissions
The Wind Sled is a polar exploration platform that uses kites to harness the power of the wind and solar energy to power scientific equipment. Its design, inspired by Inuit culture, as Larramendi explains, is the result of around 25 years of development and testing, during which he has travelled more than 28,000 kilometres over ice on different expeditions.
"This sled combines Inuit techniques, which may look old-fashioned and a bit strange compared with modern technology. That makes it a very, very unusual mix, but tremendously efficient," says the explorer, who sees sustainability as one of the fundamental pillars of the project.
The vehicle is made up of four modules and is 15 metres long. It can carry up to 2,100 kilos of cargo, although on this occasion it will initially transport around 250 kilos of scientific instruments.
The crew will have 20 kites, with surface areas ranging from five to 150 square metres, which they will deploy according to the weather conditions. In favourable winds, the sled can reach speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour, with an average cruising speed of around 25 kilometres per hour.
The absence of fossil fuels reduces both the environmental impact and the logistical needs of the expedition. As a point of comparison, the Transantarctic Scientific Expedition of 2011-2012 covered a similar distance using tracked trucks, snowmobiles and sleds, consuming around 170,000 litres of fuel in two months.
Larramendi hopes this campaign will demonstrate the vehicle's potential as a scientific platform for future crossings. "Other systems powered by renewable energy may emerge to cross Antarctica, but none will be more sustainable or have a smaller footprint than the Wind Sled," he argues.
Sixteen projects to study ice, pollutants and microbial life
The expedition will carry out 16 scientific projects selected through a call coordinated by the Spanish Polar Committee. The research, involving centres from CSIC, CIEMAT, INTA, six Spanish universities and international organisations, will provide direct measurements in areas where hardly any data exist, complementing information gathered by satellites and permanent stations.
Among the studies is a project from NASA's Ames Research Center, led by Spaniard Alfonso Dávila, which will examine whether conditions favourable to microbial life can arise inside salt rocks exposed to Antarctica's extreme cold. Sensors will measure temperature, relative humidity and electrical conductivity to determine whether liquid water could have formed inside them despite the low temperatures and the arid environment.
Another project, called Dinglac and led by glaciologist Francisco Navarro of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, will use ground-penetrating radar to analyse the first ten metres of snow. The measurements will help to understand how snow layers accumulate and move and to improve estimates of how the Antarctic ice mass is evolving in the context of climate change.
The campaign will also investigate the presence of microplastics, persistent pollutants and possible microorganisms and viruses, as well as studying Earth's magnetism and the performance of Europe's Galileo navigation systems. Some of the experiments will use equipment linked to space exploration.
For Larramendi, the value of this work also lies in the fact that it will take place in territory that is virtually unknown from a scientific point of view. "It takes place in an area for which there are practically no data," he explains. The system makes it possible to venture into regions where the difficulties and costs of conventional operations mean research campaigns are particularly complex.
Four people isolated for 85 days: an experiment for future space missions
The expedition team will consist of four Antarctic veterans: Larramendi himself; Hilo Moreno, polar guide and mountain technician; Mariusz Potocki, a researcher at the University of Maine in the United States; and Javier Selva, photographer, documentary maker and head of technical image direction. Selva already accompanied Larramendi on an Antarctic expedition between 2011 and 2012.
In addition to taking part in the fieldwork, the four explorers will themselves be the subject of study. The WindSled Mind project, led by Gabriel G. de la Torre from the University of Cádiz, will analyse the effects of prolonged isolation on the crew's psychological responses, sleep and social dynamics. "We are part of the research project and yes, we do feel a bit like guinea pigs, but we are happy," Larramendi jokes.
The research aims to generate knowledge applicable to future long-duration space missions, in which astronauts will have to face conditions of confinement, danger and extreme distance from Earth. Antarctica is one of the most suitable environments on the planet for studying these factors and testing instruments destined for future planetary exploration.
"We ourselves are the experiment. Four people isolated for 85 days in the interior of the Antarctic continent," Larramendi acknowledges. The explorer explains that there are two projects in which the members of the expedition themselves are the subject of research.
Self-sufficiency will be one of the keys to the journey. The team will carry all the supplies and equipment needed to remain for weeks without outside support, although they have an evacuation plan in place in case of a medical emergency or any other exceptional situation.
A pioneering route with an eye on future expeditions
The journey, which can be followed live on the website tierraspolares.es (source in Spanish), is the culmination of decades of work on the Wind Sled and will test its capacity to carry an unprecedented scientific payload on Larramendi's Antarctic expeditions. The four team members will set up five scientific stations along the route, with extended stops to collect samples, run experiments and take measurements.
On arrival at Concordia, the explorers will leave the continent by air, while the scientific equipment will return to Spain with French support. The sled will remain dismantled at the base, ready for a possible future journey in the opposite direction.
The aim is to repeat the expeditions so that the data gathered on different campaigns can be compared, something essential for identifying changes in the ice and the climate. "Repeated data collection is absolutely key to seeing the variations," Larramendi points out.
The journey, integrated (source in Spanish) into the 40th Antarctic Research Campaign, which marks the 40th anniversary of Spain's polar expedition, aims to consolidate a low-impact scientific exploration route in the interior of the continent. It offers an alternative that combines research in one of Earth's most extreme regions with the development of technologies that could contribute to future space missions.