Exchange between National Polar Expedition Expert and HK Students
Encouraging Aspirations to Become a Member of the Expedition Team
The arrival of Xuelong 2 in Hong Kong earlier this month has sparked a wave of enthusiasm for Antarctic scientific exploration. In order to deepen secondary students’ understanding of the country’s achievements in polar scientific research and inspire them to become scientists, the Joint Laboratory for Aerospace Security and Human Factors Engineering of HKCT Institute of Higher Education (HKCT) and the Tsinghua University Suzhou Automotive Research Institute (TSARI) organised a student exchange event titled “How to Become a polar expedition member on Xuelong”. Over 120 senior forms students from14 schools attended the event. The ambience at the event was vibrant and filled with excitement.
The event invited MA Fung Kwok, the Chairman of the organising committee of Xuelong 2’s visit and Legislative Council member was invited as the officiating guest and YANG Shuang, the polar expedition project expert of the Aerospace Vehicle R&D Centre of TSARI as guest speaker, to share with Hong Kong students how to become a member of the polar expedition team.
With the return of Xuelong and Xuelong 2, marking the successful completion of China’s 40th Antarctic scientific expedition. The China’s 40th Antarctic scientific expedition has achieved significant milestones, including the establishment of the Qinling Station, China's 5th research station in Antarctica, as well as important achievements in polar glaciology, oceanography, and other fields. In addition, prototypes of verification equipment developed by Hong Kong researchers were involved in the mission, marking the prelude to Hong Kong’s scientific and technological personnel participation in Antarctic scientific exploration.
MA Fung Kwok, in his speech, emphasised the polar research is increasingly important for the future of humanity. "In recent years, some important discoveries by scientists, such as the rapid warming phenomenon in the Arctic, are far more abrupt than the global average temperature rise. Therefore, Chinese scientists will continue to work hard, innovate, and work with the international community to better understand the polar regions, protect and make use of the polar regions, to make greater contributions to benefiting humanity and promoting the construction of a community of shared future for mankind." As the Chairman of the organising committee of Xuelong 2’s visit, MA also expressed his pleasure about the enthusiasm and support of the Hong Kong public for the Xuelong 2 Hong Kong Visit activities. He hopes that these activities could arouse Hong Kong youth’s interest in science and aspire to relevant work. "I understand that there was Hong Kong researchers participation in the China’s 40th polar scientific expedition, including the development of prototype verification equipment by HKCT in collaboration with TSARI, as well as academic conferences organised by CUHK. I hope that Hong Kong scientific researchers will have more opportunities to participate in country’s Antarctic work in the future."
CHAN Cheuk Hay, member of CPPCC and the President of HKCT, thanked MA Fung Kwok for his support and appreciated TSARI for arranging representative to attend. “HKCT and TSARI jointly established the “Joint Laboratory for Aerospace Security and Human Factors Engineering” last year, focusing on the topic of “Safety Systems for aerospace and polar vehicle terminal facilities”. He also mentioned that today’s event focused on polar scientific expedition members, hoping to allow senior form secondary school students to deepen their understanding of the country's achievements in polar scientific research and further aspire them to become the national scientific expedition members, contributing to the country through science.
During the exchange, YANG Shuang shared under the theme "Bravely exploring the polar world, striving to be the vanguard of the country". She pointed out that polar exploration plays an important role in deeply understanding various aspects of the earth's climate, environment, biology, geology, etc. Antarctic exploration not only relates to the country's scientific research level, but also reflects the country's comprehensive strength and international influence. YANG also played some valuable clips from the 39th and 40th China Antarctic expeditions.
In the meanwhile, YANG shared with the students on "how to prepare to become a professional Antarctic expedition member". She discussed the journey to become a member of the expedition team, including the selection and training process, and high-altitude testing process. She pointed out that the Antarctic environment is extremely variable and extreme, and expedition work often needs to be carried out in extremely harsh conditions, so expedition members need to have good physical fitness and stamina, including strong endurance, strength, speed, and flexibility. In addition, expedition members also need to have strong psychological resilience to ensure that the expedition work can proceed smoothly and achieve better results.
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