Polarstern
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Polarstern |
| Namesake: | Pole star |
| Owner: | Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung |
| Operator: | Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) |
| Port of registry: |
Bremerhaven,  Germany
|
| Route: | Arctic and Antarctica |
| Ordered: | 28 August 1980 |
| Builder: | Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft at Kiel and the Nobiskrug at Rendsburg |
| Yard number: | 707 |
| Laid down: | 22 September 1981 |
| Launched: | 6 January 1982 |
| Completed: | 8 December 1982 |
| Identification: | |
| Status: | In service |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Icebreaker, research vessel |
| Tonnage: | 12,614 GT |
| Displacement: | 17,300 tonnes |
| Length: | 117.91 m (386 ft 10 in) |
| Beam: | 25.07 m (82 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 11.21 m (36 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power: | Four diesel engines, 14,000 kW (19,000 hp) |
| Speed: | 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) |
| Capacity: | 124 persons |
| Crew: | 44 |
RV Polarstern (meaning pole star) is a German research icebreaker of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven. Polarstern was commissioned in 1982 and is mainly used for research in the Arctic and Antarctica. It is planned that she will be replaced by Polarstern II around the year 2017, after it was decided that the European Research Icebreaker Aurora Borealis will not be built in her original form.
Polarstern was built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel and Nobiskrug in Rendsburg. The ship has a length of 118 metres (387 feet) and is a double-hulled icebreaker. She is operational at temperatures as low as -50°C. (-58°F) Polarstern can break through ice 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) thick at a speed of 5 knots. Thicker ice up to 3 m (9.8 ft) thick can be broken by ramming.
On 7 September 1991, Polarstern, assisted by the Swedish arctic icebreaker Oden reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels. Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a common tug of war and a football game on an ice floe. Polarstern again reached the pole exactly 10 years later together with the USCGC Healy. She returned for a third time on 22 August 22 2011 at exactly 9.42 a.m. This time she reported the most frequently recurring ice thickness at 0.9 m compared with 2 m in 2001, which corresponds to the long-term average.
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