Tara Polar Station
Tara Polar Station is a French drifting scientific base aimed for Arctic Ocean expeditions and operated by the Tara Oceans Foundation and its collaborators.
Development
The station is financed and designed by the Tara Foundation and was built in Cherbourg, France, from May 2023 to April 2025, after 5 years of design. It was baptized in Lorient, France, on 24 April 2025. The project has its origins in the Arctic expedition of the schooner Tara, conducted between September 2006 and January 2008.
Design
The station was designed by the architect Oliver Petit and will be able to work in temperatures down to. It has a length of, a width of, and it can accommodate a crew of 12 people in winter and up to 20 people in summer. Its hull is made from 20-mm-thick aluminium sheets. The station has a 1.6 m diameter moon pool, which can be used for underwater sampling using CTD-rosette, remotely operated vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles. The ship has a living area of 400 square meters and is divided into four levels: bridge deck with wheelhouse and captain’s office, main deck with entryway, sickbay, sauna, galley, and mess, lower deck with twelve crew cabins and six laboratories, and lower deck with auxiliary compartment and the engine/propulsion room. The station is equipped with solar panels, a wind turbine, and biodiesel generators.
Expeditions
Tara Polar Station was tested in ice conditions in July 2025 during the CONTRASTS expedition. It left Longyearbyen, Svalbard, on 4 July, and sailed towards sea ice together with the research vessel Polarstern. Tara Polar Station is planned to complete its first drift in the Arctic Ocean in summer 2026. There are at least 10 planned Arctic expeditions along the Transpolar Drift, preparing the route of Nansen's Fram expedition, Soviet and Russian drifting stations, and MOSAiC Expedition.