The only exception is the winter leg, which would have to be done with an airplane that would land on the ice, which would be too thick for an icebreaker to break through at this time of year. Each leg/rotation was meant to be about 2-3 months long. But then… COVID-19 hit!
At the time, Leg 2 scientists were still onboard the icebreaker, and Leg 3 scientists were in-transit to the icebreaker to change over the rotation of people. The ice was thicker than anticipated for the transit ship, and it ended up taking a few weeks longer to reach the icebreaker. We successfully transitioned the Leg 2/3 scientists and Leg 2 participants were on their way home. This would take lots of effort by many people to get everyone safely home, since the virus was in full effect at this point. However, we successfully got all of our Leg 2 people home. Due to the virus, Leg 4 had to be canceled (the airplane part of the transition), and that meant that Leg 3 participants would have to stay on-board for a much longer period of time that originally thought. We are currently working to bring out our next wave of scientists to the ship, and they will arrive sometime in May.
