In August 1897, thirty-one-year-old commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail aboard the Belgica. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But the commandant's plans for a three-year expedition to reach the magnetic South Pole would be thwarted at each turn. Drawing on firsthand accounts of the Belgica's voyage and exclusive access to the ship's logbook, this book tells the tale of its long, isolated imprisonment on the ice - a story that NASA studies today in its research on isolation for missions to Mars.
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