Important concepts and ideas

3. Origins of the shelters.

The most specialized workers were the Vikings who worked on the keel, the bow and the stern. The material used for the boats was oak wood, valued as a hardwood that resisted the waters of the ocean, whenever it could.
These people were considered nomadic, that is, they went from one place to another without a fixed home, so once they settled in a new area, they improvised temporary huts that served to protect themselves from the cold and the environment.

What were Viking houses made of?

The main material used to build the Viking house was wood. Other secondary materials were stone and sod, a patch of soil and roots covered with grass.
Since wood easily deteriorates over the centuries, virtually nothing of Viking houses has remained above ground level. Consequently, what we know today about the dwellings of the ancient Scandinavians are interpretations of archaeological finds. The Viking house is rectangular, with a variable length and sometimes with curved walls. The width, meanwhile, did not usually exceed 5 meters. Two rows of posts supported the roof rafters and ran the length of the building. Consequently, they divided the house into a central nave and two narrower aisles. However, at the end of the Viking era another type of housing spread. The two rows of posts were embedded in the walls so that there was only a single space. The difference between the Viking houses of the nobles and those of the common people lay in the dimensions and how they were furnished.

4. The secret of Roman concrete.

Roman concrete is famous for its resistance, capable of keeping monuments standing after more than 2,000 years. Now, a group of researchers from MIT has analyzed the chemical composition of a sample taken from the mausoleum of Cecilia Metela, the results, published reveal the secret of this exceptional resistance which is partly due to fortune.
The discovery has been possible thanks to the use of two technologies: first, a scanning electron microscope, which shows the microstructure of the blocks at the micron scale; and secondly, X-ray spectrometry, which makes it possible to identify and quantify the elements that make up a sample. The authors highlight the importance of the discovery in terms of practical application since modern concretes have much to envy that used by the Romans.

The new study has provided a new and vitally important fact, the volcanic materials used in the construction of Cecilia Metela's mausoleum are abundant in leucite, a mineral-rich in potassium that is easily decomposed by the action of the rain and groundwater infiltration through the walls.
As a result of this, the leucite would have released the potassium in the mixture as a whole, causing changes in its chemical composition that would have made it more resistant.

5. Dylan stove 

An essential part of our project is the heating that will be used in that small room between the two doors to avoid sudden outlets of heat and thus save energy.

However, heating systems can be very expensive in every way, so an internet user named Dylan Winter has greatly facilitated our work by creating a cheap and ecological stove that is very simple to make, based on those stoves that were used to heat trenches in England in the first and second world wars.

6. The rise of igloos and their shape.

In the great expansions of the North Pole where trees and other building materials are extremely scarce or non-existent, an igloo built with snow (and sometimes ice) was the only practical way to create shelter in prehistoric times.

The functionality was due more to the use of available materials, using an igloo for shelter also meant that hunters and nomadic tribes did not need to pack heavy tents on the go.
In addition, the igloos were warmer and more stable than any other material in harsh climates and wind. They were easier and faster to build than many types of temporary structures, often even when wood was available, igloos served many purposes with the added benefit that they could be left behind without material loss.

The origin of the Eskimos

The earliest known group of Eskimos dates back to about 5,000 years ago in Alaska, and those cultures likely evolved from Siberian groups that existed 10,000 and 15,000 years ago. Those cultures include people who came from various parts of Asia including Korea, Mongolia, and Russia. Igloos have probably been built over tens of thousands of years by people who travelled half the world.

7. Why don't we use some renewable energies in our base? 

In this project, the inevitable consumption of fossil fuels has been taken for granted, without mentioning renewable energies, which in this specific case are not the most profitable option and that best adapt to the environment. Therefore we are going to explain it from the two most common types of clean energy.

- Solar energy: Photovoltaic panels feed on the solar rays emitted by the sun during the day, something striking for a very sunny area with many hours of sunshine, such as the African continent. However, in the Antarctic, these hours are drastically reduced and added to the maintenance of solar panels. We cannot take it as a viable option.

- Wind energy: Knowing the speeds that are reached in this area, may seem like an attractive option, however, it is this very option that prevents us from doing so. Winds of 200 km/h are very aggressive and capable of collapsing a structure easily, so the production costs to make a small power plant supplied by this clean energy and that is fully capable of withstanding these meteorological conditions are very expensive and the term to recover the money and time invested is too long.