Russian Parachutists Set New World Record and Advance Communications in the Arctic

Three Russian parachutists set a world record last week by jumping from the Earth’s stratosphere to the North Pole. The mission was also a test for a new prototype communications system that will be used in the Arctic. The parachutists, who were wearing heated masks, suffered some frostbite during their descent despite being plunging at over 300 km/h with an air temperature of around -50 degrees Celsius.

The descent was captured in a spectacular video, showing the parachutists spending about two and a half minutes in freefall before opening their chutes 1,000 meters above the ground. Near Russia’s Barneo polar base, they were able to power up a server using diesel generators and establish a connection to a satellite. The equipment for communication had been dropped earlier from a lower altitude.

Communications in the Arctic are becoming increasingly important as nations compete for resources, trade routes, and military advantage. The Russians were able to send data via an experimental system, which while not as advanced as U.S.-based Iridium Communications Inc., was a step towards achieving their goal of building a low-cost solution for accessing satellites from computers. Nikita Tsaplin, managing partner and co-founder of Russian hosting provider RUVDS noted that this prototype system demonstrated some progress towards achieving that goal.