Drifting North: The Trailer

MOSAiC is partnering with the University of Colorado Boulder’s NEST and Fiske Planetarium to create a full-length planetarium show to be released internationally in 2020. Contribute to the storyline of the planetarium show by submitting your questions through video selfies.

More than two dozen scientists, engineers, educators, and others from the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA will join scientists from 18 other nations for the international MOSAiC mission starting this fall: the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate. MOSAiC is an unprecedented international research expedition to study the physical, chemical, and biological processes that couple the Arctic atmosphere, sea ice, ocean, and ecosystem. The German icebreaker Polarstern will begin MOSAiC’s journey in Tromsö, Norway, sailing north of the Northern Lights and parking against a block of sea ice. The Polarstern will drift with the ice for 13 full months, much like the ship of Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen 125 years ago.

Two CU Boulder graduate students, who are funded by the National Science Foundation, are working with colleagues at Fiske, the broader university, and across the world to produce a planetarium show about the expedition. They’ll be aboard Polarstern for weeks at a time, capturing 360-degree and virtual reality footage depicting the stress and the excitement of this challenging scientific mission.

We invite you to come along for the ride of the century, as the MOSAiC team pushes the boundaries of scientific exploration! Check out the trailer on Fiske's YouTube Channel: There's a dome version; and a flat version. The full show will be available in late 2020.