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Ultra-Light Expedition Technology
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In 2001, to send home images from expeditions you had to bring a laptop
and an Inmarsat mini-M. All in all, equipment weighing 7-10 kg (15-25
lbs.), plus power.
Not anymore, thanks to three major newsmakers:
The first breakthrough came when Iridium, then Globalstar and, recently, Thuraya
started to provide data services
for their small 200-350 gr. handheld phones.
 The
second
milestone occurred when Compaq introduced iPAQs to the market. Running Microsoft
Pocket-PC, iPAQs made it possible to edit images on 200 gr.
handheld computers.
The third change came when the ExplorersWeb team first married the two
components together and developed the expedition Web publishing
software, Contact 2.0. Voila! The world's lightest expedition
communication technology package was born.
The first
set-up of Contact software was ready in fall of 2001. That winter, the
first uploads from gear weighing less than 1 kg were made during an
Antarctic expedition.
The software was fine-tuned and launched to the adventure community in late
2002.
Much has happened since. Polar expeditions work almost exclusively with PDAs and
Sat phones. In the spring of 2003, several Everest
expeditions tried the ultra-light setups, with other climbing parties
following soon after.
The latest software/hardware packages are less than 700 - 800
gr. and make it possible to upload images, video and dispatches straight to the internet from
anywhere in the world
–
whether it is the summit of Everest, the
floating ice of the North Pole or the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Ultra Light Packages
Expeditions that use Ultra Light technology
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