Oslo (AFP) — The floating Tara Polar Station, which will start surveying the Arctic next year, will not scan Russian waters due to the tense geopolitical situation, the director of the foundation behind the project told AFP Wednesday.

Described as a sort of polar “space station”, the 110-tonne floating laboratory is designed to become trapped in the Arctic ice and then drift with the ice pack for between 350 and 500 days in order to study the still largely unexplored region.

The expedition, which will have 12 members in winter, six of them scientists, and 18 in summer, has received authorisation to navigate in Russian waters from August 25 to September 15 to reach its starting point above the Gakkel Ridge — an underwater mountain range located between Siberia and Greenland.

However, whi

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