The mission to Earth’s watery graveyard: British explorer will attempt to reach Point Nemo – a remote area 3,000 kilometers north of Antarctica that is ‘unseen by man’
While most travelers hope to reach ancient sites or historical monuments, one British explorer tries to get as far away from them as possible.
Chris Brown hopes to reach Point Nemo – the most remote place on Earth and the graveyard for hundreds of pieces of space junk.
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Point Nemo is so far from any land that the nearest humans are on the International Space Station 250 miles (408 km) above Earth.
If successful, the 62-year-old entrepreneur from Harrogate will become the first Briton to complete a specific expedition to the point.
‘I’m going to try to get in the water if at all possible. “I also expect to open a bottle of bubbly when I get there,” he said.
Chris Brown hopes to reach Point Nemo – the most remote place on Earth and the graveyard for hundreds of pieces of space junk
Mr Brown and his son Mika, 32, set sail aboard the chartered expedition yacht Hanse Explorer from Puerto Montt, Chile, on March 12.
The pair hope to reach Point Nemo on March 20 or 21 if all goes according to plan.
Although Mr Brown says he had considered using a racing yacht to get to the point as quickly as possible, he ultimately opted for the safer option of a more robust vessel.
The luxury yacht usually makes tourist expeditions to Antarctica and is said to pass quite close to Point Nemo.
Mr Brown said that ‘after some negotiation the owners agreed to our little detour.’
Point Nemo is the furthest ocean point in the country. The nearest landmass is Ducie Island, located over 1,600 miles to the north
The crew’s destination is the so-called Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility, meaning it is the furthest point from land.
From Point Nemo, the nearest land is Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands, which is 2,688 kilometers away.
Besides a few small islands, the nearest major inhabited areas are Wellington, New Zealand and Concepción, Chile, both of which are over 2,500 miles away.
This part of the world is so remote that it has become the most popular place for international space agencies to drop falling space debris.
Since 1971, more than 260 pieces of space debris have found their final resting place in the waters around Point Nemo, including Russia’s Mir space station.
Within the next decade, this remote part of the Pacific Ocean will also be the site of the International Space Station’s downing.
When the ISS lands at Point Nemo, it will actually be seven times further from any human settlement than it is in orbit.
The point has been known since 1992, when a research engineer calculated the furthest point for landing, taking into account the Earth’s ellipsoid shape.
Since its discovery, several ships have approached the point, including Ocean Race participants traveling between Auckland, New Zealand and Itajaí, Brazil.
Point Nemo’s remote location makes it the ideal place for space agencies to retrieve space debris from orbit, because the chance of anyone getting hit is so incredibly low.
Mr. Brown travels to the point aboard a chartered exploration yacht called the Hanse Explorer
However, maritime experts have stated that ‘it is possible that no human ever passed through the specific coordinates’.
Nevertheless, Mr Brown appears undeterred by the extreme remoteness of the site.
Ultimately, he hopes to become the first person to reach all eight continental poles of inaccessibility on Earth.
These are the points on each continent that are furthest from any ocean, making them among the most remote places on Earth.
Mr Brown has already reached five of the eight, reaching the poles in Antarctica, Oceania, Africa, North America and South America.
Mr Brown and his son Mika, 30, are expected to reach the point on March 21, after leaving Chile last Tuesday
“I don’t consider this as dangerous as my expeditions to Africa or Antarctica,” he said.
‘The obvious danger is that you are miles from anywhere at sea, and you are a long way from any of the shipping lanes, so if there was a problem with the boat help would take a long time to wait. ‘
During the expedition to the Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility, Mr Brown and his son were briefly stranded in temperatures of -28°C after their plane broke down.
But while Mr. Brown may be adventurous, he also seems to have a keen sense of danger.
Last year he came to media attention after it was revealed that he had turned down a spot on the ill-fated submarine expedition to the Titanic.
Mr Brown said he even paid a deposit for a seat on the OceanGate ship.
However, he pulled out of the trip after discovering the submarine would be controlled with games console controllers saying it looked ‘sloppy’.
Although Point Nemo has been known since the 1990s, maritime experts say it’s possible no one has ever sailed through its exact coordinates before
Mr. Brown’s ultimate goal is to reach all eight continental poles of inaccessibility, of which Point Nemo is one
Mr Brown plans to collect water samples at Point Nemo to test the density of microplastics on their way to the world’s most remote oceans.
In addition to being a dumping ground for space debris, Point Nemo is located in a complex network of circular currents that trap large amounts of waste.
The South Pacific Gyre in which Point Nemo is located is a confluence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Humboldt Current, and the West Wind Drift.
As a result, this region of the Pacific Ocean has become something of an oceanic garbage dump.
Fortunately, this area may also be one of the least biologically active regions of the world’s oceans.
In the 4,000 meter deep waters it is so devoid of nutrients that life can hardly exist.
Scientists have only discovered bacteria and small crabs living in the sea vents on the ocean floor near the point.