Dr Mike Stroud announces that he is sadly unable to join the trip to the Antarctic, but has a list of experienced doctors eager to take his place.

Nevertheless, he will be designing, along with Dr Alex Kumar, an important project to be carried out on the ice, looking at the effect of such a hostile environment has on the human body and mind over such a long period of time. The project is called the White Mars project, and is aimed to produce data relevant to space exploration and life on Mars.