IT sounds like a movie script. A team of scientists and engineers have travelled south to the frozen, barren landscape of Antarctica in search of as yet unknown forms of life, deep beneath the ice.

What’s more, their findings could provide clues about life on other planets.

The team is currently camping in conditions way below freezing and is drilling through three kilometres of ice to search for life in subglacial Lake Ellsworth.

And among the team are two engineers from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton, Ed Waugh and Robin Brown.

Further engineers from the NOC have also worked on the project, which has been 16 years in the making, in which the team is using a sterile hot water drill to bore down to the subglacial lake and bring back samples of water and sediments that may have had no contact with the outside world for a million years.

The drilling began on Wednesday with results expected in around a week.

The research project is at the frontier of exploration and science. It is hoped it will bring new knowledge about the evolution of life on our planet as well as providing clues about Earth’s past climate.

Lake Ellsworth is set to be the first of Antarctica’s 387 known subglacial lakes to be measured and sampled directly through the design and manufacture of space-industry standard ‘clean technology’.

For years scientists have speculated that new and unique forms of microbial life could have evolved in this cold, pitch black and isolated environment.

The research may also give clues about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe, such as in the ice-covered oceans of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Dr David Pearce, science coordinator at British Antarctic Survey, is part of the team leading the search for life in the lake water. He says: “Finding life in a lake that could have been isolated from the rest of the biosphere for up to half a million years will tell us so much about the potential origin of and constraints for life on Earth, and may provide clues to the evolution of life on other extraterrestrial environments. If we find nothing this will be even more significant because it will define limits at which life can no longer exist on the planet.”

The unique 5m-long water sampling probe was designed and built by engineers at the NOC in Southampton.

Made of the highest grade of titanium to ensure maximum sterility and strength, it will collect 24 water samples at different lake depths. It will also capture the top layer of sediments at the lake floor.

At the sub-zero base camp, the engineers from Southampton say it’s a very exciting project to be involved in.

“It’s a real privilege to be part of it,”

says Ed Waugh, who has been at the NOC for ten years, first as a student.

“It’s nice to actually start with the idea of what we’re making, then design it, then make it and now we’re deploying it,” adds Robin Brown, who has been at the NOC for 12 years.

“I’m hoping we successfully reach the lake and can take the samples we’re hoping for and do that effectively,” says Ed, chatting from the team’s heated ‘weather haven’ where they can relax and eat all their meals.

“I’m hoping there will be some life in the water. That would be the most interesting result. If there is life here you might hypothesise that it might be able to survive on Europa.”

Of course, working in Antarctica has its own challenges, especially the cold.

“We’ve managed to test all of our equipment and it still seems to be working well in the cold, which is excellent news,” says Ed.

“It’s much more difficult here.

Everything takes twice as long in the cold. It’s a lot harder than it would be doing the same job in the UK. This morning it’s minus 19C and about five to ten knots of wind.”

But despite the cold, the men agree that they are fairly comfortable.

“The cold hasn’t really been too much of a problem because the gear we’ve got from the British Antarctic Survey is just so good. At night we sleep in tents and have these really warm sleeping bags. It can be hard to get up in the morning though, because it can be minus 16C in the tent.”

The team will be spending Christmas in Antarctica, away from family, friends and loved ones.

Robin will be celebrating Christmas with his partner and two children when he returns to his home in Eastleigh.

“It will be strange because it will be the first Christmas I’ve had without the kids but they’re 15 and 20 so they’re old enough to appreciate what I’m doing and they’ll be geared up for it when I get back.”

Meanwhile, Ed bought his Christmas presents before he left. “I think we’ll have the day off for Christmas and have some nice food,” he says.

The team will also be drinking a special ale, Pole Axed, brewed for them in Southampton by a microbrewery at The Platform Tavern, specifically to withstand the Antarctic cold.

“A beer will be very well deserved!”

adds Robin.

n For more information about the research, visit ellsworth.org.uk