"The action, supported by the Moscow government and the committee for holding the 2012 Olympic Games, will be held at the South Pole environs. The team of nine schoolchildren from Russian regions and specially trained by experienced Russian cosmonauts from the Star City, will make a 2012-meter race in the center of cold of the South Pole", he said.
The team of Russian schoolchildren, which will fly to the Antarctic on March 9 within the framework of the ecological project Celestial Odyssey for Russia's Glory, have been trained for conditions of the North by survival instructors from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
"The children have underwent the obligatory for Russian cosmonauts course of survival in subzero temperatures and mountain training", the head of the expedition said.
The young participants in the Antarctic project have been taught to make fire and prepare food, pitch up special tents, use special outfits for rigid cold and the blazing Antarctic sun.
In the plans are parachute jumps from a balloon, flights above the South Pole in the superlight aircraft Skarabei, tests of a new winter outfit for cosmonauts. On a par with professionals, schoolchildren will take samples of Antarctic air at different altitudes, test special equipment and Russia-made far-range communication devices.
Red ribbons will be arranged on Antarctic snow to form the word Mir (Peace), which will be filmed by a digit camera from the airborne Skarabei. By space communication the image will be transmitted to the International Space Station, from where the crewmen Salizhen Sharipov and Leroy Chiao will pass it world-wide by the Internet.
