Eric Philips | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Australian |
Alma mater | University of South Australia |
Occupations | polar explorer, adventurer and polar guide |
Known for | Private astronaut aboard Fram2 |
Relatives | |
Space career | |
Crew Dragon Astronaut | |
Time in space | 3-5 days (planned) |
Missions | Fram2 |
Website | http://ericphilips.com/ |
Eric Philips OAM (born 30 April 1962) is an Australian polar explorer, adventurer, polar guide and private astronaut. [1]
Philips was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1962. His parents, Keith and Josephine, emigrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 1957. Philips studied at the University of South Australia, attaining a Diploma of Teaching, a Bachelor of Education and Graduate Diploma in Outdoor Education. He was the Director of Outdoor Education at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School. [2] Philips lives in Tawonga South, Australia with his wife, Susy, where he runs his own guiding and polar equipment design business, Icetrek Expeditions and Equipment. He has a daughter, Mardi, and son, Kip. [3]
Philips has completed ski expeditions across icecaps on Greenland, Ellesmere Island, Iceland, Svalbard and Patagonia icecaps. [2] He was the first Australian, together with companion Jon Muir, to ski to both the North Pole and South Pole. [2] Philips skied to the North Pole from Siberia in 2002, producing a film, Icetrek North Pole, and has since guided numerous commercial North Pole expeditions, including the North Pole to Canada leg of Pat Farmer's Pole to Pole Run in 2011. [2]
In 2013 Eric was a guide with UK charity Walking With The Wounded during their South Pole Allied Challenge. Together with celebrities Prince Harry, Dominic West and Alexander Skarsgard, three teams of wounded soldiers from the UK, USA, Australia and Canada skied 200 km to the South Pole. Also in 2013, Eric guided Greenpeace on a short ski expedition to the North Pole where a symbolic capsule containing 2.7 million signatures and a message to the future was lowered to the sea bed. [2]
In 1998-99, together with Jon Muir and Peter Hillary, Philips skied from McMurdo Station in Antarctica to the South Pole via the Ross Ice Shelf and Shackleton Glacier. [4] This 84-day, 1425 km ski expedition utilised traction kites to harness the wind. A film, Into the Teeth of the Blizzard, was produced about this expedition. Philips also guided a 925 km commercial ski expedition for Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions from the Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole in 2007-08 and in 2012 guided Pat Farmer on his Antarctic leg from Union Glacier camp to the South Pole. He have also skied 4 new routes and variations to the South Pole, via the Shackleton (1999), Reedy (2017), Kansas (2018) and Support Force (2023) Glaciers, completing the last at age 61 [2]
In 1995 Philips completed a ski/kite/kayak traverse of Greenland from Tasiilaq to Kangerlussuaq, resulting in the Emmy Award-winning film, Chasing the Midnight Sun. In 2000, he used similar methods to cross the South Patagonian Icecap from Chile to Argentina, producing the film, Riding the Tempest. Philips has also skied across icecaps in Iceland (2003) and Ellesmere Island (1992) and in 2008 skied from Ny-Ålesund to Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen. [2]
In 1996-97 Philips worked as a Field Training Officer at Mawson Station for the Australian Antarctic Division and again in 2008-09 as Field Leader of the International Polar Year AGAP North project. In 2006-07 he sailed with his family on board the ice-strengthened ship Sarsen to Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica and in 2009 semi-circumnavigated Greenland on board Greenpeace's icebreaker, Arctic Sunrise as part of their Climate Impacts expedition. [2]
He has also cycle toured through Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, around the South Island of New Zealand and from the Netherlands to Egypt. [2]
Through his experiences Philips has developed alternative and highly effective methods of travel in the polar regions and has embraced the use of specialised plastics in the construction of polar-specific equipment. He is the inventor of the Flexi ski binding, used extensively by polar adventurers. [2]
Philips is the author of Icetrek. The Bitter Journey to the South Pole. [5] [2]
In August 2024, SpaceX announced that Philips would be pilot of the Fram2 mission of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, which aims to be the first human flight to go orbit over the Earth's North and South poles. [6] He will become the first astronaut to fly to orbit as an Australian, although both Paul Scully-Power and Andy Thomas were Australian born and flew on NASA missions after being naturalised as US citizens.
In 2004 Eric was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for achievements in polar exploration. [7] He is the co-founder and former president of the International Polar Guides Association (IPGA) and co-creator of Polar Expedition Classification Scheme. [2]
Fram ("Forward") is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. It was designed and built by the Scottish-Norwegian shipwright Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen's 1893 Arctic expedition in which the plan was to freeze Fram into the Arctic ice sheet and float with it over the North Pole.
Snowkiting or kite skiing is an outdoor winter sport where people use kite power to glide on snow or ice. The skier uses a kite to give them power over large jumps. The sport is similar to water-based kiteboarding, but with the footwear used in snowboarding or skiing. The principles of using the kite are the same, but in different terrain. In the early days of snowkiting, foil kites were the most common type; nowadays many kiteboarders use inflatable kites. However, since 2013, newly developed racing foil kites seem to dominate speed races and expedition races, like Red Bull Ragnarok and the Vake mini-expedition race. Snowkiting differs from other alpine sports in that it is possible for the snowkiter to travel uphill and downhill with any wind direction. Like kiteboarding, snowkiting can be very hazardous and should be learned and practiced with care. Snowkiting has become more popular in places often associated with skiing and snowboarding, such as Russia, Canada, Iceland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Northern and Central United States. The sport has become more diverse as adventurers use kites to travel great distances and sports enthusiasts push the boundaries of freestyle, big air, speed and back country exploration.
Sir Walter William Herbert was a British polar explorer, writer and artist. In 1969 he became the first man fully recognized for walking to the North Pole, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's disputed expedition. He was described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as "the greatest polar explorer of our time".
The NimrodExpedition of 1907–1909, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton and his second time to the Continent. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to reach the South Pole. This was not attained, but the expedition's southern march reached a Farthest South latitude of 88° 23' S, just 97.5 nautical miles from the pole. This was by far the longest southern polar journey to that date and a record convergence on either Pole. A separate group led by Welsh Australian geology professor Edgeworth David reached the estimated location of the South magnetic pole, and the expedition also achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus, Antarctica's second highest volcano.
Paul Landry M.B. is a French-Canadian polar explorer, author, and adventurer who is the only paid man to ever reach three Geographical poles in a single year.
Benjamin John Saunders is an English polar explorer, endurance athlete, and motivational speaker. He led the first return journey to the South Pole on foot via Shackleton and Scott's route in 2013–14, and skied solo to the North Pole in 2004. Saunders has skied more than 3,700 miles (6,000 km) on polar expeditions since 2001. He holds the record for the longest human-powered polar journey in history (2,888 km) and for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton (1,032 km).
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Tom Avery, FRGS is a British explorer, author and motivational speaker. He made record-breaking journeys to the South Pole in 2002 and to the North Pole in 2005. He is one of fewer than ten people throughout history to have completed the Polar Trilogy; full length expeditions to the South Pole and North Pole and a coast to coast crossing of Greenland. Avery and his teammates hold two Guinness World Records; the fastest surface journey to the North Pole and the fastest coast-to-coast crossing of Greenland. He is also the youngest Briton to have reached both the North and South Poles on foot.
Sebastian Copeland is a British-American-French photographer, polar explorer, author, lecturer, and environmental advocate. He has led numerous expeditions in the polar regions to photograph and film endangered environments. In 2017, Copeland was named one of the world's top 25 adventurers of the last 25 years by Men's Journal. He is a fellow of The Explorers Club. His documentary Into the Cold was a featured selection at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD timed to Earth Day 2011.
Paul Walker is an Arctic explorer and Polar Guide born in Shrewsbury, England. He achieved a B.Ed Honours degree in Outdoor Education and Mathematics and has organised more than 250 arctic expeditions to Spitsbergen (Svalbard), Baffin Island (Canada), Iceland and Greenland over 30+ years. In 2006 he led an 8 man team to make the first and only winter ascent of Gunnbjørnsfjeld, the highest mountain in the Arctic Circle.
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