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Our Story
Since 2019, when Team Polar was first founded as a Honors project at TU/e, it has continuously grown to fulfil its mission to reach Antarctica by the end of 2026. Through this page, you can get to know about our journey.
2019
TEAM POLAR IS FOUNDED
In 2019 Team Polar officially was founded. After Antarctic explorer, Wilco van Rooijen, brought the project to the Eindhoven University of Technology 6 passionate students decided to undertake the challenge. After a year of hard work, the team came to several conclusions about the vehicle, the most important one being that doing sustainable, autonomous research on Antarctica is feasible.
2020-2021
THE FIRST PROTOTYPE
In the years 2020-2021, Team Polar grew rapidly to 11 highly motivated members with 3 different nationalities and 8 different bachelors/masters; leading to an extremely diverse and motivated environment in which innovation was constantly happening. Later years continued to build on this solid foundation set by this team.
2021-2022
BUILDING THE FIRST PROTOTYPE
In the years 2021-2022, the team expanded to 17 part-time members, bringing even more diversity to the mix. With this, more research development towards the feasibility case of the Ice Cube was now being set up for construction.
2022-2023
FIRST PROTOTYPE IS TEST-DRIVEN
In the years 2022-2023, Team Polar grew to a massive 27 members and thereby became one of the largest teams on the TU/e campus. Being 80% international and representing 10 different faculties at the university, the team can be truly called a multidisciplinary team.
2023-2024
ESTABLISHING USE CASE
In 2023-2024, Team Polar focused on establishing a use case around our mission, with a growing team of 35 members dedicated to the task. Alongside this, the team continued to refine our first prototype, the Ice Cube, laying the foundation for the development of the next rover.
2024-2025
Team Polar, now 47 members strong, has set the ambitious goal of building our second rover, leveraging the knowledge gained from our first prototype. By 2026, we aim to deploy the rover in Antarctica, where it will traverse over 1,000 kilometers between two major logistics sites, showcasing the future of zero-emission scientific exploration.
DESIGNING GENTOO
2025-2026
TESTING TRIPS FOR GENTOO
In the years 2025-2026, the team expanded to 57 members, of which 8 full-time members. We are getting ready for Antarctic testing with GENTOO. By the end of the year, our rover will fulfil its mission on sustainable and autonomous driving.