March 2007

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SEATTLE, WA/SANTA MONICA, CA - Confirming a report that first surfaced last summer, retired Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak are planning to drive a fuel cell-powered vehicle across Antarctica from the McMurdo Station on Ross Island to the South Pole this December.

Verification came last month from an unlikely source, a couple of sentences midway through a Feb. 20 press release by Neah Power Systems, Inc., of nearby Bothell, WA announcing that Col. Aldrin had been named to the company’s board of directors (see Transitions). Neah is developing what are described as silicon-based direct methanol micro fuel cells for portable electronic devices.

“The trip will be part of a research expedition slated for December 2007, and is to be filmed in 3D for director James Cameron,” added the release. Cameron directed “Terminator” and “Terminator 2;” “Aliens;” and “True Lies,” among others.

Neah’s release said the vehicle would be a Hummer H1 converted to hydrogen fuel cell power, but the trip’s organizer, Nick Baggarly of Drive Around the World, a Santa Monica, CA-based group, told H&FCL the exact vehicle type and make has not yet been picked. “It will be a modified American production vehicle,” he said, adding that many details still need to be worked out, including selection of an integrator.

A fact sheet provided by the organization about the ZERO SOUTH expedition - for Zero Emissions and South Pole - says in fact four vehicles - identical base models - will travel 1024 miles from McMurdo Station to the South Pole. In addition to the fuel cell version operating on hydrogen, three others running, respectively, on biodiesel, ultra-lean gasoline and the latest lithium battery technology are planned to make the journey.

Aldrin and Wozniak will be joining a team of Caltech, JPL and NASA scientists on this trip, according to the fact sheet, “searching for extreme forms of life and simulating future human exploration on Mars.” A team from Google Earth will map, track and blog the expedition, and video podcast dispatches are planned to be sent daily, the document said.

Drive Around the World is a 501 ©) (3) non-profit organization which has staged three previous long-distance driving expeditions to both inspire a sense of adventure and also to support worthy causes. The most recent one was a 44,000 mile journey with nine volunteers and four Land Rovers to raise funds in support of Parkinson’s Disease research. Members of the group’s 15-member advisory board include Terry Tamminen, former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, former cabinet secretary and now special assistant to Gov. Schwarzenegger, and Chris Paine, director of the documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”

Word of the project first surfaced last July on an Internet site, “Tech Trader Daily/Barrons Online.” At the time a report from the AlwaysOn conference at Stanford University said Wozniak had mentioned the idea “in passing.” Attempts then to verify the report were unsuccessful.

Contact/Sources: Drive Around the World, 310/636-1984, www.drivearoundtheworld.org; Feb. 20 Neah press release, http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/; various Internet sites.