China is preparing to send off its icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, on Friday for the country's 31st expedition to the South Pole, China.org reported.
Drones and robots will come along with ship personnel on the voyage and will be used to study icecaps. They will also be utilized to survey the site for China's planned airstrip near its Zhongshan Station in Antarctica.
The government announced earlier its plans to expand the country's reach through studies conducted in the remotest locations in the world.
"With the development of China's research in the Antarctic, we are starting to plan an airfield for large aircraft," said Qu Tanzhou, director of the State Oceanic Administration's Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.
The airstrip will facilitate transportation to China's four existing research stations in Antarctica, namely, Changcheng, Zhongshan, Kunlun and Taishan.
"China has built four Antarctic research stations, but does not have its own fixed-wing airport," a recent Beijing Evening News report said.
The airstrip will serve the four facilities and their stationed researchers, who have had to depend on maritime transport which has seriously affected "the ability of scientific exploration."
Aboard Xue Long will be a 281-person team composed of experts in meteorology and ocean studies. The ship will be used to conduct studies in difficult terrain, and its voyage will last for 163 days, said polar research officials.