On Saturday 6 April 2024, the Transglobal Car Expedition (of which geneveMonde.ch is a partner) successfully reached the Geographic North Pole at 90°N, the first major milestone on its long journey around the world. This remarkable achievement follows four months of travelling across continents, highlighting the dedication, resilience and unwavering spirit of the team.

The Transglobal Car Expedition is a pioneering initiative that is redefining the boundaries of exploration on wheels. The team set off north from New York on 10 January 2024, embarking on an impressive journey to circle the Earth. During the expedition, the team crossed the North and South Poles, before returning to New York from the south more than 18 months later.

The team has now completed the most northerly leg of its journey. "Passing the North Pole is the most difficult stage of our expedition," says Vasily Shakhnovskiy, expedition leader. "Our final approach involved a full day's journey, with 43.6 km to cover before reaching our parking point at 90°N. Now that we've arrived, it's a bit euphoric. This achievement marks the culmination of years of planning and perseverance".

Their arrival at the North Pole is not just a geographical conquest, but also a scientific one. Thanks to the CosmicPi 'Nansen' detector, the Transglobal team has recorded data on cosmic rays at the North Pole", explains James Devine, the CERN engineer who developed the CosmicPi detectors. Etam Noah, CosmicPi scientist, said, "These are the first ever historical measurements of cosmic rays at this latitude and will help researchers understand these unique particles." The measurements were taken on cosmic ray detectors built at CERN using open hardware, specially adapted to withstand the extreme environmental conditions at the North Pole. The Transglobal team is committed to measuring cosmic rays throughout its expedition, in order to provide valuable information about these particles at all latitudes encountered.

Here's an audio interview of James Devine, CERN engineer and Paola Catapano, CERN Head of editorial content production education, communications and outreach international relations department. Paola, as an explorer, is the penultimate holder of the record for the most northerly measurements made with the Polarquest expedition.

Read the presentation of the expedition here.

Photo : James Devine and Paola Catapano at the Big Bang Café (David Glaser)