You are not far from the truth. It started out in 1916 as a mining town, mining coal for norwegian ships. the coal mining was done on and off until 1963 until the mining finally closed after a severe accident in november 1962. Most of the mining infrastructure was burned on purpose, so it is not much left of that. Because of the accident, the government had to leave office, and marked the first time after WW2 where the Norwegian Labour Party lost control of government. Quite soon after the mining was closed, different science projects started moving in. One of the first was a telemetry station that was there for some years. Today Ny-Ålesund is a science town, a research stadion, where institutions from all over the world come. Marine biology, biology, atmospheric science, glaciology, geodesy, the list goes on. In the quiet season, typical mid winter, the population can be as low as 25-30, this is manly the support staff. In the high season as many as 200 can be there at any one time. Because of the science, especially the geodesy, this is a radio silent zone, where many radio frequencies are prohibited. So there is no cellphone reception, no wifi, no bluetooth. In 2015, a fiber optic cable to Ny-Ålesund was finished, and the town got high speed for the first time, thanks to the new geodesy facility.
2009🥺✌️
I would love to go there!
What in the world is the purpose for this place, it looks like some sort of mining or something. Oh my.
You are not far from the truth. It started out in 1916 as a mining town, mining coal for norwegian ships. the coal mining was done on and off until 1963 until the mining finally closed after a severe accident in november 1962. Most of the mining infrastructure was burned on purpose, so it is not much left of that. Because of the accident, the government had to leave office, and marked the first time after WW2 where the Norwegian Labour Party lost control of government.
Quite soon after the mining was closed, different science projects started moving in. One of the first was a telemetry station that was there for some years.
Today Ny-Ålesund is a science town, a research stadion, where institutions from all over the world come. Marine biology, biology, atmospheric science, glaciology, geodesy, the list goes on. In the quiet season, typical mid winter, the population can be as low as 25-30, this is manly the support staff. In the high season as many as 200 can be there at any one time.
Because of the science, especially the geodesy, this is a radio silent zone, where many radio frequencies are prohibited. So there is no cellphone reception, no wifi, no bluetooth. In 2015, a fiber optic cable to Ny-Ålesund was finished, and the town got high speed for the first time, thanks to the new geodesy facility.