Case Study: Empowering Antarctic Research Expedition with Rugged Windows Tablet
Compact, fully rugged Mesa 4 tablet computer 
from Juniper Systems proves competent, handy companion on Antarctic research expedition
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer -- photography by Carol Cotton)
Carol Cotton is a licensed NAUI scuba instructor, professional photographer, intrepid adventurer, seasoned expeditioner, cat whisperer, and also Director of Photography at RuggedPCReview.
As such she is not only quite familiar with rugged computing and imaging gear of any sort and kind, but also with the many challenges of selecting the right equipment for the job, getting it all to fit into a reasonable amount of luggage, not forgetting anything important, and then, hopefully, making it all work fine on location. Which, this time, so happened to be a scientific research expedition in the Antarctic. All in all three weeks of travel halfway around the world.
Cotton was going with an all-female interdisciplinary team of scientists, authors, educators and speakers as photographer and videographer both above, in, and under the water. The overall purpose of the expedition was the pooling of the science teams' talents, expertise and resources to add to the understanding of the Antarctic region as well as to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the HMS Challenger's crossing of the southern polar circle. Their base of operations would be the m/v Ortelius, a 300-foot, 4090 tonnes ice-strengthened special-purpose research vessel.
Data, video and images collected by the organizers and scientists was also going to contribute to developing multimedia educational tools across platforms, including live streaming to classrooms. Individual expedition projects would include phytoplankton tows, reef surveys of key indicator species, sample collections, marine mammal ID and more.
Above, a glorious picture of water, ice, glaciers and lenticular clouds Cotton took the very first morning, once they were finally there, at the Antarctic peninsula. It took a LOT of planning and logistics to get to this point.
The challenge
Electronic gear has become such a major part of every aspect of personal and professional life that it's hard to imagine how we ever managed without it. We need our smartphones all the time, and our laptops, tablets and desktops, too. But what when you travel to remote locations off the beaten path? Places where you're working in wet, slick, salty, unsteady, remote, challenging environments?
That's what Cotton was facing, and with A LOT of gear. Her two big professional cameras with all the lenses, adapters, batteries, cables, peripherals and more. Her GoPro adventure cameras with all of their entire eco-system. The Insta360 full-360 degree camera with its gear, housings, telescoping sticks. iPhone and iPad. All the various chargers, and the adapters that might become necessary on the stops in Argentina and then on the boat.
Then all the clothing and garments and layers needed in the Antarctic. Both for land excursions and for in the water. Because, yes, all the members of Cotton's teams would spend extended time in the antarctic waters that are around freezing or below (salt water can be as cold as 28 or 29 degrees Fahrenheit before it freezes). So there was the bulky drysuit to pack with all its accessories.
On an average expedition, Cotton shoots thousands of pictures and many hours of video with a variety of cameras. Keeping track of it all can be a nightmare. Most cameras come with their own apps, each with their own file transfer requirements and their own way of doing things. Which may or may not work when you need it most. Leaving image and video data on the storage cards in the cameras is not an option, because today's image files can be huge, cards can fail, or a camera with cards in it can get lost.
Like most photographers, Cotton learned (sometimes the hard way) that there really is only one reliable way to keep everything safe — offload everything from the cameras to the computer. Phones and consumer tablets have come a long way in terms of storage capacity and management. But, as far as Cotton was concerned, not far enough to entrust it all to anything but a mature, industrial-strength fie system, and to her that means Windows on a PC.
A big laptop was out of the question. After packing all the essential polar and camera gear into a couple of checked bags, the allowed carry-on and personal bag, always observing the airlines' weight, limits, there was barely any space left over. The computer that was going to the antarctic expedition had to be a powerful, waterproof Windows machine that was light and compact to somehow squeeze into whatever little packing room that she had left over.
The solution: the Juniper Systems new Mesa 4 rugged tablet
Finding a solution to Cotton's predicament came down to the wire. There aren't many compact rugged Windows computers that met all the requirements. Juniper Systems of Logan, Utah, came through. Literally just days before departure, one of Juniper's new Mesa 4 tablets arrived.
Juniper's Mesa line wasn't new to Cotton. Initially marketed as a "rugged notepad" running Microsoft Windows Mobile, the original Mesa pioneered in 2010 as sort of a super-sized PDA. When Microsoft wound down the Windows Mobile OS, Juniper created the Mesa 2, a virtually indestructible compact Windows 8.1 and later Windows 10 touch computer that was larger than big smartphones, but smaller than most tablets. The 2019 Mesa 3 brought updates and higher performance to the platform. The new Mesa 4 was launched late 2023, quicker yet and bringing full Windows 11 power and functionality into the field.
The Mesa 4 measures about 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 inches and weighs between a pound and a half and two pounds, depending on batteries and built-in options. The internal battery is optional (but comes in handy for maximum battery life or being able to hot-swap the replaceable battery). The Mesa's 7-inch diagonal screen has more screen area than even the biggest smartphone (they have long and skinny displays whereas the Mesa's has a 16:10 aspect ratio), and it's just big enough for Windows 11. The screen is very bright. Juniper rates it at 800 nits, but it's actually even brighter. It has what Intel simply calls an Intel Processor N200, though it technically belongs to the 12th generation Intel "Alder Lake" line.
The Mesa 4 can handle extreme environments and it is nearly indestructible. It survives multiple 5-foot drops to concrete. It can operate down to -4F (which is -20C in metric). It is IP68 rated, which means it is totally waterproof and submersible. If any rugged Windows tablet is equipped to survive in the Antarctic, it's the Mesa 4.
"When you use your gear in really, really tough environments you quickly appreciate good design," said Cotton as she returned from a data collection excursion on one of the Ortelius' dozen zodiacs. "It had been snowing, it was brutally cold on the zodiac and that much colder in the water, which was actually below freezing. Even with my DUI drysuit, numerous layers of drysuit underwear, the best dry gloves money can buy, I was so cold that I could not operate the GoPro's hard, tiny buttons!" This was in stark contrast, she later mentioned, to the Mesa's large, flat function buttons that were easy to use even with gloves and never let her down.
This was just one instance of what Cotton simply termed "good design that works out there." Not every job, of course, takes you into antarctic waters, but then again it just might. As is, all seven of the women on Cotton's team could claim the exclusive distinction of having worked in the water past both the arctic as well as the antarctic circle.
Working in the Antarctic
What's it like to be in the Antarctic? It's incredibly remote. Much more so than the Arctic. Even though both the arctic and the antarctic circles are at 66.6 degrees latitude, about four million people actually live live within the northern arctic circle. Within the southern antarctic circle, it's mostly penguins.
Antarctica, the 5th largest continent, belongs to no one. There is no native population. There is an Antarctic Treaty that mandates that the continent shall be used for peaceful purposes only. There are no permanent settlements, just a few dozen research stations. There are "claims" by seven nations (Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK), but those are largely theoretical. Overall, the Antarctic is simply too inhospital for human habitation. It is the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and it has the highest average elevation. The Antarctic ice sheet, which covers most of the continent, is an average of 1.2 miles thick.
Just getting to the Antarctic is a challenge. For the most part, getting there means crossing the Drake Passage, the waterway connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. It's 620 miles of often treacherous waters that are an average of over 11,000 feet deep. Waves can top 40 feet. And it's generally a 48 hour boat ride or longer. Cotton's expedition was lucky. Negotiating the passage saw mostly calm weather, the "Drake Lake" as insiders say. So calm, in fact, that in the midst of the Drake Passage, the Ortelius was able to stop and deploy zodiacs for the team to collect water samples and diving in blue water while at the mercy of the currents.
The samples were collected in support of the FjordPhyto study on Phytoplankton. This included dropping a special net from the zodiacs, for a surface tow. It also included deploying a Secchi disk into the water to check turbidity and the overall nature of the water column. A special CDT (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) computing device is used to record additional data as well as GNSS coordinates, salinity and more.
As thrilling as it is to be in the Antarctic, it's exhausting, too. Putting on all the necessary gear to get on the zodiacs and in the water takes time. Getting around on the boat in all that gear, even one as comparatively big as the Ortelius (though the Ortelius is dwarfed by cruise ships), can be a challenge. Nothing dries in antarctic climates. There are lectures to attend.
Some observations were sobering. There were way too many ships. There seemed way too much traffic. In the Antarctic, one of the most remote places on earth, there's constant traffic. And while the team saw LOTS of penguins waddling and hopping around, data shows that there are fewer than there were just a few decades ago, and they saw mostly Adélies and Gentoos, fewer Chinstraps, and no Emperors at all. The latters' colonies are now few and far between.
The team saw a lot. It was a busy schedule. There was island after island, most named after explorers or related parties. There were sounds like gun shots but it was glaciers calving. That is quite a sight, to watch a massive ice mass breaking off and rolling in the water. There was a visit to Detaille Island off the northern end of the Arrowsmith Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica. From 1956 to 1959 it was home to "Base W" of the British Antarctic Survey where it served as key monitoring site. The island is now an eerily preserved time capsule of 1950s Antarctic life. There was a visit to Palmer Station, a US Antarctic research station opened in 1968. Scientific research is conducted there, mostly marine biology, but also year-round monitoring of global seismic, atmospheric, and UV events, as well as heliophysics and lightning.
Zodiacs were deployed at Enterprise Island to explore the bay and, especially, the wreck of the Guvernoren (shown above), a large factory whaler that was scuttled on the beach of Enterprise island after it caught fire in 1915 when the crew celebrated a successful whaling season and someone knocked over a whale oil lamp.
How it worked out
So, overall, what was Cotton's experience with the Mesa 4? Did it deliver and meet expectations?
For the most part, yes. We'll put that caveat right upfront, because Microsoft Windows, very mature though it is by now, was designed for use with a mouse on a big screen, and not for a 7-inch screen and finger touch. So one has to get used to that and make the most of it. It's not an issue with software specifically designed for the small display, but working with standard Windows software requires tweaking the interface via settings (larger fonts and icons, etc.) and getting used to it all. Since Cotton often used the Mesa in her cabin, she also wished she'd have a stand or dock
As far as functionality goes, the Mesa 4 pretty much aced everything else. Anytime you use a tablet outdoors and under a very wide range of lighting conditions, a good, bright display is absolutely necessary. And the Mesa 4 has that. It's rated at 800 nits luminance, and it seemed even brighter than that. That's three or four times as bright as a standard laptop. Cotton also liked how the display handled all those unavoidable reflections better than most. And the Mesa 4 display can be viewed from every angle.
Battery life can be an issue with any mobile device, but the Mesa 4 had no problem in that area. It generally lasted Cotton two or three days on a charge. The Mesa 4 can actually have two batteries, the replaceable standard battery and an optional smaller internal battery. Cotton's had both. She said she'd probably have been fine with just the internal one.
The Mesa 4, as a full Windows 11 device, of course also aced the storage and file management part. One can get used to the very rudimentary file management available on Android or iOS devices, but they pale compared to the extremely solid Windows file system. And with both a USB Type-A and a USB Type-C port, copying files from the various cameras was easy. The tablet's internal 256GB storage did fill up, but Cotton also used 512GB micro-SD cards in the Mesa's card slot.
Thanks to the Mesa 4's IP68 ingress protection rating, exposure to water wasn't even an issue. It can handle it. It's totally waterproof. Yes, even iPhones and leading Android phones are fully waterproof these days, but most rugged tablets still aren't, and IP65 to a rare IP67 is generally what you can get elsewhere.
In terms of size and weight, given the vast pile of gear Cotton had to take with her, the Mesa didn't add much. It's a handy device. That said, two pounds is two pounds, and a bit less weight would be more.
As powerful and irreplaceable as smartphones have become, there are a lot of tasks for which you simply need a "real computer," and the Mesa 4 is just that. As an expedition support computer it made work easier in so many ways. The Mesa screen may be just seven inches diagonally, but that's still a lot more display real estate than you have on cameras. It's hard to really see image and video footage on tiny screens, and Cotton always uploaded image data from the various cams to the Mesa as soon as she was back on the boat and in her cabin.
Wireless communication was an issue, but that was expected. There is no wireless data in the Antarctic. So unless you have your own satphone or hub, you're limited to what the ship offers. The Ortelius did have low-speed pay-WiFi that was good enough for Whatsapp smartphone calls and transferring a few pictures, but not even close to the speeds everyone's used to these days. Still, that was good enough for the online apps and software Cotton had hoped to use.
Cotton was able to examine and edit the footage she had shot during the day on the (comparatively) large tablet display with real desktop software, and properly file everything. And she could use Microsoft Word on the Mesa to record commentary, explanations, observations and thoughts while they were still fresh in her minds.
And some other good news. While cameras integrated into rugged tablets generally disappoint — perhaps due to the very high expectations from users spoiled by smartphone cameras — the Mesa 4 camera did quite well. The pictures below were all taken with the Mesa tablet. Can't complain about those.
Overall, the Mesa 4 from Juniper Systems did very well on this challenging expedition to the Antarctic. The tablet is a full-fledged Windows 11 computer condensed into a very compact package that doesn't weigh a lot, is quick enough to handle all the work Cotton threw at it, and was more than tough and rugged enough to alleviate any concerns that it might fail or get damaged. A 7-inch screen is small for Windows, and it works best with apps optimized for small displays, but if the full power of Windows is needed in a field project, particularly one as remote and diverse as Cotton's was, the Mesa 4 absolutely gets the job done. – Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, May 2024
MORE INFO:
Wikipedia Antarctica
Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty
Blue Green Expeditions
The m/v Ortelius expedition vessel
The Palmer Station Webcam
Detaille Island
The Penguin Map database
Juniper Systems website
Juniper Mesa 4 product page
Expedition/Science team: Dr. Virginia Bria, Ashley Bugge, Carol Cotton, Dr. Tiffany Duong, Dr. Louise Edwards, Dr. Paola Marignani, Aya Walraven,
