Robotic route for Polar pioneers (BBC)

By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website, in Vienna

The next generation of Antarctic explorers could be robots capable of driving hundreds of kilometres and doing scientific experiments alone.
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They have built a solar-powered prototype and tested it in Greenland, where it has "exceeded expectations".
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The aim was to build a vehicle capable of travelling 500km in two weeks during the Antarctic summer; but on the evidence of the Greenland tests, the researchers believe they have exceeded their goal.
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The robots are designed to master most obstacles they will find on the Antarctic surface; if they find something they cannot cope with, their computers carry algorithms which should make them stop and check back for instructions.

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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4877028.stm

because the poles are melting

They had a hell of a time and had to abort the mission.

Their biggest problems arose because the ice was so soft. There were patches of slush, crevasses filled with melt water, and ridges where plates of ice pressed up against each other, including one huge plate that continued to carry them southward as they tried to move to the north. Is the robot ready to handle all of that?

But mission controllers have never allowed them to, and have micromanaged them except for brief tests.

they take all the cool jobs