north pole expedition museum

Nort pole aviatic exploration museum run by real enthusiast! Great storytelling that takes you on the trip about the history of big explorers and scientists.

This museum provides both the history and the emotions of those trying to reach the North Pole by a wide variety of means.It brings out the personalities involved and the courage that they had.The details available make a more complete story than is available in a book on the one hand or an upmarket glossy museum on the other.The feeling was if one was part of the action, yet there was a feeling of how difficult it must have been.The continuing differences between Norwegian and Italian personalities involved is well covered.While there is a natural link between the much broader and blander Svalbard Museum and this one it would be sensible to see the Svalbard Museum provide a better recognition and enrty into this specific museum.

One of the must do's if you're ever in Longyearben. Do some research first about the America, Norge and Italia expeditions and it will all make sense. Brave men all. Puts it all in perspective. You'll walk out feeling slightly smaller than when you walked in, and may look at the sky in a different way.

This is a fantastic museum in a somewhat non-descript building located along vei 400 Gruve 7 Veien. We visited it after Svalbard Museum, UNIS and had intended to observe Aurora at the edge of the snowmobile area. The museum is just across the road from UNIS. So much information and exhibits on offer to showcase the 3 airship expeditions. Unfortunately we arrived close to closing time and had to give a very cursory walk through, an injustice done to the early pioneers who hoped to tell their stories. Our son was excited by airship expedition that he was aspired to pursue a future airship expedition ! An excellent presentation of the environment, personalities and landscape of those times.

If you are travelling round Spitsbergen and making a stop at Ny-Ålesund this museum will have more impact after visiting the tower which is still there. The topic of arctic exploration with Amundsen and Nobile is fascinating. There is so much information that you could probably spend a whole week reading. Unfortunately for me I found too much info to read and got a little bored. This is probably more about my attention span than the content.

The museum looks small and simple from outside, but inside it, there are alot valuable histories pieces and stories, including the Swedish Andree' airballon tragedy, Norwegian Amundsen's expedition to both South pole and North pole and how he became like a jerk and pissed off most his partners/friends/sponsors (especially for the Italians).For me, the most sad story among all is about the Red Tant.When the airship disintegrated, those in the "basket" part (those in the Red Tant) were all resecured (except one died on the way to looking for help) because there was a general in them (he was the first one resecured by flight, and his dog). But at the same time, those in the "envelope" part (most are engineers and a journalist) they got missing in the air and noe tried to resecure them at all - none at all. They are all Italian and the Italian government simplely just decided that there was no need to resecure them (but the general in the Red Tant was first resecured with his dog...). I just felt so unfair and sad for those people because it seemed none cared about them.If you are interested in the expedition history etc, you must visit here. :-)

This is a very informative an nice museum. Founded as a private iniative by longtime Spitsbergen resident Stefano from italy, it tells about the successful, unsuccessful and sometimes tragic attempts to reach the North Pole, not only by airship, as the name suggests, but also by airplane and other means. Photos, old newspaper articles and films give a vivid impression of the expedition, of their highly political background and of the expedition leaders' character and motivation. Highly recommended.

This museum documents polar exploration by airship. It is laid our chronologically over two floors. There are a few video displays using original footage. The many showcases contain artifacts from the Norwegian and Italian expeditions. The descriptions are very detailed and only the most interested visitor will read them all. Occasionally you have to watch out for the sloping ceilings on the second floor. We highly recommend this museum to the history buff. As with most buildings in Longyearbyen there are shoe lockers in the front hall.

A museum on polar exploration by the air. Built by an italian artic guide on his own funds, this museum displays original documents on the multiple attends to reach the north pole by planes and airships. The norge and the Italia expeditions are illustrated in all details. Amazing!

Worth to visit. Fantastic history to get known. Specially in the 1 st floor. Do not miss this attraction

I loved this museum, but was overwhelmed before I even got to the second floor. it's beautifully designed and laid out-- it just has too many things to read in type that is too small.

I unfortunately left this wonderful museum too late to give it justice. If you are truly interested, you'll need min one hour.If you only see one place in Longyearbyen, make sure this is it.'Airship' is misleading as it's all about North Pole exploration.1. Very helpful and interested staff2. Every station has English explanation unlike the general museum which has very sparse English information. Same price too.3. Well laid out so you can progress through the years of exploration.4. Photos, posters ( Amundsun spruiking Zeiss lens which you probably use in your camera), films, models of ships, maps. Really, really interesting information,

A good museum to understand the far North, well done and friendly staff, doth skip the upstairs. good short and longer movies

I can't understand why locally organised tours exclude this fascinating museum. I found it much more interesting than the Svalbard Museum across the road, and while that museum was packed, this one was empty. There is a lot of wall text, but it's possible to look at the objects and piece the stories together without reading every single word. It's well organised and there are two areas where you can sit down and watch fairly extensive contemporary footage of the Norge voyage and other air ship voyages over the Pole. Mussolini puts in an appearance early in the Norge film (it was a joint Norwegian and Italian project), and just seeing his odd walk and stance was fascinating. I agree it's not for children, unless you want to simply point out some of the more interesting objects rather than trying to take it all in, but for adults who have made the trek to Longyearbyen, it would be crazy to miss this. The objects, film footage, and texts really capture the magnificent strangeness and almost reckless courage of the arctic explorers. While I liked the Polar Museum in Tromso very much, this one brought home the mystery and grandeur of the Arctic much more.

This is also a small but dense museum. It covers several efforts to reach the North pole by airship. If you go to Ny Alesund as well, then you can see the mast that these air giants would have been tethered to. Be ready to do a lot of reading. There are some great videos and many pictures as well.