gail scowcroft: this is a historic cruise that will hopefully provide very important pieces of the climatele to the world. you all deserve a round of applause. [applause] narrator: having few roads or airports, the arctic is not easy to reach. an air national guard cargo plane transports the team, along with thousands of pounds of science instruments, from newburgh to thule, greenland. for the students, selected from a large, competitive group of candidates, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. francis crable: i'm in chicago right, so we don't have an ocean or anything and i wanted to do marine biology research. this is like, huge. you know, nobody gets to do this and go on a research expedition as an undergrad. krystian kopka: getting accepted was probably one of the best days of my life. i just started checking my emails like every hour. all of a sudden, congratulations you got accepted, and it was surreal. [hum of equipment] rose santana: it's really just completely out of my comfort zone. wow, like how did i get here? you know, this little girl who once wanted to study marine scie