This is Antarctica. Stark white desolation as far as the eye can see. It is *** vast frozen continent at the bottom of the world, where temperatures drop to nearly 130 degrees below zero. *** barren continent whose largest permanent inhabitant is *** wingless fly. Once *** tropical forest, it now is covered by an ice cap up to 3 miles thick. It is *** frozen polar desert drier than the Sahara. Less than 3.1 of an inch of rain falls here. Only these dry valleys are without ice, valleys where no rain has fallen for more than 2 million years. This brilliantly blue sky is all that resembles anywhere else on Earth here on Antarctica. The landscape is alien. It's like *** different world, which indeed it is. Often colder than the planet Mars, scientists are conducting studies in frozen Antarctic lakes for hopes of finding clues in advance of exploring the red planet. *** sort of life's last stand on Mars could have been *** swim in one of these frozen lakes, and so if we study the Antarctic lakes, we might be able to come up with methods to find evidence for this last. Uh, biological event on Mars. Hundreds of scientists like McKay come here to Antarctica every year for *** variety of research projects. But we're getting ahead of our story that begins about 13,000 miles away back in California, about an hour west of Sacramento at Travis Air Force Base at Fairfield. It is *** long 21 hour flight from California across the Pacific to Antarctica all by military cargo jet, the only way to fly in to Antarctica. Our crew is with the United States Air Force Reserve citizen soldiers with *** part-time military commitment. Engineer Joe Straw is *** sheet metal worker in Vallejo. Ted Kameyer of Vacaville co-pilots *** DC-10 for American Airlines. Kevin Johnson of Vacaville flies for United Airlines, but this is the first time either has landed on *** runway carved out of ice, ice covering the Ross Sea, ice barely thick enough to support the fully loaded cargo jet. I 12 glide path 5 miles. I was *** little bit nervous. uh, there's always in the back of your mind what's it gonna be like and you've heard about all the different conditions, the whiteout conditions. How was it once you finally touched down and realized, hey, this is not all that bad. Well, it was *** good feeling, uh, it's just ***, *** proud feeling, *** feeling of accomplishment. And you just, I want you to slow down, just come over to the right. OK. Pilots, engineers, and load masters all have been handpicked for this assignment. Most never have been to Antarctica before. I didn't think there was gonna be that much snow. And it was all deserted. I thought there was gonna be more there than actually there was there. It's *** lot colder than I thought it was gonna be and uh. Darren Remote couldn't wait to get back. To get these uh missions like this. Richard solemn while he was on the ice, loadmaster Richard Fawning of Willets decided to reenlist for another six year term in the reserves. So God before this ice runway melts within *** couple of weeks, these reservists, along with other Travis air crews are the lifeline link with the outside world for America's major scientific outpost on Antarctica. This is where scores of scientists come to study animal life in search of secrets to man's health problems. It is man's last frontier, one which may hold keys not only to our past, but to our future as well. From Antarctica, Tip Kendall, Channel 3 reports.