France, Sept. 18 -- Named Tara Polaris I, the mission will carry the igloo-shaped station through the central Arctic Ocean, where it is now drifting with the sea ice.

Part boat, part research station, the Tara Polar Station was built in Cherbourg and set out from its home port of Lorient on 19 July on its first expedition to the North Pole. It is the second vessel operated by the private Tara Ocean Foundation.

Its journey north took it first to Rotterdam in the Netherlands to take on HVO fuel, a hydrotreated vegetable oil dubbed "renewable diesel", before continuing to Tromso and Kirkenes in Norway on its way towards the transpolar current, which carries sea ice across the Arctic Ocean.

The vessel then travelled along the Northeast Pas...