[jmatt]

It's an honor and privilege to be chosen to go to Antarctica. Especially if you can actually participate in your field of study. My guess is whoever gets hired is already coding for a similar astronomy or physics project. I've heard of some IT jobs in the past but this is the first programming job.

I've known a number of people who have worked in Antarctica on and off over the past decade. I knew a post doc in physics who went down there and was taxiing people around during his first season. Whoever ends up with this job doesn't care about the money. They have probably been looking to go to Antarctica for a while. My guess is they already travel extensively and their family and friends are used to it. As for civilization... they are probably looking to get away from it.

But there is still a limited civilization in Antarctica and there are some benefits to being a member of it: a unique/rare experience, a cool culture, interesting people. I can't be the only one that thinks it would be cool to be a programmer in Antarctica hacking on a new $275 million neutrino observatory.