Experts have termed it the largest Arctic research expedition in mankind history.
The Polarstern, a 120m-long German research vessel, will be sailed all the way to the sea-ice and then allowed to stick with the hopes it will drift across the North Pole, reports BBC.
The planned trip is set to start in 2019 and will go for up to one year, covering 2,500 km.
The intention is that the sailing ship will provide researchers with valuable understanding of a region whose climate is known to be changing rapidly.
Arctic sea-ice recorded the most worrying decline ever last month for a January as the temperatures rose slightly above their long-term average.
The project, codenamed MOSAiC, will be led by Prof Markus Rex.
He said that the Arctic sea-ice is declining at a rate much faster than the climate models can reproduce. Scientists require much better models so that they make a good prediction for the future.
The possibility of the Arctic being ice-free in summer is becoming more apparent as the years go by. If that happens, then the world’s stature would also be different and we have to be prior-informed on the likely occurrences.
The German scientist said that the $67m expedition has received a good funding and international partners have generously contributed.
Other involved states include some members of the European Union as well as the Americans, the Chinese and the Russians.
This mission is deeply rooted in a 1890s attempt by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen to be the first person to reach the North Pole by drifting in a ship locked in ice.
Also, a schooner by the name Tara moved across the frozen ice in a similar manner almost a decade ago – from Siberian waters to the Fram Strait.
But the new RV Polarstern has a lot of science thinking behind it. This vessel carries with equipment including remote sensing in-situ instruments and measurement containers.
Pro Rex says that they will be able to collect air, water and ice samples. These will then be used to generate a fascinating insight on the region’s climate system.
But the researchers will be faced with a set of challenges including extremely cold conditions, especially in midwinter when the Sun is not above the horizon. They will also have to watch out for the polar bears.
But this endeavor is important for them to get an understanding of the remote region, says Prof Rolex.