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China's polar-expedition vessel, the Xuelong Icebreaker, is about to undergo a major overhaul in Shanghai.

The refit will enable it to carry expedition teams to the Antarctica. And one of its main missions is to find a location for China's first astronomical telescope at the South Pole.

The Antarctic telescope will function as a space telescope for the predictions into the global climate, Yang Huigen, deputy director of the city-based Polar Research Institute of China, was quoted as saying in the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post newspaper.

The renovation project at the Yangshupu Shipyard, with a price tag of over 100 million yuan, will upgrade the telecommunications, navigation and automatic control systems of the vessel. The hull will be reinforced and the cabins equipped with new facilities.

The vessel will also intall a new freshwater tank to help sustain its additional crew members, who will include artists - participating in such expeditions for the first time.

Yang Huigen also revealed in the report that, as part of the Antarctica expedition, to begin probably in October, researchers will collect very deep ice samples for the study of climate change over the past one million years.

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