RV Polarstern (meaning pole star) is a German research icebreaker of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI] in Bremerhaven. Polarstern was commissioned in 1982 and is mainly used for research in the Arctic and Antarctica. She is planned to be replaced by Polarstern II around the year 2017, after it was decided that the European Research Icebreaker Aurora Borealis is not going to be built in her original form.