The courageous journeys of Antarctic explorers in the 19th century had built up a store of knowledge about the region and their enormous achievements had inspired many others. As the 19th century ended, plans were being made to launch a number of new expeditions to the Antarctic, and this time there was one clear goal - to discover the South Pole.   Nineteenth century explorers had only made contact with a tiny fragment of the Antarctic Continent, and none of them had journeyed inland. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that explorers would land on the Antarctic coast and begin pushing towards the pole. It is from this period in Antarctic exploration that the most famous names come. Men like Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, Douglas Mawson, and Ernest Shackleton became famous around the world after their dramatic and sometimes tragic attempts to be the first to discover the South Pole.     The interior of Mawson's Hut   Although a lot more was known about the Antarctic region by the beginning of the 20th century, it was still a very dangerous and unpredictable place. Equipment and technologies were more advanced in the early 1900s but they were still primitive by today's standards. The people who live, work and continue to explore in Antarctica today have nothing but admiration and respect for the men of the Heroic Era who achieved so much with so little.   For more information about Antarctic exploration in the 20th century, go to the timeline.