The Camera Works!
We got first-light with the repaired camera today. Well, really first dark since the shutter wasn't open. Once we confirmed that the camera was working, we set about upgrading all of the software on our control computers, hoping that will fix some nagging inter-computer communications issues we've been having. Jessie and I have been busily installing software, finding out we did it wrong, re-installing,... repeating until it works, usually with some consulting from Colin. Fred likes to avoid software as much as possible, so he's been fixing some of the minor problems we left last year up on the tower. Hopefully these changes will make things easier for Dana if he has to get there to do anything in the winter.

The big news on the station is that the enormous Ice Cube project put their first string of detectors 2.4km into the ice. They're building a 1km x 1km x 1km neutrino detector 2km below the surface of the ice! They plan to make 80 holes for detectors and were very happy when they finished the first one. The drilling is a major operation requiring about twenty temporary buildings, making the area look a bit like a trailer park. Now that they're done for the season the buildings have to be dragged back to the storage area, so that they won't be totally buried by snow over the winter. Next season they'll start serious drilling, having worked out lots of bugs this year.

The even bigger news is the station closing party held tonight. It featured three bands, Speed Carrot, Fingie Lickin' Good, and Squeaky Meat. They were all really good, with very different musical styles; in spite of the fact that there seemed to be a lot of incest between the bands. That was appropriate though, as the theme of the party was White Trash Night. There were some really good costumes (almost too good...) and lots of dancing. Fortunately, there are no pictures. The party was held in a wing of the new station that was just certified for opening that morning. I think there were a lot of people nervous about the idea of a wild party in the brand new wing, but it went off well and there was no destruction, and not even much mess.

cheers,
Doug
posted by Doug Caldwell at 11:59 PM

Ahead of schedule, for now...
It was another productive day over at the AASTO and on the tower. Our experiment is set up with one computer and some control electronics in the Antarctic Astronomy Site Testing Observatory. The telescope and Generic-mount (Gmount) sit atop an 8m tower along with the External Equipment Shelter (a heated aluminum crate), which holds a second computer and some more control electronics. The AASTO provides a warm, but small place to work, while the tower platform provides a cold and even smaller place to work. We’re making Fred do most of the tower work. Currently, the tower is covered with a tent that our winterover, Dana, setup so that he could remove the camera in September, once we knew it was broken. The tent makes working up there much more pleasant, or at least less onerous, and gives me the opportunity to tell the other team members how easy they have it this year compared to last. …But I digress.

Fred was able to remove the back of the telescope, check for any damage from last winter, and replace the many tiny screws holding the back on with large wing-nuts that Dana will be able to remove with gloves if the need arises. He also put the front cover on so that the large glass window won’t get damaged with us working up there.

Down in the AASTO, equipped with the password emailed by Kevin, we managed to get the remote control of the computer up and running. Jessie made a back-up of all the software on both computers in preparation for installing a new operating system. Colin was most the most industrious of all, completing the Gmount hardware modifications that were scheduled for Day-6. It turns out all he had to do was flip one switch on one of the electronics cards in the AASTO. The hard part will come in calibrating the Gmount to work well in its new open-loop mode; that will probably take longer than 2 minutes. Colin did get a good start by reading (and understanding) the Gmount schematics to see just what was being done by changing that switch and starting to work out a plan for how to operate it. I managed to wire up the repaired camera and fire it up. We were all delighted to see a green light on the controller (green is good, red is bad), but the first tests taking images were a bit ambiguous. We’re figuring out how to test it to be sure it’s working before installing it back in the telescope on the tower.

I suspect that our ahead-of-schedule progress might slow a bit in the next few days as we’ve mostly been picking the easiest things to do. Plus, Kevin scheduled us for full days on Saturday and Sunday. There should be some researcher’s union I could complain to.

The station is very hectic this year. There is a record population of 250 people in a place being built to handle 150. There are not nearly enough seats in the café, and today Cookie Jon (the boss) was running around hustling people out who were finished eating and just talking. It’s going to be crazy all the way up to station closing on February 15th because everybody wants to get one last bit of work done before leaving. Also, in order to try to make up for missed flights, they’re planning 8 flights a day starting next week. The cargo crew is going to be busier than their usual frantic pace. We’ll try to stay out of the way in our little corner of the South Pole.

posted by Doug Caldwell at 11:13 PM

Back to work...
We spent our first full day of work ticking items off of our task list. We’re up to day 4 on the schedule already, though we strategically skipped over the more difficult items. We started off the morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed –nothing like a 500m walk in –33C air to wake you up- and were surprised when the spiffy new voice-over-IP phone in the AASTO rang! We were dumbfounded as to who could have gotten the number to a little green shack a few hundred meters from the South Pole. Of course, it had to be Kevin, our base-camp director, calling from California. The connection was great. It’s quite amazing to be able to have a phone conversation from here, and all for the cost of a US domestic long distance call. If you want to give us a call, we’re at 702-… nah, I’d better not.

Kevin prepared a detailed, but so far not too taxing, list of daily tasks for us to do down here. The four of us managed to complete all of the Day-1 tasks by lunch, so after a good meal we started in on the following days. We were able to remove our computer and CCD camera controller from their box atop the 25ft tower and lower them down by rope (the added handle on the computer was a big help), so that we could test the CCD camera and upgrade the computer in the comfort of the AASTO. Colin, Jessie, and I then spent much of the rest of the afternoon trying to get our new internet-controlled remote keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switch to work. The little box will allow us to troubleshoot the outside computer without having to sit on the tower trying to read a rapidly freezing LCD screen while typing commands with mittens. It turns out that someone (base-camp director) had changed the default password on the switch and forgot to tell us.

posted by Doug Caldwell at 10:16 PM

South Pole Station!
After spending the night in the McMurdo "bunkhouse," Fred, Colin, and I were ready to get out of town. Jessie had an almost-private room with only 4 people, but I think she was ready to go, too. We had a bit of breakfast and then lugged our bags up to get checked in for the flight south. Colin and I were a bit late and and got suitably chastised when we arrived. The southbound passengers then loaded into a more comfortable and slightly faster bus, Ivan the Terrabus for the trip out to Willie Field, where the ski-equipped LC-130s operate from. I was happy to see we were taking the City of Cohoes, the plane Kevin Martin and I took on our first trip, which is named after a small town in upstate New York right next to where I went to graduate school. All of the LC-130s are operated by the New York Air National Guard, who head to Greenland after finishing up their Antarctic Operations.
The LC-130 flight is wonderful. It's usually got fewer people, thus more space to move your legs, and it offers what has to be some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet. The Trans-Antarctic mountains are strikingly beautiful and desolate, with uncountable glaciers dominated by the mighty Beardmore.

We arrived at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station after about three hours, stepping out into the bright sunny -30C air. It was great to be back here. We were greeted by Brenda, our summer support technician, who updated us on how things were going with the experiment. The new Polies then made the short walk to the New Station building, dropped off our bags, got our room assignments, and headed up for lunch. Once again, I lucked out and scored a room in the New Station, this time with a window that overlooks the Dome. Fred and Colin are in the Summer Camp Jamesways -insulated canvas quonset huts, and Jessie is in one of the Hypertats (Betty), which as far as I can tell are slightly upscale quonset huts. I almost envy their authentic South Pole experience, but alas, changing rooms is very difficult, so I'll stay in my room (where I'm typing this using my private internet connection at my desk).
It was neat to see lots of familiar faces from last year, though I don't know many names. I did run into a few people who I met last year and who were all happy to be here this season, too. We were happy to see Jessica Dempsey at lunch; she moved the AASTO and tower last year for us, and is going to winterover this year. It seems there are lots of repeat customers here.
We took it easy on our first day at the ~10,000ft (3300m) altitude. Jessie and I talked with Al Baker, the Science Support coordinator, to decide how much help of what kind we'd be needing in the next few weeks. At night, Jessie, Colin, and I had to make a short stop in the bar to celebrate Australia day. I just went along to make sure they didn't get too rowdy, but somehow they managed to leave before me. Fred was smart enough to be sleeping.

cheers,
Doug
posted by Doug Caldwell at 11:47 PM

McMurdo, Antarctica
The four of us met at the CDC, along with 69 others, in the morning to get ready for our flight south. We first had to dress up in our ECW gear to get weighed in with all of our bags for the flight. You can tell the experienced ones, who only put on the outer layers over more normal clothes, and then promptly remove them. After weigh-in, we had an hour to sit around in 70F Christchurch in our long underwear, heavy winter bib overalls, and the enormous red down parka, awaiting our safety briefing from the US Air Force C-141 crew. After going through security -no sharp items, no hazardous materials- we squeezed into a school bus with kid-sized seats for the short trip over to the Christchurch airport, where we all squeezed into a much larger C-141, with not much larger seats. The flight took off on time an we flew to McMurdo without incident: many of the flights in the last month never left the ground, or had to turn back due to bad weather in Antarcitca, so we felt lucky. The flight is hot and uncomfortable, but only takes five hours, so I shouldn't really complain too much about the hardships of reaching Antarctica today.
The US McMurdo Base is on Ross Island in the McMurdo Sound, currently in the news for the giant ice berg B-15 that is cruising in the area. It was cloudy and warm (about 30F, or -1C) when we arrived. We got off the plane and into a large all-terrain vehicle of some sort, called a "delta." It's basically a large metal box on the back of a flatbed truck with enormous tires. It bounces a lot and goes slowly, but we made it to the base in time to get checked in and still make dinner. For the 12 passengers heading on to the Pole, there was some good news: our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:00am the next morning.
Colin and I made the short hike up Observation Hill, atop which is a cross set up in 1912 in memory of Scott and his expedition mates who died on their way back from the Pole. We don't expect to need such a memorial. The hill offers spectacular views of the island, part of the Ross Ice Shelf, and the nearby continent.

cheers,
Doug
posted by Doug Caldwell at 11:11 PM

New pair of shoes..
Our Australian colleagues made it to Christchurch last night and managed to make their way downtown and get checked into their hotel only a few blocks from Fred and I. We met up and had dinner downtown Sgt. Pepper's Steakhouse. Jessie was very excited to find an all Beatles restaurant, that served steak no less. Dinner was good, but the music will never catch on.

Today we all motored out to the Clothing Distribution Centre (CDC) to get fitted in our Antarctic gear. Things went well and in an hour or so we were all set up with our 35lbs of underwear, pants, jackets, hats, and gloves. The US Antarctic Program is trying out few new styles of cold weather boots, so I figured I'd turn in my tried and true white bunny boots for a pair of brand new light-weight mountain boots. I figure, what could possibly go wrong with experiment boots at the South Pole...?

We're scheduled to meet at the CDC tomorrow at 8am (nice and late!) to suit up for an 11am departure for McMurdo. However, the head of the CDC gave some ominous hints about flights being cancelled, so we'll see.

cheers,
Doug
posted by Doug Caldwell at 5:52 PM

Summer in Christchurch

Fred and I arrived in Christchurch yesterday morning after three long, but uneventful flights. We quickly managed to unload our equipment (the CCD camera and some spare parts) on the local Raytheon Polar Services folks and got checked in at our hotel downtown.
Christchurch is warm and sunny and pleasant as ever. We arrived in the middle of the World Buskers Festival so the streets are filled with strange performances and lots of people, giving us lots to watch during our time in Christchurch.
We get our Antarctic ECW (Elegant clothing wear?) gear tomorrow and are scheduled to fly to McMurdo early Tuesday morning.
cheers,
Doug
posted by Doug Caldwell at 5:24 PM