Coming Home ????

Well, it's New Year's Eve here on the Ice, and I know when I'm leaving, but I don't know when I'm coming home. I am scheduled for a flight out of Antarctica, back to New Zealand on Jan 2. The flight will be on a C-130 this time, so it will be much longer (8 hours vs 5 hours) and much more uncomfortable, but oh well, at least I'm leaving. That will put me in Christchurch on Friday evening NZ time, but I do not know when I will be leaving to come back to the States. The word from the travel office is that there are no available flights out of Christchurch until Jan 6, but I will have to wait until I get there to find out for sure. That would put me in New Zealand for 4 days. Before coming to Antarctica, if someone would have offered me a 4 day all expenses paid trip to New Zealand, I would have been more than happy to take it - but now I just really want to get home. Not sure what I will do there with all of the free time, but I have talked to some Kiwis (New Zealanders) here in Antarctica and they gave me some ideas.

Tonight for New Year's Eve, there is a big music festival called Ice Stock. They have a stage set up in town, and there will be live music all the usual New Year's Eve stuff. There are several other parties in town as well, so I probably won't be bored. Tomorrow I have to finish packing all of my stuff. I have what they call "bag drag" at 8:00 tomorrow night. This is when you take all of your luggage to be checked in and weighed and you confirm your flight for the next day. They have had to cancel several flights in the last few days for weather, so hopefully my flight won't get cancelled. I can't wait to get to New Zealand and be warm and see vegetation, but most of all I can't wait for it to be dark at night. I will let everyone know if I get any updates on my travel plans, but probably won't know anything else for a couple of more days.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!!

Last one down...

We finally launched the final balloon. The weather ended up being pretty good for the launch. The winds ended up being calm at the launch time and the temperature today actually made it up to a balmy 42 degrees. Now I can come home, and hopefully I can get a flight out of Antarctica on December 30. If that flight is full, then the next available option would be January 2. Either one of those flights would put me back in the States after New Year's unfortunately, but at least I am coming home soon. Below are a couple of pictures of today's launch of the ULDB balloon. This balloon is a little different than the other, so there is a second balloon called a tow balloon that is inflated to help support the weight of the hardware attached to the main balloon during inflation. The tow balloon is released prior to launch. I will keep everyone posted on my travel arrangements as soon as I know.
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Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas to everyone! Yesterday was actually Christmas here, and it was actually a pretty good day. Christmas Eve, there was a town Christmas party, and Christmas day they had a big special Christmas dinner. The dinner was actually extremely good - we had prime rib, crab legs, roasted duck and tons of very good deserts. Also, there was midnight mass at the Chapel - this mass is unique, not only because it is one of the first midnight Christmas Masses in the world, but it is the only midnight Christmas Mass in the world to be held in the daylight. Of course, we had to work Christmas morning, but after work I was able to ride around on our snow mobiles for a while (very fun!) and when I got back to town, I went for a hike and watched some football. All in all, it was a pretty good day, but I definitely missed being with family - it just didn't really seem like Christmas.
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As far as work goes, it looks like the weather will start to improve somewhat by tomorrow, and we might have a shot at launching tomorrow evening or Sunday. It doesn't really look all that promising at this time, but it is definitely the best weather we will have seen since we launched ANITA 5 days ago.

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Here are a couple of new pictures. The first one is a picture of me and Henry Cathey (one of our NASA engineers) at the Christmas party on Christmas Eve. The second is a picture of some very cool clouds over Ross Island yesterday. Again, I hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas - hope to be home soon.
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Balloon Pictures...

After the ANITA payload was launched yesterday and got up to its float altitude of 120,000 feet, the balloon passed almost directly back over the McMurdo area. The scientist in charge of the ANITA payload has a pretty high powered telescope, and one of the guys was able to capture some pretty amazing pictures of the balloon through the telescope. You can really see how big the balloons are when they are fully inflated. This balloon is nearly 30 million cubic feet in volume. The largest balloons we fly on a regular basis are nearly 40 million cubic feet, a third bigger than this one.
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The first picture is of the balloon at about 110,000 feet, just before it is fully expanded. The second is at the maximum height of 120,000 feet. On both, you can clearly see the payload hanging from the bottom. Just below the bottom of the balloon, you can see the orange parachute. For a size comparison, the payload is about 27 feet tall, and the parachute is 65 long. Everyone was pretty excited when they saw these pictures, as they are some of the most detailed taken of a balloon at its float altitude.

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Two Down, One to Go...

We launch the ANITA payload today in nearly perfect weather. Everything went off without a hitch after yesterday's glitches. Some of the electronics guys worked a very long and hard day to get everything working for today. Now with just one more flight to launch, hopefully the end of my Antarctic trip is coming soon. Unfortunately, the weather still looks like it will take a turn for the worse tomorrow, and it will probably be several days before we get another launch attempt. Here is a video and a couple of pictures from the launch today.

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If at First You Don't Succeed....

Well, so much for getting 2 payloads off the ground in 2 days. We tried really hard, and everyone really worked their tails off, but it just wasn't meant to be. The weather held up pretty good, but in the end, it was some electronics issues that prevented us from launching. Hopefully those issues can be resolved tonight, and we will show for another launch attempt tomorrow at 11am.

One Down, Two to Go....

We FINALLY launched our first balloon today - the CREAM payload was launched at about 11am Antarctic time on Friday. It feels really good to get the first one in the air. It was a very good launch, and the winds behaved themselves pretty well. Amazingly enough, it looks like we are going to try and launch the ANITA payload tomorrow - and the weather actually looks somewhat promising. They have never launched 2 payloads in back-to-back days down here, and it is going to take an incredible amount of work by a lot of people to get things ready for another launch attempt tomorrow. Everyone keep your fingers crossed! Below are a few pictures of today's launch.

The CREAM payload hanging from the launch vehicle prior to launch - Mt Erebus in the background.

The entire flight train with the balloon being inflated.

Balloon just prior to launch

The balloon rising just after being released.

The payload being released from the launch vehicle.

Update...

Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote, but I have been really busy here. Unfortunately, we have not launched any balloons yet - the weather is not cooperating. In order to launch we need surface winds and low level winds to be under 5 mph, and that just hasn't been happening here in the last week. We have tried 4 days now to launch the ULDB test balloon, but each of these days it has turned out to be too windy. We are now switching gears somewhat and we are going to have our first launch attempt of the CREAM payload tomorrow. The CREAM payload and balloon can withstand a little more wind during launch, so hopefully we will have better luck in getting this one off.

It has been a very long and tiring week, so I have not had a lot of time to do much outside of work, but I did get an opportunity this past weekend to walk out to the end of Hut Point Peninsula. This area is only about a 3/4 mile walk from McMurdo. At the end of the peninsula is Discovery Hut. This hut was built in 1902 during one of the first expeditions to Antarctica, and is still in remarkably good condition. Much of the inside and outside is exactly how it was left 106 years ago. There are even still the mummified remains of a seal that was killed in 1902 for heat and food. The body is incredibly well preserved because of the very dry and very cold weather. Below are a few pictures from this trip. I will keep everyone updated with everything going on at work.

Discovery Hut with Ob Hill and McMurdo Station in the background

A memorial cross at the end of the peninsula. All of the men who came and built the hut eventually died trying to reach the South Pole.

A couple of Weddell seals hanging out on the sea ice. They just lay there and do nothing - not very exciting to watch.

Pressure Ridges...

Last night I got the opportunity to go on a walking tour of the pressure ridges. The pressure ridges are located near the New Zealand Antarctic base (Scott Base). They are the result of the collision of the annual sea ice and the Ross Ice Shelf. The sea ice melts (or at least thins considerably) during the summer months. When this happens, it weakens and is forced into pressure waves of ice as the ice shelf pushes against it. These waves eventually crack, and the pressure ridges are formed. They create large chunks of ice that stick up in all directions, creating an other worldly landscape. At the base of the ridges, the cracks can actually extend to the water below, creating holes for penguins and seals to come up through. Unfortunately, I saw neither on my trip, only footprints. It was definitely a very cool trip, and I will add it to the list of things that I have done down here, that I never thought I would ever get a chance to do in my life. Below are some pictures.

On the work side of things, there is a slight chance that we might launch the ULDB test balloon tomorrow evening. It looks like after tomorrow we will have an extended period of not so good weather, so everyone is working very hard to get the balloon and the payload ready in the hopes that we might be able to launch before the bad weather gets here. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Penguin tracks through the snow - you can see that it was sliding on it stomach and pushing with its back feet.

Me standing between 2 ridges with Mt Erebus in the background

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Pressure ridge, with Mt Erebus (background right) and Castle Rock (background left)

I thought this one looked like a shark

Another Hang Test...

Everything here is progressing along according to schedule. Today we completed a hang test on the ANITA payload. Everything appears to be working well with the payload and it is now officially ready to fly - just waiting for the upper level winds to set up. Hopefully the winds will be acceptable for us to launch our first balloon in about 10-12 days or so (hopefully). Below is a picture of the ANITA payload hanging from the launch vehicle during today's hang test. Should have some more good pictures to post in the next couple of days. Tomorrow night I go on another tour - this one is of the pressure ridges at the edge of the ice shelf. I'm really looking forward to it.

Pathfinder Balloon Launch...

Today we launched a balloon, not one of our main payloads, but rather a Pathfinder balloon. A Pathfinder is a significantly smaller balloon that has a GPS transmitter attached to it. We launch these balloons to help confirm that upper level winds are setting up as expected. One of the main reason we come to Antarctica is that in the summer, there are fairly consistent and predictable winds in the stratosphere that we can fly the balloons in. These winds create a vortex around the South Pole around this time of year and this allows payloads to fly for around 50 days and come down still over the Antarctic continent. We have computer models of these winds between 120000ft and 130000ft, but on occasion, we need to confirm that these models are in fact correct - and that is why we launch the Pathfinder balloons. These balloons can stay up at 130000ft for several days and continually transmit their position back to us, and thus we can get a fairly accurate measurement of the winds at these heights. Below are a few pictures of the Pathfinder balloon launch.

Inflating the balloon

Releasing the balloon

The balloon ascending

Good Weather - Finally...

The really bad weather has finally ended and has been replaced (at least temporarily) by the best weather we have had since I've been in Antarctica. Today the temperature is 23, with little wind and mostly sunny skies - all in all, pretty nice. Actually seems warm outside. It does, however, look like another round of bad weather will be coming in this weekend. Hopefully it won't be as bad as this past weekend. This past storm had some pretty dramatic effects out a work, mainly in the form of snow drifts. The storm actually got quite a bit worse after we left work on Saturday. When we returned Sunday morning, we literally had to dig our way into a couple of the buildings. There were several drifts 5 feet high, and our galley was almost completely covered in snow, and it is about 9 feet tall. All of this happened in one day.

5 foot snow drift behind the building I work in

That's one of our rigging guys, Curtis, digging out the galley. The drifts on the side of the building are about 8 feet tall.

Things got back to normal at work yesterday, and we actually made quite a bit of progress towards a launch. Of course we still have to wait for the winds to properly set up, but now the CREAM payload is officially ready to be launched. Yesterday, we did a hang test on CREAM. A hang test is when we pick the payload up with the launch vehicle , hook all the electronics up, and test to make sure everything works okay. Basically the payload is hooked up and put into launch configuration - all that is missing is the balloon. The payload passed the test, and now can be launched whenever the winds set up. Below is a picture of the fully assembled CREAM payload hanging on the end of the launch vehicle. The ANITA payload is suppose to be ready for a hang test on Friday, but it looks like the weather will be too bad for that.

Really Bad Weather

The weather got even worse today. We actually made it to work this morning and the the weather got really bad after we got there. We had 60 mph wind gusts and visibilities were at times less than 100 feet. The place that had 95 mph winds yesterday, had 102 mph winds today. It wasn't so bad being at work in the buildings, but going to bathroom was quite treacherous. In fact on one trip, the wind actually knocked me off of my feet. Luckily I wasn't hurt. The whole experience was actually pretty fun. Below is a video of the walk to the bathroom (sorry, as exciting as it would have been, I didn't capture the fall).



It got so bad that we actually had to leave work before they shut down all transportation. If visibilities drop below 100 ft, all transportation is shut down and you aren't even allowed to go outside. So we left work early so we didn't get trapped at work all night - after all, we didn't want to miss our big Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Things do look like they will finally improve tomorrow. Here are a couple of pictures of the storm.

Co-worker of mine (Larry Fox), walking back from the bathroom. It just looks miserable.

This picture about says it all.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Hope all is well. The weather down here has taken a turn for the worse and it appears it will remain that way for the next 48 hours or so. So, because of that, I cannot get a call out of Antarctica to the States, so for those of you that I said I would try and call, sorry. I will keep trying, but I might not be able to get a call out for some time now.

We got about 4 inches of snow last night. That is actually a lot for down here. Much of Antarctica is actually a desert, and there are places close to here (called the Dry Valleys) where they get virtually no precipitation throughout the year. They are some of the driest places in the world, even drier than the Sahara. The 4 inches of snow was nice and actually masked some of the ugliness that is McMurdo. The downside to the snow is that today the winds really picked up. We had 45 mph winds this morning and all that snow just blows around and reduces visibility, and also creates huge snow drifts. At times this morning visibilities out on the ice were less than 100 feet, and winds about 10 miles away were about 95 mph. When conditions are that bad we cannot make the drive to work, so I actually have a day off (my first since coming down 3 weeks ago). I feel like a kid having a snow day off from school.

Hopefully I can get some pictures of the storm and post them tomorrow, although they will probably just be a lot of white.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Ice Caves...

I finally got to go on the ice cave tour yesterday, and it was absolutely amazing - definitely the highlight of my trip so far. The ice caves are located at the Mount Erebus Glacier Ice Tongue, about 7 miles north of McMurdo Station. The ice tongue is part of the Erebus glacier that comes off of Ross Island and floats on the water. The sea water remains frozen most of the year (and really cold the rest) so unlike other glaciers, when it reaches the water, it does not break off and make icebergs very readily. Also, the area is protected by 2 peninsulas so this keeps large wave away after the ice melts, which also helps prevent iceberg formation. So what results is about a 5 mile long 50 foot high glacier sticking out from the island.

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All along the edge of the glacier there are ice caves. Many are unstable and could collapse at any time as the glacier moves, but there are a couple you can go into safely. The one I went into had an opening about the size a manhole cover, then you slid down an ice chute about 20 feet to where it opened up into a much larger opening. The whole cave was probably about 100 feet deep, and the main room was probably about the size of a 2-car garage. There were many very cool stalactite like formation made of ice crystals, and the whole place glowed blue from the light passing through the ice. It was very neat. At one point the guide had everyone be quiet for a few minutes and you could actually hear the ice moving around you as the glacier creeps slowly along.

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Because the glacier is floating on the water of the ocean, there are of course tides. The water of the ocean goes up and down and liquid water from below is actually forced up through cracks in the ice as the tide changes. This creates pools of water in front of the glacier which of course quickly freeze into light blue ponds of almost perfectly clear ice near the caves. It is really a neat experience that I will not soon forget. Below are just a few of the many pictures I took.

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The edge of the glacier with a collection pool below it. It was very gloomy outside, so the blue of the pools didn't quite come out as well as I would have hoped.

Another view of the edge of the glacier with a pool at the base.

The chute entrance to the cave with a guy I work with already at the bottom.

Ice crystal "stalactites"

A view through the cave to another entrance

Inside the main room of the cave - that is actually the color it was in there.

A view along the side of the glacier.

New York Times Article and other stuff...

One of the experiments that my facility launched from Antarctica last year has apparently made some pretty significant astronomical discoveries. Not really knowing that much about it, I guess they made one of the first actual measurements of dark matter. Anyway, the group has published a paper in the magazine Nature and today there was an article in the New York Times about the experiment. Below are 2 links. The first is a rather lengthy article, but there are some really good pictures of the launch from Antarctica. The second is a one page summary that is much more palatable to those of us who aren't genius astro-physicists. There is a REALLY good picture on this one as well. It gives a view of the entire flight train of the balloon at launch. You can really tell how big everything is on this picture. The orange thing about a third of the way up on the flight train is the parachute. Everything above this is the balloon and when it is fully inflated will be a sphere with that diameter. Anyway, here are the links.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/science/25dark.html?ref=science

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/11/25/science/20081125_DARK_GRAPHIC.html

There's not much else going on down here. It has been a little warmer lately - temperatures have made it all the way up to the low 20s on several days. It's funny that 20s actually seem warm down here. If I was back in Texas, 20 would seem frigid. Tonight I get to go on an Ice Cave tour at the Mount Erebus glacier. I am really looking forward to it, not only because from what I've heard it's pretty awesome, but also it's something to break the monotony of my daily schedule. So tomorrow, hopefully I will have some really good pictures to share. Below are just 2 random pictures from the past few days.

The ANITA payload outside. They still have to add another row of antennas to the bottom and solar panels

An Adelie Penguin near Ross Island. I guy I work with actually took this picture. I have only seen 1 penguin since I have been here and didn't have my camera.

The Payloads...

Today I thought I would write a little bit about the payloads we are going to fly this year. 2 of the 3 are actual science experiments, while one is a NASA test flight for a new type of balloon. The 2 science payloads are extremely large, complex and are studying things that I really could even begin to describe with any intelligence. But I will give it a shot, and leave out as much of the boring, dorky science stuff as possible. All of these payloads, after launched will float at about 120,000 feet, circle the South Pole 1-3 times and hopefully remain in the air for 30-45 days.

The first payload we will launch is called the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass experiment (CREAM). It is from a group from the University of Maryland. Basically the experiment measures cosmic rays. From their website, it says the goal of the experiment is to "extend direct measurement of cosmic-ray composition to the energies capable of generating gigantic air showers which have been mainly observed on the ground, thereby providing calibration for indirect measurements". Yeah, I don't know what that means either, but below is a picture of the payload without its solar panels. When fully assembled it will weigh 6000 pounds.

The second payload is called Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) and is from a group from the University of Hawaii. If you thought CREAM was confusing, ANITA is even worse. This one is a radio telescope to detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray neutrinos. The website says, "neutrinos are of great interest to astrophysicist as they are the only particle that can reach earth unattenuated at all energies". Once again, no clue what that means - I just forecast the weather. This payload is huge. It will weigh about 6000 pounds as well. In the picture below, if you want some scale to see how big it is, that is a 6 foot tall ladder in the bottom right corner of the picture.

Our final flight is a test flight for our new Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB). This is a new design of balloon that NASA engineers have designed and basically we need to conduct several test flights before it can be used to support actual flights. The new balloon was designed in hopes of allowing balloons to remain in the air for around 100 days. Right now, they are limited to about half of that. No pictures of this yet because they haven't started building the test payload.

Well, anyway, sorry to bore everyone to death today. Although I know very little about the actual experiments, it is pretty cool to actually be involved in all of this fancy astro-physics and astronomy stuff.

McMurdo Station...

Well, not a whole lot has changed here. We are still on schedule and anticipating our first launch will probably be in the second week of December (weather permitting of course). We had a fairly significant problem arise earlier this week when one of our hoists broke down. It had the potential to delay us for up to 2 weeks while we were waiting for another to be shipped down, but luckily, it was able to be fixed. So, today, thought I would write a little about McMurdo Station.

There are about 1200 people living and working in McMurdo now with still more in various stages of transition to other stations on the continent. It is a very busy place - there are always people coming and going. Generally, though, it is seems to be a fairly well coordinated operation(with a few snags). For as beautiful as Antarctica is, McMurdo is definitely not beautiful. Of course the view from town is great, but the actual town consists of an odd assortment of metal, drab and dismal buildings (many left over when the Navy used to run the town). All of the buildings are very functional and suffice, but aesthetics were definitely not considered in their design.

The town has several nicknames, one of which is Mud Town. This is because on warmer days when the sun is out, the snow and ice melt in the town, and everything turns to mud. The whole town is on a hill, so at times, there are small streams of mud that flow through the middle of everything. I have been told, that later on in the Summer, these streams can in fact become quite large and actually do damage. There isn't really any dirt here, it is all volcanic rock and fine volcanic dust, so this makes it very difficult to get the mud off of your clothes and shoes.

Not all is bad, though. There are many things in town that are designed to make the people that live here fell more like they are at home. There is a library, a video store/convenience store/liquor store/gift shop (yes that's all one place), a bowling alley, a gymnasium, a barber shop, workout facilities, 2 bars (1 smoking, 1 non), a coffee house, a church, and most of the dorms have either a ping pong table or a pool table in them. Then there are several outdoor things you can do as well. There are hiking trails around town, shuttles that go to the nearby New Zealand base (where there is a better gift shop and you can see seals and the occasional penguin), and also there are weekly tours to the nearby glacial ice caves (I really hope to do this one soon).

Anyway, below are some pictures of McMurdo in all of its glory (or lack there of)!

This is Building 155. This is kind of the main hub of the station, where the mess hall is and a lot of the offices. Notice all of the mud in the foreground (and this is not much compared to warmer days)

One of the more aesthetically pleasing buildings, this is appropriately enough called The Chapel of the Snows. It is a non-denominational chapel, and they have service for many different religions in here. The anchors in the front remain from the Navy days.

This is my dorm. Definitely nothing fancy, but I guess it has everything you need.

Just Another Day...

Well, I've kind of gotten into a daily routine down here and it varies very little from day to day (so much so that it is actually hard to remember what day of the week it is). I am purposely trying not to do everything there is to do down her all at the beginning so I will still have new and exciting things to do the remainder of the time I am down here. There are still hikes to do, there are several site-seeing tours that you can do and there are other things as well. So I don't really have much exciting to talk about.

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Everything at work is progressing along according to schedule. We have three balloons to launch this year, and right now it doesn't look like we will launch the first until the second week of December at the earliest. The payloads are still being assembled and there are a lot of tests that have to be done before they are considered ready to fly. Hopefully they will be ready around the first of December and then it is just a matter of waiting for the weather to cooperate. It is still looking like it will be around the first of the year before I get to come home.

Here are just a few random pictures that I have taken...

Picture of the sea ice from the plane on the flight to Antarctica. Nothing spectacular, I just thought the pattern in the ice was really neat.

C-17 that I flew from New Zealand to Antarctica on

This is "Ivan the Terra Bus". This is how I get to work every morning. It is definitely not designed for speed and agility.

Very cool lenticular clouds over Ross Island near work

This is the solar panel array of one of our payloads. This is just the beginning of this payload, and when done it will weigh nearly 6000lbs and will barely fit out of the doors of that building.

This is the Boss, our launch vehicle in Antarctica