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.