25 ms·
Last Flight Out
- zbaxrl 4y agoAnother blog, about the french-italian base Concordia. https://www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica/WinterDC1.html https://www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica/WinterDC1.html
- fragmede 4y agoIn years past there was also ABigDeadPlace.com, which has since lapsed due to the author's unfortunate death. Thankfully it was published as a book, _Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica_ by Nicholas Johnson. If brr.fyi strikes your fancy, I bet that book would as well. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40919 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40919
- teachrdan 4y agoI can second Big Dead Place. It's an entertaining and slightly cynical take on the Antarctic, including such details as the head of an American base personally removing the "Made in China" stickers from the souvenirs in the gift shop, and a description of how an item brought inside from the outdoors radiates cold like a campfire radiates heat.
- ripley12 4y ago100%. I would describe the subject matter as "dysfunctional office politics in Antarctica", which doesn't sound fascinating but it really is!
- ietktnz 4y agoInternational rewatch "The Thing" day
- clarkema 4y agoToo early for that! "The Thing" is traditionally midwinter viewing.
- andruby 4y agoAren't the northern-hemispherians close enough to midwinter?
- bentcorner 4y agoNow I wonder if they watch other Antarctic media. I'd recommend "A Place Further than the Universe" but I have no idea if it's something they'd want to watch.
- howenterprisey 4y agoPerhaps? It's a great show. https://cough.cocolog-nifty.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2018/03/24/yorimoi_31.jpg https://cough.cocolog-nifty.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/u...
- orangewindies 4y ago"The Thing" was best viewed when alone on nightwatch just before walking across to the meteorological building in the dark at 03:00.
- ethbr0 4y agoIf you zoom in on the first warehouse picture, you see there's ice inside the stores warehouse. I guess they let everything that can tolerate it freeze?
- tom-from-july 4y agoYep, see this other post: https://brr.fyi/posts/frost https://brr.fyi/posts/frost
- enoch_r 4y agoI got sucked into reading a few other posts by the same author and one is about exactly this! https://brr.fyi/posts/frost https://brr.fyi/posts/frost Pretty incredible.
- dvas 4y agoAgree! Interesting read which got me thinking about how we take our current systems (hvac, phones, laptops) / constructions materials and the environments we use them in with the expectation that they should work 99% of the time. Down the rabbit hole... how long would my phone last in strato/meso/thermo spheres before memory starts flipping due to cosmic rays? Thanks for sharing!
- V__ 4y agoCheck out his previous post: https://brr.fyi/posts/frost https://brr.fyi/posts/frost > We don’t heat spaces unless we have to! > The ice isn’t really “wet” per se. It has the consistency of shattered automotive safety glass. On a related note, the snow doesn’t really behave like “frozen water crystals”. It’s more like “very cold sand”.
- RugnirViking 4y agoThat is something i've long dreamed of doing. Would love to work with british antarctic survey etc. Not sure if my background in robotics/engineering would be that useful there though unless I push in a tangential direction like radios
- clarkema 4y agoThere are often openings for people with electronics engineering backgrounds for roles supporting science and met, as opposed to comms and base IT. It doesn't hurt to apply. Edit: https://www.bas.ac.uk/jobs/careers-at-bas/operational-support/electronics-engineer/ https://www.bas.ac.uk/jobs/careers-at-bas/operational-suppor...
- shagie 4y agoAnother over winter opportunity - for Ice Cube https://jobs.hr.wisc.edu/en-us/job/516435/winterover-experiment-operator https://jobs.hr.wisc.edu/en-us/job/516435/winterover-experim... > Winterovers enjoy a variety of job duties during their estimated 12 to 13 month deployment at the South Pole. Technical duties include operating and maintaining the IceCube detector subsystems; operating and maintaining complex computer data systems at the South Pole; uploading the research data via satellite to the northern hemisphere; analyzing and resolving problems with the detector electronics; providing critical hardware and software support; writing and submitting weekly reports to the collaboration and monthly reports to the National Science Foundation; and participating in Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center outreach activities. (Note that if that does interest someone, the application deadline is March 1)
- arethuza 4y agoIf you like that kind of thing I can recommend the book Time on Ice: A Winter Voyage to Antarctica - it's about a couple overwintering in Antarctica in their yacht: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Ice-Winter-Voyage-Antarctica/dp/0070063990 https://www.amazon.com/Time-Ice-Winter-Voyage-Antarctica/dp/... Edit: If I remember correctly they also sailed from and back to Sweden to do this...
- moneywoes 4y agoHow are the interpersonal relationships like being stuck with others for months
- pavlov 4y agoApparently not great if you're a woman: https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/as-antarctic-fieldwork-ends-a-sexual-harassment-reckoning-looms/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/as-antarctic-fieldwo...
- 0xbadcafebee 4y agoJesus christ. "In one online survey published in PLOS ONE and covered by Science in 2014, 71% of 512 female respondents reported being sexually harassed during fieldwork; 84% of them were trainees." "In the NSF report, one interviewee said she’d been told on her first day at McMurdo to stay clear of a certain building unless she “wanted to be raped.” Another woman said she felt like she was seen as “prey” no matter where she was physically on the base." "Another was so "freaked out" by the pervasive sexual harassment that she began carrying around a hammer." "Another survivor of sexual harassment said she didn't report the incident for fear her employer would fire her; when she could no longer cope, she quit." This fucking David Marchant guy was a fucking terror. Holy shit. (https://www.science.org/content/article/disturbing-allegations-sexual-harassment-antarctica-leveled-noted-scientist https://www.science.org/content/article/disturbing-allegatio...) "Boston University suspended prominent Antarctic geologist David Marchant with pay. Multiple women had come forward with allegations of sexual harassment against him" "The first complainant, Jane Willenbring, now an associate professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, part of the University of California, San Diego, alleges that Marchant repeatedly shoved her down a steep slope, pelted her with rocks while she was urinating in the field, called her a "slut" and a "whore," and urged her to have sex with his brother, who was also on the trip." "According to Willenbring, Marchant told her repeatedly that his brother had a "porn-sized" penis, and said she should have sex with him and feel lucky for the opportunity." "One week, Willenbring alleges, David Marchant "decided that he would throw rocks at me every time I urinated in the field." She cut her water consumption so she could last the 12-hour days far from camp without urinating, then drank liters at night. She says she developed a urinary tract infection and urinary incontinence, which has since recurred. When blood appeared in her urine, she alleges, Marchant prohibited her from going back to McMurdo for treatment." "The second complainant, Deborah Doe (a pseudonym), who was in Antarctica for two austral summers during this era, reports that Marchant called her a "c--t" and a "bitch" repeatedly. She alleges that he promised to block her access to research funding should she earn a Ph.D. She abandoned her career dreams and left academe." "A third woman, Hillary Tulley, a Skokie, Illinois, high school teacher, describes her experience in a supporting letter filed with BU investigators. "His taunts, degrading comments about my body, brain, and general inadequacies never ended," she writes. She claims Marchant tried to exhaust her into leaving Antarctica. "Every day was terrifying," she says in an interview with Science."
- teepo 4y agoI feel like my Emacs setup would be perfect after the winter isolation. :) - Has anyone studied the Antarctic winter with respect to deep focus and personal productivity?
- dpflan 4y agoHeh, As in the more extreme the cold, the deeper focus? Perhaps ignoring the ever-looming dread of facility malfunction and death by freezing... Perhaps other cold environments are better suited?
- k8sToGo 4y agoInteresting. To me it sounds quite the opposite. Lonely, depressing, and boring.
- Aperocky 4y agoDon't think it'd be about deep focus, but definitely spiritual.
- alex_sf 4y agoSomewhat related, I've seen mentions here and there of people using cruise ships for the same thing. Minimal distractions from the outside world (via the internet anyway), and most personal concerns out of the way (food, laundry, etc).
- rdevsrex 4y agoVery cool!
- dpflan 4y agoIf you're interested in the people and personalities and activities at the South Pole, the Werner Herzog film Encounters at the End of the World is a revealing and interesting documentary. It includes a fascinating part about a deluded penguin choosing to leave its flock and begin a fatal journey towards the center of the island... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounters_at_the_End_of_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounters_at_the_End_of_the_W... - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093824/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093824/
- 4gotunameagain 4y agoThe famous scene[0] from this film is a masterpiece. It never fails to sink me to my nadir, so I avoid watching it even if I love it so much. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTU_hJoByA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTU_hJoByA
- dpflan 4y agoUnderstandable. It struck a deep chord with me, became a larger metaphor applicable to all life.
- boredemployee 4y agoAmazing, thanks for sharing.
- Forgeties79 4y agoHerzog laying it on thick with the music as per usual lol but that is a beautiful, haunting sequence nonetheless. I like to rag on Herzog but he really is a unique mind and an incredible documentarian.
- sph 4y agoBeautiful, thanks for sharing. That penguin walked to his certain death, while his mates swam and caught fish, to their certain death. Sadness for it and his supposed insanity only exists for a fleeting moment. In a long enough timespan, it lived and died like any other penguin has or ever will. Nihilism is not necessarily pessimistic. It presents our universe, and life itself, as a glass half full, but it's up to you to decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Thanks for this evening philosophical reflection.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y agoClosest you get to the "another" world experience on this planet. That and mount everest.
- reidjs 4y agoExcept that Mount Everest is full of people supposedly.
- throwboatyface 4y ago[flagged]
- qikInNdOutReply 4y agoSomebody has to be the step of the stair to success on the motivational calendar.
- DoctorDabadedoo 4y agoAnd trash.
- chasd00 4y agoMount Everest is full of trash and bodies too iirc. There's a couple spots where you pass bodies on the way up that no one will recover.
- zikduruqe 4y agoAnd those bodies are waypoints. For example "green boots". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots
- mLuby 4y agoAnd Iceland's rocky beauty. And deserts.
- rodolphoarruda 4y agoThe "About" page shows an interesting fact. This guy applied to the work position in Antarctica back in 2017 and it took almost 2k days for the hiring team to get back to him for the next steps of the hiring process. Quite a long wait, but I guess it was worth it. A "one in a billion" lifetime opportunity.
- hgsgm 4y agoIt's ~5000 people per year, 1 in a million humans per year (and of course most humans aren't interested in going)
- dcchambers 4y agoThis is a great blog, thanks for sharing. Definitely looking forward to following along during the winter. I wonder what kinds of science are done at the South Pole.
- Reason077 4y ago> "Slow and intermittent Internet access." Hmm, how long until Starlink (or similar) reaches the South Pole?
- lxgr 4y agoOnce inter-satellite links are operational, presumably. Looking at [1], there are already some polar orbit satellites, but without these links, that doesn't help Antarctica much. (I'm also not sure if the polar satellites are operational for regular traffic yet.) [1] https://satellitemap.space/ https://satellitemap.space/
- _joel 4y agoThe laser links are active, have been for a few months now
- orlp 4y agoCan someone explain to me how you can have geostationary orbit around the poles?
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> Can someone explain to me how you can have geostationary orbit around the poles? You can't. For high latitudes you use highly-elliptical orbits, like tundra or Molniya.
- lxgr 4y agoOr you can use polar orbits, which is what Iridium does! I believe that‘s what the antarctic stations are currently using.
- bearbin 4y agoYou can't. Starlink satellites are in LEO, not geostationary orbit.
- walrus01 4y ago
- mashygpig 4y agoI just finished reading “Alone” by Richard Byrd [0]. It’s about a man who wintered alone in Antarctica during the dark night in 1934. I found it very captivating and I think a lot of those on HN would find it interesting; especially those who find this blog interesting. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368563 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368563
- xNeil 4y agoThank you very much for the recommendation! I now how I'm spending the day today :)
- anovikov 4y agoAlways wondered if at least one-way resupply was possible (containers airdropped and guided by GPS to land at precise point)?
- _joel 4y agoBlows me away everytime I see these bases and the amount of 'stuff' they have there considering it's literally in the middle of nowhere.
- 0xbadcafebee 4y agoAs someone who has lived rather isolated for long stretches, I think the one thing that helps fight feeling isolated is to find your joy and practice it. My joy is in creative outlets. When I'm alone, I sing, woodwork, cook new recipes, garden [indoors or out], sew. If I had a large indoor space I'd probably practice slacklining, aerial arts, tumbling, parkour, climbing. And then there's the computer, where I can create music and endless programs, websites. I haven't even touched on painting, drawing, playing music. And all that can be supplemented by podcasts, music, movies/TV, reading, chores, working out. There's really so much to do indoors if you can cultivate a creative mindset.
- Aeolun 4y agoOr, instead of all that. You can spend your entire summer at the south pole playing a single game of Factorio.
- 2-718-281-828 4y agothe joke's lost on me? I know the game (never played it, though) but why "a single game"?
- tomalpha 4y agoA single game of Factorio can take a long time. Mine usually take around 100 hours. The craving to (tweak|move|refactor|grow) the base for certain personality types that are richly represented on HN can mean you can spend hundreds more on it too.
- rippercushions 4y agoTry installing the Space Exploration mod, and you can easily add an extra zero to that figure.
- recursiveturtle 4y agoThe…base…must…grow…
- ta1243 4y agoThe shower page was interesting, you get 4 minutes of shower time a week https://brr.fyi/posts/showering-at-the-south-pole https://brr.fyi/posts/showering-at-the-south-pole I'm surprised they can't just melt snow water to run things like showers. Oddly no suggestions on the page about doubling up your shower with someone else to have longer or more frequent showers.
- n1b0m 4y agoI’m game if you are
- biesnecker 4y agoThere's only a few centimeters of snow per year at the pole, it's a high desert, and digging the ice out is probably not worth the energy?
- InitialLastName 4y agoThe same blog has a post referring to snow accumulation (evidently wind-blown, not precipitated) requiring enormous operations and infrastructural efforts to keep the station from being buried [0]. There seems to be plenty of snow available, if you want to melt it. Energy is the issue. [0] https://brr.fyi/posts/south-pole-topography https://brr.fyi/posts/south-pole-topography
- eigenhombre 4y agoPrevious discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34658286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34658286
- hibbelig 4y agoDoesn't that post explain that this is just what they do, and that melting the snow is pretty involved?
- seanw444 4y agoThere's also limited fuel that they have to conserve, so infinite snow does not mean infinite water.
- joe_lin 4y agoWhat happens if someone has a true medical emergency? Like heart attack or burst appendix? Are they stranded? I feel like this fear would be lingering over me the entire time.
- stinkytaco 4y agoYou could cut it out yourself [1] But I've read that doctors do need to have their appendix removed, but not other people. I can't find a source on that, however. [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442
- biztos 4y agoProbably not if it burst! > It was not an easy choice. Rogozov knew his appendix could burst and if that happened, it would almost certainly kill him - and while he considered his options, his symptoms got worse. (From your link.)
- GTP 4y agoUsually in such outcast places they have a room equipped for light surgery and some emergency procedures. You won't receive the same level of care that you would have in a proper hospital, but they should be able to at least do some "temporary fix" while transportation to a proper hospital is arranged if needed. Appendectomy shouldn't be a problem.
- Klonoar 4y ago>but they should be able to at least do some "temporary fix" while transportation to a proper hospital is arranged if needed. I believe the person you're responding to is moreso asking what would happen if it was during the months where no inbound or outbound transportation is possible.
- wiml 4y agoWell, yes. There's the famous case of when a station's only doctor had appendicitis so he removed his own [1], and another who had to do her own cancer biopsy and chemotherapy [2]. The equations may be simple but they are still very cold. [1] Leonid Rogozov, 1961. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442 [2] Jerri Nielsen, 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerri_Nielsen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerri_Nielsen
- henryackerman 4y agoI just love the domain name!
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoLove it!
- mig39 4y agoWhen the author refers to AN-8 fuel, do they mean JP-8? Jet fuel / Kerosene?
- jacquesm 4y agoThis is the engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivchenko_AI-20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivchenko_AI-20
- bearbin 4y agoAN-8 is kerosene, similar to JP-8, but with a lower freezing point specification. https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/bitstream/11681/24335/1/ERDC-CRREL%20TR-17-15.pdf https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/bitstream/11681/243...
- elSidCampeador 4y ago> Our water comes from a “Rodwell”, which is basically a big hole in the ground. TIL some people call a borewell a "rodwell"
- hgsgm 4y agoPer the "boring rod" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boring%20rod https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boring%20rod
- bizzyb 4y agonot quite a borewell. short for rodriguez. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodriguez_well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodriguez_well https://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/rodwell/rodwell.html https://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/rodwell/rodwell.html
- elSidCampeador 4y agoTIL, thank you for this!
- dahart 4y agoNot sure why I’d never learned or noticed the altitude of the South Pole is so high, no wonder it’s extra chilly. I assume the screenshot is off by a bit maybe because it’s estimating altitude from barometric pressure or something?
- hgsgm 4y agoThe South Pole is also closer to the center of the earth than the equator. Not sure how that effects altitude:temperature relationship .
- dahart 4y agoGood question. I guess that temp is driven mostly by altitude above sea level, so proximity to Earth’s center doesn’t affect temp, but I’m not certain. At least I looked it up, and the coastline of Antarctica is about 40C warmer than the high altitude plateau…
- dmckeon 4y agoWikipedia gives the altitude for the South Pole station as: > The station is located on the high plateau of Antarctica at 2,835 metres (9,301 ft) above sea level. The screenshot shows air pressure, expressed as altitude and pressure. 685mb is mildly thin air for humans, but the top of Everest is about 250mb. Earth sea level is 1000mb, and the surface of Mars would be about 6mb. BYO oxygen and pressure.
- nicky0 4y agoWhat a tastefully designed and executed blog site. Well done.
- poxrud 4y agoI would love to try this out for a week or two, but I can't imagine doing this for 9 months. For me the feeling of claustrophobia and loneliness would be overwhelming.
- toss1 4y agoPerhaps contact a Tibetan Buddhist teaching center. They have meditation and introspection programs ranging from weekend intro courses to multi-month retreats where you isolate in a cabin on site (but you are checked in on). I know a few who have done it for a week or a month, and all say it's very interesting and enlightening, tho also suggest working up to it. The one I'm most familiar with is Karmê Chöling in northern Vermont [0], and there are others. Even the short retreats yield wonderful states of mind. Check it out! [0] https://www.karmecholing.org/ https://www.karmecholing.org/ [0] https://www.karmecholing.org/ https://www.karmecholing.org/
- photochemsyn 4y agoNo fresh food? Some Antarctic stations have hydroponics setups, is South Pole an exception? https://www.antarctica.gov.au/antarctic-operations/stations/amenities-and-operations/food/hydroponics/ https://www.antarctica.gov.au/antarctic-operations/stations/...
- ryandrake 4y agoWhenever I read about how humans are about to colonize Mars, I think about how much logistics it takes to keep even a single base with a handful of people populated on the South Pole. It's like Mars, but with plentiful oxygen and atmospheric pressure, plentiful (albeit frozen) water, shielded from radiation, low-latency communication with civilization, and is reachable by air and ground vehicles. Given how difficult and fraught it is to keep a few people alive down there, how does anyone expect to keep a few people alive on Mars, let alone build a colony there?
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> how difficult and fraught it is to keep a few people alive down there, how does anyone expect to keep a few people alive on Mars, let alone build a colony there? Necessity is the mother of invention. It makes no sense to use precious Antarctic time and space growing all the food when it's cheaper to ship it in. Similar to how civilizations with a history of littoral shipbuilding figured out ocean-faring--if you're always a day from port, you don't bother baking hard tack. That doesn't mean you can't.
- localplume 4y agoPrecious space? Its a pretty big continent.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> Precious space? Its a pretty big continent That you can't farm on. The farmable bits are in protected, heated shelters that are expensive to build and maintain.
- otabdeveloper4 4y agoIt's roughly a million times easier to grow food on the South Pole than it is to grow it on Mars.
- 4y ago
- tiagod 4y agoThis guy is living my dream! Unlikely I'll have have the chance to work in inland Antarctica as I'm not from a country that sends people over there for tech stuff, but I still hope someday I'll have the chance :)
- grecy 4y agoIf you really want to go, be a dishwasher or cook or something similar. I've had 4 friends do exactly that. The work was crap, but the experience was well, well worth it.
- xNeil 4y agoHow do you apply though? I'd assume vacancies would be extremely rare - quite interesting you've had four friends do it.
- grecy 4y agoVacancies are extremely common, they have regular old job fairs Just apply with whatever country applies to you https://www.google.com/search?q=work+in+antarctica https://www.google.com/search?q=work+in+antarctica US: https://www.usap.gov/jobsandopportunities/ https://www.usap.gov/jobsandopportunities/ Australian: https://jobs.antarctica.gov.au/jobs-in-antarctica/ https://jobs.antarctica.gov.au/jobs-in-antarctica/
- almostkorean 4y agoMy grandpa did the same thing when he was 72 years old. Applied for food services, worked in the cafeteria but did extra stuff like DJ a radio show, drove a shuttle, and gave tours. A couple weeks into his stay, my grandpa ended up being the "most qualified" person at the station to take over the greenhouse (he had an agriculture degree which he hadn't used in 48 years) but ended up doing a good job. He travelled a lot but Antarctica was his favorite adventure.
- tiagod 4y agoI think that would work for US nationals, for example, but I'm pretty sure they don't accept people with a Portuguese passport.
- palla89 4y agoIt feels so magic to live in places with extreme conditions. Lack of comforts, internet on/off and the real danger that something really important suddenly brokes, I imagine that it let you feel more alive than ever! Don't know if it's something that's only poetic and beautiful when thinking about it or if it's the real deal, but imagining myself, after a long day with -50°C outside, to be 10k miles from everyone and everything, just with my blanket and a book or a movie that I waited 20 days to have fully downloaded.
- insane_dreamer 4y agofascinating blog. just read the one article so far, but sure to read the rest. what a great experience!
- gnatman 4y agoI thought those fuel bladders were pretty cool! Never thought about transporting volatiles in anything other than a rigid tank. Also had to look up what AN-8 Fuel is: "AN8 is a special fuel blend unique to the Antarctic and Arctic. It has a lower flash point of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which also lowers the gelling point when extreme cold temperatures can cause wax crystals to start forming in the fuel. AN8 will remain liquid until about minus 72 degrees." https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/2975 https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/2975
- kylehotchkiss 4y agoNow I wonder what the cost per gallon is!
- Maxion 4y agoWith these type of operations it becomes a bit semantic and depends entirely on how you define costs and over what timespan. You have to ship it there via tanker, store at McMurdo, and ship across the ice on special purpose vehicles. If you divide the whole cost of all that up per gallon of fuel you get a price. But if you need more, the margin cost for the next gallon is going to be an interesting one, and probably come with a free extra 9999 gallons or something.
- bizzyb 4y agoroughly $3 dollars per gallon purchase price for 5-6 million gallons. Plus tanker costs to McM at between $25k-$70k per day for roughly 90 days. Plus the cost of the ice breaker, between $3.5-$11 million per year. [0] That's just to get it to McM and doesn't include the labor costs of the fuelies based in McM. Then you gotta get it to Pole, which is a combination of the overland traverse and lc130 tanker missions. [0] https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/bitstream/11681/24335/1/ERDC-CRREL%20TR-17-15.pdf https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/bitstream/11681/243...
- Maxion 4y agoAnd then you find out you're 20 000 gallons short and you fly it in from Christchurch....
- ilamont 4y agoThe prospect of a medical emergency would be terrible. I think there was an unplanned cancer surgery at this base many years back, but there are so many other things that can go wrong with no ER or quick evacuation to turn to. Even a dental emergency would be a disaster. ETA: The cancer emergency was in 1998 required a special air drop but they had to wait until October to fly out the patient. https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/1812/ https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/1812/
- thomasjudge 4y agoThere was the case of the doctor who developed appendicitis, and with no other doctors around, did his own appendectomy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Rogozov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Rogozov
- gammarator 4y agoMy favorite writing about Antarctica is "Big Dead Place": https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-30/big-dead-place-the-wikileaks-of-antarctica/9666244 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-30/big-dead-place-the-wi... You can find the blog in the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20120402141259/http://www.bigdeadplace.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120402141259/http://www.bigdea... or grab the book. Silver medal to Maciej for this one: https://idlewords.com/2016/05/shuffleboard_at_mcmurdo.htm https://idlewords.com/2016/05/shuffleboard_at_mcmurdo.htm
- kmoser 4y agoBig Dead Place was great: it gives you a great idea of the terrain, the characters who come through, and the politics, all from the perspective of a grunt who works there.
- walrus01 4y agoVery sadly, the author of that blog committed suicide back in 2012. https://www.albedoimages.com/blog/2012/12/06/death-of-antarctic-writer-nicholas-johnson/ https://www.albedoimages.com/blog/2012/12/06/death-of-antarc...
- ncr100 4y agoOne area of research at the opposite side, McMurdo, apparently is around glaciers melting. > Warming seas are carving into massive Antarctic glacier that could trigger sea level rise https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/15/glacier-ice-melt-ocean-warming/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/1... Q: I wonder if the South Pole station is also involved in active climate research or if the North Pole is somehow more scientifically relevant to near-term climate change? Enlightning observation: > [...] researchers have determined that warm water is getting channeled into crevasses in what the researchers called “terraces” — essentially, upside-down trenches — and carving out gaps under the ice. As the ice then flows toward the sea, these channels enlarge and become future potential break points, where the floating ice shelf comes apart and produces huge icebergs.
- TrackerFF 4y agoA couple of my ex-colleagues worked on the Troll station. The Norwegian Polar Institute usually publish the vacancies a year ahead, as there is a lot of prep to get to right people. Anyway, both of 'em worked as IT/communication engineers some 10 years apart, but told me that the first movie they watched together (with rest of the crew) was John Carpenter's The Thing.
- macabe 4y agoThis is a great read. Not sure if it is answered in another post, but what is the story behind your decision to leave San Francisco for the South Pole?
- geocrasher 4y agoIs there anything a C-130 cannot do? What an incredible aircraft. That landing, complete with reverse thrust, was incredible.
- rootusrootus 4y agoA C-130 with JATO is also fun to watch. I am not sure they do it any more, but the Blue Angels used to do a demo of it with Fat Albert[0] during their air show appearances. [0] https://avgeekery.com/watch-fat-albert-rockets-into-airshow-skies/ https://avgeekery.com/watch-fat-albert-rockets-into-airshow-...
- caseyohara 4y agoThat is awesome!
- geocrasher 4y agoThat also reminds me of the C-130 modified with JATO for landing https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/military-aircraft/top-secret-c-130-with-rocket-boosters/912500478001 https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/military-aircraft/to...
- 0x0000000 4y agoJust to make it a little crazier, all LC-130s (the ones with skis) fly out of upstate New York! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_LC-130 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_LC-130
- jpamata 4y agoAlways loved reading about adventures in Antarctica. It feels like the closest thing we can get to going to an exoplanet.
- faceloss 4y ago[dead]
- jedberg 4y agoWhy do they make the buildings black and white? Both of those blend in with the snow at night (which is 1/2 the year). Why not make them day glow yellow or something, so they are always visible?
- Maxion 4y agoBlack to save on heating? During a polar night it gets so dark that once you’re out of flashlight range it doesn’t matter. The issue is the wind blown snow reducing visibility.
- jedberg 4y ago> During a polar night it gets so dark that once you’re out of flashlight range it doesn’t matter. During the polar night the moon is up 1/2 the time, and it's from 1/2 full to full to 1/2 full, so there is still a source of light at least 1/2 the time. Making them black to save on heating is a good point though. Same with wind blown snow being the main issue with visibility.
- wkat4242 4y agoBlack would also radiate more energy out though. And there's a lot more energyv that can go out than in, in winter. I would imagine using silver colored would be best for insulation.
- Maxion 4y agoI wonder if material color was actually a design consideration? Or if material lifespan was more important? Either way, very interseting project to get to work on, designing such a station.
- pmarreck 4y agoThese stories are always interesting and I feel like a lot of us have a strand within us that wouldn't mind doing a tour in a place like that
- izolate 4y agoFascinating. I wish I could do something similar. My personality traits naturally favor isolation, darkness and the cold. Unfortunately, I doubt there's any need for software engineers in Antarctica.
- the_duke 4y agoDon't miss it on the FAQ, it's' hilarious.
- ryanisnan 4y agoIs it possible to land a plane there mid-winter, if absolutely necessary? Obviously fraught with difficulty, and dangerous, but... is it possible?
- colechristensen 4y agoYes. I can’t find the outcome of this attempt a while back, but it was obviously tried. https://nationalpost.com/news/world/pitch-black-frigid-cold-icy-landings-why-its-so-hard-to-fly-a-rescue-mission-to-antarctica-in-the-winter https://nationalpost.com/news/world/pitch-black-frigid-cold-...
- kryptiskt 4y agoIt went well: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/22/483121098/risky-south-pole-rescue-succeeds-as-2-patients-are-airlifted-out https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/22/483121098...
- ryanisnan 4y agoThanks for sharing! Wild to hear that the plane literally froze to the ice. What a bold pilot.
- colechristensen 4y agoThose far north bush pilots have a reputation for being bold (er crazy :) )
- eastbound 4y agoA man committed self-surgery on his appendicitis (in the 1950ies, granted), so it seems a single man’s life is not enough to warrant a full flight in winter. What would warrant it? Escaping the apocalypse of the modern world, maybe?
- davidw 4y agoCurious what that drive from McMurdo is like. Do they have a regular ice road? Or do they just follow directions "Uh, keep going south. Can't miss it"
- yencabulator 4y ago"995-mile-long (1,601 km) flagged route over compacted snow and ice" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole_Traverse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole_Traverse
- AceJohnny2 4y agoThese stories about the logistics at Amundsen-Scott are a fascinating glimpse at the level of logistical complexity that'd be required for an off-planet (Moon, Mars...) base. Every time I see people get excited about Martian human habitation, I note a lack of discussion of the essential intermediate step: a fully self-sustaining base in the most inhospitable parts of Earth. Where are the Biosphere++ projects? And Amundsen-Scott has it easy: pressure, oxygen levels, and dust aren't a problem! (granted: Martian equator has easier temperatures). Also, I've long wondered what is the comparable level of yearly insolation (for sustainable power) in the South Pole compares to Mars' equator?
- ReptileMan 4y agoThe first people on mars will be self replicating robots. Due to the way the exponential function works - I think enough terraforming could be done really fast.
- nine_k 4y agoBut will humans be welcome afterwards?
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y agoNot if they load the robots with Bing chat
- m463 4y agoBing chat 2.0, now with some of asimov's laws!
- robotresearcher 4y agoWe don’t have self replicating robots on Earth. The first people on Mars will be like the first people on the moon: very vulnerable human tourists.
- nine_k 4y ago
- lawrenceyan 4y agoWhat's harder to terraform? Hot rocky/sandy desert or cold snowy artic? More free energy in the form of solar but less water vs. Abundant water but locked in the form of ice with access to energy being the constraining factor
- siddiqi64 4y agoBest article thanks
- conqueso 4y agoI recently learned about the Belgian Antarctic research station princess Elisabeth, which is not only zero emissions but utilizes passive heating as well - completely heated by incoming sunlight and the human bodies inside. http://www.antarcticstation.org/station http://www.antarcticstation.org/station