12-18-11

We've had more problems with the drilling, our cargo hasn't arrived yet, and it is the one-day weekend at the station, so there's a pretty good chance I will be spending the day in the station again.

The drilling problem now revolves around the fact that we can't pump the water out of the holes quickly enough to prevent the holes from refreezing to the point where we can't pull the pump out. It seems there was a serious underestimate in the calculation of the rate of refreezing in the holes. Our drilling rig can't produce enough hot water quickly enough to raise the water in the hole much above freezing, and the ice surrounding the hole is it -50 degrees so it refreezes quickly. I think the solution this year will be substantially shallower holes, but it means a lot of work trying to resolve this issue for next year as shallower holes are less than optimal for the science we are trying to do.

Here is a layout I found online of the station. The above ground station that you have seen various pictures of is on the left and it is connected by an under-ice tunnel to the facilities on the right. The three main rooms contain vehicle maintenance facilities as well as power generation facilities. The first long room behind those contains the cold storage of a lot of food for the station and the room behind that houses the fuel for the station if my memory holds.





















I'll continue with a tour of some parts of the station but a lot of information for those interested can be found here and a diagram detailing much of the layout of the station can be found here. I'll continue trying to find things to talk about and/or take photos of but I may be running out of ideas so if there is anything you would like to see or read about you can leave a message in the comments or shoot me an email.

Here is the main lounge for the station. It is in the same wing of the station as I am. There is a door to the left of this shot that goes to the berthing area where I stay. The door behind and to the left of the pool table goes to a video room where they frequently show movies. The door behind and to the right of the photo goes to main hallway of the station. This wing serves as an emergency station of sorts for the winter overs. If for some reason the other sections of the station were severely damaged or they lost most of their fuel and/or power generating capacity, they would all seek refuge in this wing. The kitchen in the left of this photo would become the kitchen used to provide food for the 50 or so residents.







This is the door behind and to the right of the pool table in the previous photo. You can see it has a seriously insulated door that would be closed in the event that the winter-overs needed to seek refuge in this wing. The photo doesn't capture it well, but there is a bit of a height differential between this wing and the station. The entire ice sheet that the station is on moves about 33 feet a year, but there is some uneven movement and heaving in the ice sheet which means that parts of the station may move in different directions than other parts and the station has been designed to allow for that.



















Another plaque of appreciation from NASA.



















And another.














This is a photo I took a couple days ago of some tourists leaving. The ICL and the area where ARA is being constructed is across the skiway from the station, so they shut down crossing of the skiway when a plane is coming in or taking off, and I decided to take a photo of the Twin Otter leaving while waiting on the skidoo for the crossing to open again.