Yesterday was one of the nicest days at the South Pole that I can remember as far as weather is concerned. I guess the major news was that our crate arrived yesterday evening, which is good except that it didn't get delivered until after the shuttle service stopped running so I had to walk back to the station. The drillers also completed a hole yesterday, but not until after they repaired the hose which sprung a leak.
Here is a view from what you could call the drill camp, which is right in front of the ICL, looking back towards the station. The wind was actually blowing the opposite direction of the normal, but it was pretty calm. The station is designed like an upside down wing so that the wind speeds up under the station to help clear out the snow drift that would normally build up in front of and under the station, however in this shot you can see the exhaust from the generator is getting blown over the top of the station. The other thing I'll point out in this shot is all the cargo that sits behind the station. A good aerial shot would show it best, but it reminds me of the ending scene in the Raiders of the Lost Arc. It basically extends from the station all the way out to the Golf Ball. Apparently next year NSF is bringing in an automobile shredder to help get rid of a lot of the stuff in the cargo berms which I think is a good idea.
This is a photo of the deployment sled that I have been working on with a few other people to put together. It will be used to lower the strings down the holes. I've been working on it because our equipment hadn't come in yet and the drillers were dealing with all of their problems with the drill. I don't have a before shot, but basically it was an aluminum frame and we've been putting on panels, shims, the two center skis, winch, etc.
Here's a shot looking back towards the ICL with the drill camp shop on the left. The two black buildings on the right are our toilets. The one in front of the column is our old toilet, which was rather drafty, and the one on the right is the new toilet because the old toilet was deemed unacceptable this year.
Here's a photo of the shop, which is two sea containers joined together. I'm always impressed by the tools the drillers have and I propped up a pipe wrench in front of the chop saw. Behind me would be the tent with the deployment sled in it.
Here's a shot inside of the shop. You can see the drill hose looped around inside and that is because they needed to thaw out the hose because the water inside froze. One of the big challenges with the drilling operation is the limited amount of time you have to fix things before the water starts freezing. At the end of the day they run glycol through the lines to purge the water out, but that itself is a bit of a hassle.
Here's the other side of the shop. As with most things here, it's hard to capture on camera, but the shop is quite well equipped.
No comments:
Post a Comment