My apologies for not keeping this blog updated. ANITA was cut down a few weeks ago, and the Australian Antarctic Division was able to recover some of the crucial components. I recently made it back to Hawaii after doing some travel in New Zealand. I will try to update the blog over the next few days to document and share some of the highlights.
We buried some antennas in the snow outside of our hangar that we use to calibrate the instrument as it is flying. We can compare the strength and quality of the signal as well as the arrival timing of the signal from the calibration antennas with the known position of the antennas and the gondola as it is flying to get a pretty good idea about the performance of the instrument. I really only share this because during one of our launch attempts, an emperor penguin walked right through the area where the antennas were buried. From my understanding, it's not unheard of for penguins to go wandering or exploring on their own, but it's my impression that many don't survive. We were about six or seven miles from any place where the penguin could get back into the water, if it knew how to get there.
Here is the gondola hanging from the launch vehicle during one of the failed launch attempts. We would show up about eight hours before the scheduled attempt to get the gondola ready. All of the canceled attempts were due to weather conditions that weren't favorable for launch. Launching a balloon requires that the winds speed stay low up to about 2000 feet and they need to be convinced it will stay low and from the same direction for at least a couple of hours. If the winds are too light, the balloon doesn't move, or at least not in a predictable direction and they can't lay out the flight train. If the winds are too strong, the balloon will blow out of the launch pad before it's risen high enough to lift the gondola.
One day there was a fuel truck out at LDB driving around with a rear tire showing some serious camber. It turns out all of the lug bolts had been broken off and the hub was just rolling along the inside of the rim. Thankfully they took the wheel off and it didn't come off while driving.
I was able to tour the SuperDARN facility while at McMurdo. SuperDARN, Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, consists of over thirty of these stations around the world that monitor the ionosphere by bouncing radio waves off of it. As the plasma moves, it causes a dopler shift in the returning radar signal which can be used to determine the movement and position of the ionosphere in different regions. Small changes in the ionosphere near the poles help predict larger changes of the ionosphere elsewhere. The ionosphere helps provide protection from space weather, so changes in it can have an impact on power grids,satellites, and astronauts. SuperDARN is also not nearly as photogenic as ANITA.
Here you can see the display from the McMurdo site.
Here you can see one of the helicopters slinging an ATV out to some field camp. I liked the rudder on the ATV.
