Well hello there! Sorry for the delay in posting to the blog - between spotty internet access and staying extremely busy with trainings and meetings, Sunday morning is the first time I am able to really get a few minutes in to update this blog. Hopefully it was worth the wait! Since our last post, we boarded a C-17 cargo plane and made the ~5.5-hour flight down to Antarctica, landing at Phoenix Airfield about 12 miles from McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf. The flight was largely uneventful, though there are always some highlights. Here are a few: We landed right around 4pm local time, boarded a large ice-capable vehicle (known as "Ivan the Terra Bus"), and made it into McMurdo for our in-brief right around 5:30pm. Afterwards, we had a quick dinner, assembled all of our gear and baggage, and called it a night.
Over the next few days, our schedules were packed with mandatory trainings (including environmental, field safety, lab safety, fire, vehicle, communications, and helicopter trainings) and meetings (including additional environmental discussions, scheduling meetings, food planning meetings, and field logistics meetings). McMurdo generally works on an 8am - 5pm schedule 6 days per week, with Sunday being the only truly quiet day around the base. Today (Sunday), we're taking it easy, but still working on some science. I'm troubleshooting some hardware issues, Schuyler is finalizing the methods for using our GPS units while in the field, and Lee and Sarah are hunting down some final lab equipment and supplies for biological sampling and processing. Later today, Lee will be heading out on a bike ride on the sea ice, while Schuyler and I are planning to climb the nearby hill that overlooks the base (known as Observation Hill, or Ob Hill). Not quite sure what Sarah is up to this afternoon, but I would recommend a hike or nap, or stopping by the station store to purchase some t-shirts or stickers or other souvenirs! Tomorrow, we have to weigh all of our gear and personal belongings that will be coming out with us on the field and provide this information to the helicopter folks so they can plan our trip into the field. We then have to bring all of our gear down to the helo pad and stage it to come into the field with us on Tuesday. Lastly, we'll receive a refresher course on how to prepare cargo loads for safe helicopter flight. Then it's a few more hours of relaxing, eating dinner, and enjoying our last night on a real bed before heading into the field on Tuesday!
1 Comment
9/14/2020 07:49:15 pm
I love the Myth Busters, I grew up watching them. I am not really one of those kids who watch cartoons, and I am okay with that. I do not get why my mother hates that I watch Myth Busters. She used to tease me, saying that I do not even understand what I am talking about. Well, I did not understand all of it, but that does not mean that I can work my way up into learning them.
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About the Author(S)The contributors to this blog are the students, faculty, and other researchers in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Northern Arizona University. If you have any suggestions, or would like to contribute to this blog, please email mark.salvatore@nau.edu for more information. Archives
January 2019
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