2004-05 Photos--IceCube!

The IceCube project, led by the University of Wisconsin, is NOT part of the SPSM project, but its science is one of the reasons for building the new station. And since the total budget for the 10-year project including contingency is $271 million--nearly twice the $251m budget for the new station, there are lots of new facilities involved....which first have to be transported to Pole.

The biggest footprint is the drill camp, or Seasonal Equipment Site (SES) which was to be set up each year near the site of the holes to be drilled that season. It is a complex of specially modified shipping containers which were sized to just barely fit onto the LC-130's. And they were all fitted out with pumps, heaters, generators, tanks, as needed to create all of the hot water for the thermal drilling.

red house
Here's one of the components of the "Enhanced Hot Water Drill" (EWHD) system shortly after it was originally fabricated over a year ago.
a high pressure operation
Some of the high pressure pumps (before shipment)--these deliver up to 200 gpm of water to the drill head at 950 psig.
ice cube maker

Most of the drill camp equipment had to be flown down from New Zealand. Here's one on the way from Christchurch to McMurdo in late October.
little boxes
...and here they are stacked up in MCM waiting for warmer temperatures at Pole.
delivery receipt requested
Finally in mid-November the weather warmed up to allow for normal cargo handling. Here's one of the units arriving at Pole.
Wet Gulch Antarctica?
...and before you know it the camp was done. This 5 December photo was taken from MAPO.
Highly recommended was this 24-hour timelapse movie of the drill site area, from the IceCube gallery (4.8gb), but alas, it has vanished.  
moving out of summer camp
Meanwhile, on 12 December the former Elevated Dorm was moved across the skiway to its new site as the IceCube Laboratory (Counting House, or main control building for the project). Here's the start of the trip.
rooms with a view?
Almost there....
counting the houses
Parked for the winter at the new location...the doublewide
module in the foreground is the "temporary counting house"
to be used for the electronics until the permanent facility
is ready in about December 2006.

Fellow 2005 w/o Robert Schwarz has an excellent photo sequence of the beaker box move.

All of the photos are from Darryn Schneider and/or the IceCube documentation, except for #7 which was by Mark Eisinger in this 19 December 2004 Antarctic Sun article about the move.
Have a look around inside the station!

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