The story continues...
Manager: Scott Hulse; population 50 (list and photo)
...yet another record. In addition to the elevated dorm, several summer camp hypertats are interconnected with tunnels for winter berthing. Support contractor changes from ASA to Raytheon Polar Services Co. (RPSC) (4/1) Australian AST/RO astrophysicist Rodney Marks dies suddenly (5/12).
Rodney during his first winter in 1998, as photo- graphed by Robert Schwarz. Rodney continued to share his love of life and astronomy with his fellow Pole residents (and the rest of the world) up until his death. Here is a page of his March 2000 sunset photos.
Other winter medical problems include two broken arms and the Doctor's case of sciatica Power plant construction continues on schedule Dark Sector Lab (DSL) interior construction continues
This is the DSL as it appeared in December 2000, still unoccupied (and lacking blue siding panels)...Completion was deferred due to changing priorities. The structure is on the south side of MAPO (NSF photo by Jack Corbin).
Early season flights include an NSF-chartered Basler twin turbo aircraft, actually a rebuilt and as-new DC-3 transiting from PA to McMurdo.
This is a view of the aircraft parked in front of the station. This aircraft visited Pole last January in support of a Fox News-sponsored private geology expedi- tion; this time it is chartered to support USAP field parties. This photo is courtesy Steven McLachlan and photographer Scott Smith; Here is a link to more Basler photos from Steven McLachlan's site. More info from Basler on the aircraft itself...
Skiway shortened from 14,000' to 12,000' to save maintenance time and fuel, the NYANG said the shorter strip was adequate. The width has been increased from 250' to 320'... Steel erection for the new elevated structure commences
The first of the large "saddle trusses" is lifted into place on 21 November. This truss will support the first floor of the huge new 2-story elevated structure. In the foreground you see the MASSIVE rigid steel spread footings which will support the structre; behind the truss is the lower portion of the "circulation tower" which will provide stair and elevator access between the buried and elevated portions of the station. Here's another photo looking the other way, courtesy Katy Jensen (NSF photos)
"SPARCLE Palace" installed at the edge of the Clean Air sector southeast of ARO (12/22) for this one-year University of Washington project
Here's the fresh new building a few days after setting.
It later was adorned with life rings and other nautical
decor as seen on w/o Steve Hudson's site. SPARCLE is the
"SP Atmospheric Radiation and Cloud LIDAR Experiment...so
the project studied climatology vs longwave radiation,
including "diamond dust" ice crystal formation ("sparcle"
as it were). One of the instruments was the SPT--no, not
THAT one, but the "South Pole Transmissometer." It sent
an infrared beam out 1 km or so and back (reflected) to
measure amospheric clarity. The photo at left is from TEA
summer assistant Richard Jones. Here is another one of
Richard's photos of the place a bit earlier in construc-
tion. As with other quality buildings, this one has since been recycled. During the 2007
winter it was adopted as the smoking area, as documented by this common drive photo.
Bouldering wall equipment installed in the gym
Tunnelers complete 2000-foot utilidor system using the CRREL
boring rig and some "hard snow" mining
9-meter MARISAT/GOES antenna tested successfully (1/18)
Here is the dish being lifted into place on 12/20 on the "RF pad" almost a mile south of the station. An associated "RF building" was also built nearby. Last year COMSAT (subse- quently bought by Lockheed Martin) moved their MARISAT F-2, the oldest (1976) INMARSAT satellite, to a new (almost) geo- synchronous orbit, visible from Pole, over the Atlantic Ocean. Broadband satellite availability should totals more than 15 hours/day when the new link is working.(Antarctic Sun photo by winter SM Jerry Macala)
Dark Sector Lab completion deferred due to work on the MARISAT facilities Significant rebuilding of cryo barn to house 3 1000-gallon Wessington liquid helium dewars New power plant goes online (1/20)
The new power plant complete and in operation. This view is looking upwind, the control room and water treatment room are through the doors to the right in the background. More photos and information...
Final insulated panel installed on new station (1/24)
Installation of the final panel is marked by the American flag...this is the south end of wing A1 which now houses winter berthing for 50 folks. (NSF photo by John Rand) (Antarctic Sun, 1/28/01) Steven McLachlan has an excellent series of summer construction photos thanks to Scott Smith, Neil Conant and Jerry Marty.
Feeders from the new power plant to the new garage and the elevated station (construction power) completed and energized--this reduced the load on the old power plant switchgear to below its 450KW limit so that parallel operation of the emergency (summer camp) plant was no longer required.
Manager: Jerry Macala; population 50 (list and photo) Construction continues inside the new elevated station
Inside the second floor of the new station; this view is looking from the "upper berthing" area (wing A1) north to wing A2 towards the new galley. The galley windows you see at the far end overlook the Pole. One of the first tasks after enclosing the structure was getting some heat turned on so the winter interior work could proceed (photo from Dana Hrubes)
Twin Otter arrives from Rothera on historic winter medevac mission (4/25) to rescue Dr. Ron Shemenski, who had been diagnosed with pancreatitis after gall stone problems
Pole residents greet the arriving flight, chartered from Kenn Borek Air of Calgary. On-deck temperature was -92°F (-69°C). In addition to the replacement doctor and previous w/o Betty Carlisle, the aircraft carried over 100 lbs of salt, which had already run out. The full story and photo credit is here.
Extensive troubleshooting gets the MARISAT data link back on line Piping completed in new outfall utilidor News of 9/11 disaster causes shock, concern and mourning at Pole
Construction begins on new SPRESO seismic vault
This is for the next generation of seismo, the "South Pole Remote Earth Science Observatory," a quiet site 5 miles south of the station near the old Pomerantz Land site. The drilling was being done by Ice Core Drilling Services (ICDS). The 6-inch instruments are installed in a 10-inch casing, requiring a 12" hole 885' deep. This was done by making the initial hole with a 6" core drill, and then reaming it out. These first 2 holes were drilled this season, quickly. The third hole (one is spare) would be drilled in 2002-03, a bit more slowly, to provide a core for ITASE (photo from Jerry Marty). Tunnel crew shows up to dig side tunnels for future water wells
This aerial view looking south shows the foundation beams for the next phase of elevated station construc- tion. Between the station arches and summer camp is a large temporary excavation dug for access to the new utility tunnel by the CRREL tunneling machine. In the south wall of this trench a parachute dated 1952 was discovered (my souvenir piece of it); presumably this was left over from the early station airdrops which were the main means of supply to Pole until the arrival of the LC-130's and their fuselage tanks in the early 1960's. photo and parachute piece courtesy Jerry Marty and Steven McLachlan Successful gremlin hunt conducted in the new and old power plants after a series of outages and control problems which started during the winter.
The first columns for the next pod of the new station were erected on 17 November; this photo was taken around the 6th of December when all the columns had been erected. Note the large downwind snow ramp, not a snowdrift but an access for material delivery. This would later cause differential set- tlement problems. photo from Jerry Marty and Steven McLachlan
Time capsule installed in the new station grade beams, to be opened in 2052 more info Cosray platform raised
The platform was designed for jacking and had been raised at least once before. Since this project was been shut down when skylab went cold, the future of these smiley-faced red boxes is uncertain (Jack Corbin, NSF)
Russian single-engined Antonov-3 aircraft arrives from PH (1/8) crammed with 14 aboard including the Russian Duma president. It fails to take off, creating a signicant international incident
After the completion of the visit, the aircraft, well, wouldn't start. Eventually the Russian dignitaries were flown back to McM and NZ (with an $80,000 bill to Russia) while the tourists had to pay for an ANI ticket back to PH. This picture courtesy Scott Smith...his complete story is here while Steven McLachlan has many more pictures on his site
First formal outdoor "South Pole Marathon" conducted by ANI ends with 5 finishers and more than one controversy (1/21) (race account by winner Richard Donovan) Temporary fuel cooling system installed in power plant Planned winter 2002 occupancy of the new station berthing and galley deferred because of cargo delays and settlement problems New rodwell placed in service (2/13)
This was actually a fairly fast-tracked one-season project--the building was constructed, and the well was drilled to an initial depth of 180' earlier in the season. Meanwhile, underneath this structure, the side tunnel connection and piping systems were constructed and put in service (more info and photos on the building and rodwell)
There had been 348 flights planned this season; more than 50 were cancelled resulting in a shortage of cargo that would plague the project next season. Meanwhile, the differential settlement of the buried and elevated portions of the station has prevented successful utility connections, particularly between the beer can and the first modules built last season (seen here in a photo from February 2001 courtesy Steven McLachlan/Jerry Marty). Meanwhile, differen- tial settlement caused caused problems with floor and wall installation in the elevated structure. After further study the utility connec- tions would get redesigned and the settlement issues would be addressed by jacking. Stay tuned...
Manager: Katrin Hafner; population 51 (list and photo) Construction continues...NSF delays the official completion date for the new station, in part because Congress approved funding to increase the berthing from 110 to 150 The NMCB-71 signboard is removed from the biomed arch for shipment to Port Hueneme
Here, carpenters Kevin Bjella and George Prehn stand in front of the 4x8 plywood sign in the biomed arch (the rest of the story)
Another winter of medical news...this time non life threatening, as met guy Dar Gibson has surgery to repair a knee tendon
The operation had help from what has been become known as "telemedicine"--assistance from the US for Dr Timothy Pollard (the guy in the white hat) using the latest batch of electronics that has shown up since Jerri Nielsen's problems. (NSF photo by Jon Berry)(press release and more photos)
Extensive jacking operations underway to level the new elevated station
The wood covers have been removed from the columns to expose the jacking points...work is underway in early December. Caption: Workers raise portions of the new elevated station, bringing the silver staircase cylinder and main station back to the same level. Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun
New transport--2 Pisten Bully tractors shipped in (11/18) to support more extensive operations away from the station
One of these German vehicles, more commonly used at ski resorts, here seen on one of those 20km snow stake trips. Pole NOAA veteran Andy Clarke is driving, and ice scientist Joe McConnell is to the right (photo by Eric Muhs)
One such project--a 5-mile antenna aimed at Palmer constructed for the Stanford VLF research program
At left is the map of the new antenna, constructed similarly to the 26-mile dipole at Siple. Actually this project is based on Siple technology--some of the transmitter components were saved from Siple before it closed in 1988. The project website is here.
Another remote site--the SPRESO project--the new seismo vault in the quiet sector. New instruments were installed and are in operation concurrently with the existing ones for one year
Pulling out the drill. There are 3 985-foot (300m) drill holes in which the seismographs (2 to use plus one spare) are installed. The SPRESO site is 5 miles south of the station in the "Quiet Sector" formerly known as Pomerantz Land (map). The map is from the VERY LARGE project science SPRESO pdf page copied from the Pole server. In this photo Bella Bergeron, far left, pushes the shaft through and Terry Gacke helps from the other end as Denise Braun and Matthew Pender watch (Antarctic Sun photo by Kristan Hutchison)
Solar seismic project sets up at another remote site in the Pomerantz Land quiet sector
The telescope is on the surface, here you see Paulo Rapex from the University of Rome in front of the ramp to the buried milvan. To avoid interference, the generator and berthing hut is 1/4 mile away. This was a summer-only project.
Construction resumes at DSL
The facade, stairs, and a penthouse were installed the Dark Sector Lab, the shell of which was erected in 1999-2000 summer. The penthouse was originally in- tended to house the all-sky camera and other science projects located in Skylab. Plans were for it to be occupied during the 2003-04 summer, but plans were changed again, and science occupancy (by BICEP) did not occur until the 2005-06 summer after the penthouse was removed. (another photo at the end of the 2002-03 season)
Manager: Bill Henriksen; population 58 (list and photo) Occupancy of the new station authorized (3/4), delayed from summer by fire alarm problems. Folks moved in the next day
Here's SSL Chris Martin inspecting his winter room in the new station shortly before the end of summer (info/credit).
My page of 2002-03 photos in and around the new station is here
Massive work effort to move food and equipment to the new galley, hampered by the broken beer can elevator..."last supper" in the dome galley served on 3/6 with food service in the new galley the next day. Hacker attacks put the Pole web site and weather watcher behind a firewall for the forseeable future First 300 club to utilize the elevated station sauna (mid September). The parti- cipants started in the new sauna and finished in the dome sauna... Another medevac...environmental guy Barry McCue has gall bladder problems and is flown north
Barry had gall bladder problems which first showed up on 8/25. After a second attack 10 days later the decision was made to get him to a hospital. The Twin Otters left Calgary on 9/8 and 9/9, after delays the medevac flight arrived Pole on 9/21 and headed back with Barry after a 12-hour layover. Barry made it to Houston 9/23 where surgery was successful. Because of this issue, NSF gave the 2004 w/o's (including those already at Pole) an additional gall bladder screening. (the full medevac story)
Kitchen equipment removed from dome galley, cooking area converted to freshie shack. dining area converted to gym with equipment from old Dome weight room...
and the freshie shack is demo'd (pictures of the demo and the old galley)
Fire in summer camp started by water pump, quickly extinguished with no building damage Partial solar eclipse (88%) on 11/23, the first visible at Pole since January 1990 Power plant phase rotation reversed (!?) Private aircraft appear...Jon Johanson's kit-built RV4 overflies...
Jon was supposed to go on to Ushuaia, but he was short on fuel so he turned around and landed at McMurdo...another strange story...
and Jennifer Murray's Bell 407 lands for a visit (and crashes 3 days later)
Jennifer and fellow pilot Colin Bodill arrived at Pole on 17 December after spending the night at a fuel cache 300 miles away. Here are the Pole photos and details on the venture.
SPTR (TDRSS) satellite comms equipment moved from elevated dorm to RF building Foundation pad prepared for the "Counting House," the central building for IceCube (this structure is the erstwhile el dorm, to be moved to the dark sector in 2004-05)
Meanwhile, the first major component of the IceCube hot water drilling system, this massive reel for the hot drilling water supply, was offloaded and assembled. Here's the "after" picture and more details about what else has been happening.
Dome weight room demolished
In January this venerable structure from the 76-77 era was made to go away. In the coming years the rest of the dome buildings will follow along. (photo page)
Successful construction season and a record 329 flights as planned! A3 (medical, computer, laundry, store and greenhouse spaces approved for occupancy (29 January) while B1, B2, and B3 are enclosed.
This picture shows the last steel member going up on B3 in early December. This was the first of 2 pods toget enclosed. B3 is primarily comms and admin, while B1 is summer berthing and the "emergency camp" area including the emergency generators which were set this season. All the pages of construction photos start here.
Manager: Pete Koson; population 75 (list and photo)...a new population record! New station store opened in A3 the last weekend in February; the old store/post office space above comms in the dome converted to a coffee/wine bar
Of course the new post office didn't get much action during the winter, but it was ready...here's Scott Smith's view of the place in November. Yes, those are some of the same old cachets...and on the window is a photo of another nearby post office, now closed-- with PK Swartz, the 1960-61 OIC and postmaster...
Massive storm hits Ross Island (5/16), perhaps the worst in 30 years, bringing
160+ mph wind gusts and lots of damage to McMurdo (details and photos)
New prefabricated food growth chamber ("greenhouse") assembled on the first floor
of A3
The facility was prefabbed and checked out at the University of Arizona, which had the prime contract for the project. Biologist/engineer Phil Sadler (who first worked at Pole as a construction GFA in the late 70s, and later developed the McM and Pole green- house concepts) was a principal designer. I've got more detail, links and references here.
New radome constructed over the Marisat/GOES/TDRSS (SPMGT) antenna (completed 17 December) Erstwhile Elevated Dorm towed across the runway to the dark sector ...as IceCube mobilizes a massive drill camp...and successfully drills one hole
Left, a portion of the drill camp (full sized panorama) as seen from MAPO. The hole reached a depth of 2517m on 27 January, and the string of 60 optical modules was lowered to a depth of 2450m and officially turned on by Jerry Marty on 29 January. The camp, or "Seasonal Equipment Site" (SES) was then demob'd to the berm for winter, this was completed on 8 February (common drive photo by Brian Pechan).
Official groundbreaking held in Dark Sector for 10-meter telescope project Chilean scientific traverse arrives from PH (1 December)
The traverse consisted of 3 sleds (left, seen parked at Pole) towed by a Swedish-made Berco TL-6 (Hagglunds-like) vehicle. The 13-man group took did glaciology and gravity measurements along the way, actually a continuation of the multi-year ITASE project. It was a very talented group--the science leader Gino Casassa had climbed Everest. Two men flew out from Pole; the rest of the group left about a week later after some repairs. They arrived back at PH on 31 December (common drive photos by Brian Pechan).
Russian team arrives to repair and fly out in that Antonov-3T
The aircraft had been parked on the berm since it had arrived in January 2002 and the engine couldn't be started. The provision of help may have had something to do with the charter of the Russian icebreaker Krasin that was arranged about the same time. Here's the rest of the story.
Second (known) marriage ceremony performed with great fanfare (1/16)
The principal characters were baker Erica Fickelsen and equipment operator John Johnstone, this ceremony was con- ducted by Cookie Jon (left, reading) in front of the new station. It happened a couple weeks before I showed up, but I thought that the leftover "Wedding in Progress" sign, which had been hung inside the beer can exit door, was a neat touch. This photo is from one of our w/o cooks Eric Duncan. Oh, when was the first wedding? Around 1986. That couple is still happily married, as (I hope) are Erica and John.
Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter lands at Pole (1/18) after flight from King George Island
Starting from Ushuaia, the two Brits Quentin Ross and Steve Steve Brooks (photo) flew from the Argentine station Jubany to PH, and then to Pole using AL&E fuel caches (range of the R44 with an auxiliary tank is less than 550 miles]. They landed 5 miles away from Pole and camped overnight awaiting landing clearance (press release). They flew back to PH; their aircraft was flown to PA aboard an AL&E operated Ilyushin IL-76. The same men crashed another helicopter 480 miles south of Cape Horn on a previous attempt in Jan- uary 2003 (ANAN story). Photos are from Robinson Helicopter.
New Cat 3406 "peaking generator" commissioned in the power plant--this unit, site rated at 229 KW, comes on automatically as load demand increases Water supply line installed between the rodwell and summer camp Old rodwell modules moved to the berms, perhaps for retrograde A4 and B4, the final 2 wings of the new elevated station, are successfully enclosed
At left, the last steel was erected on wing B4 on 19 January, this completes the steel erection for the new elevated station. Wing B4 includes the gym and exercise areas; wing A4 (just to the right of the crane boom) was enclosed earlier in January. A4 contains 66 more summer berthing (and winter beer and soda storage :) rooms.
...as conditional occupancy is granted (30 January) for wings B1 and B2.
Manager: Bill Henriksen; population 86 (list and pbotos)--yet another record, and our group includes 24 women Construction continued at a fast pace after station closing...as well as the next phase of demolition (2/21) as the bar is closed
Three days before this picture was taken I was sharing a couple of cold ones here...the last of many since 1976. The old galley/bar structure is the first of the main station buildings to disappear (well, since BIT bit the dust in 1996-97). This is one of several structures (along with the dome itself) to be carefully dismantled for future display by the Seabee Museum folks...by the way, this bar was originally constructed by Eric Merriam with help from his fellow 1987 w/o team.
The galley is followed by the dome greenhouse and fire shack
Here you don't see the fire shack or the greenhouse... they're gone. The fire shack was hauled out in one piece after the roof was removed.
Biomed is the next to go
By the end of April, the Biomed arch was empty except for the small electrical and comms substations...and a bit of associated comms wiring. Much of the storage area was relocated to the former galley site in the dome, as can be seen in our winterover picture
VIPER and AST/RO telescope operations completed and the instruments shut down... and for the first time the liquid helium supply does NOT run out. Construction continued on the last 3 wings--B3, B4 and A4
AST/RO and VIPER telescopes are packed up for retrograde... Science and musical instruments moved out of skylab into the elevated station
The first month of summer saw the CUSP, cosray and aurora lab stuff moved out of skylab into the B3 science lab and ARO (well, the cosray lab wasn't really moved since the long-running Bartol project wasn't funded; the cosmic ray detectors/neutron monitors were shut down on 22 November). This photo by Liesl Schernthanner is titled "skylab roof closed 112905" as documented by the sign. This was only a week after my departure from Pole, marked for the last time by my traditional toast to the memory of Gary Rosenberger as I watched my outgoing flight land from this vantage point.
DSL penthouse removed to clear the way for the BICEP telescope on the second floor Steel foundations for the new SPT "10-meter telescope" are installed Work proceeds on the new IceCube Laboratory
This is the moved and converted Elevated Dorm at the end of summer; the tower is one of two to provide cable entry into the second floor data area. Winter work was scheduled to provide for December 2006 conditional occupancy (more info)
Commissioning of the SOC (station operations center, the new "COMMS" in B3 proceeds with the first digital HF radio transmission (28 November) using the new radio system and antennas Installation of the gun-metal grey siding begun on the north face of the station Cargo office and DNF dug out and relocated closer to the flight line Summer NGA visitors include a British/Icelandic team driving a Ford E-series van
The 6-man team made the trip from Patriot Hills in only 69 hours in this heavily customized 6x6 vehicle, which had been flown to PH. After a campout at Pole, they drove back up north; the vehicle has now been shipped back to the UK (more photos, information), and link to the trip log).
New cryogenics building put together
Cryo was assembled in three sections, the left and right thirds were standalone modules built in 2004-05, the center portion was erected between them after the site (next to the balloon inflation facility, BIF, to the right) was raised and prepared. The large dewars used to transport liquid helium from outside are stored in the left section. Here is a marked-up aerial shot of the facility (NSF USAP photos). For the second year in a row it looks like the LHe will last all winter!
Conditional occupancy received for the last 3 wings of the elevated station (A4, B3 and B4) along with DSL and BICEP facilities
Manager: Liesl Schernthanner; population 64 (list and photos) Winter construction included interior work on the SPT annex to DSL ...the IceCube laboratory, counting house or whatever... Cryo And last but not least, the permanent gym floor was put down at the end of the winter, but as for the door and ramp at the south end...?? As for the dome demo...
here's the next step. Beginning in late March, the Annex was made to go away as seen here in this pic from John Neame (which I lightened up a bit, here's the original view. After this structure was gone, everything else went cold. Some gutting was done in science/upper berthing...
...and comms is history
The IceCube lab gets conditional occupancy (12/8) and stuff is moved in Heavy construction continues on the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and its building Cryo is done, officially completely occupied Airdrop...after several years of discussion, a proof-of-concept airdrop happens
The Air Force folks from McChord who fly the C-17's into McMurdo did this drop of 4 pallets, 70,000 lbs of...flour and similar dry food. Well, it was a test...
Satcom upgrade of Pole and White Sands, NM earth stations provides massive band- width boost from 5 to ~60 Mbps, well above the target 45 Mbps--good news for IceCube and SPT that will soak much of that Rodwell #3 drilled; to be conditioned until 2007-08 before placing into service Two 25,000 gallon fuel bladders installed to ensure enough winter heat and power SPASE-2 project shut down. Most recently this effort had been operated by the UW IceCube folks (the Bartol website) SPT success--first light on Jupiter on 16 February, 2 days before....
Manager: Andy Martinez; population 54 (list and photos) Dome demo continues...the science building...foundations...the old garage/carp shop/gym, bar or whatever are now history
...began with the "soft opening"--a few Basler flights to move key people in and out. Oft talked about, but not done until this season First things first...demoing the old arch power plant
The venerable and sooty building had been mostly gutted during the winter, but most of the walls as well of the foundation went away in November 2007. The (de)construction photo pages...
The new cargo arch (well, logistics facility) construction gets underway with the removal of the dome entrance sign
This is just the beginning of a major makeover of the domed station entrance--namely, making it go away...photo courtesy of Thorsten Stezel- berger. Yes, there are many more photos here.
Manager: Katie Hess; population 60 (list and photos) Construction of the new Logistics Facility (LO) continues