IceCube Construction Complete!

alcohol in the workplace?

A significant...er...last! After 7 seasons of drilling...starting on 29 January 2005 with ONE hole for that season, the last 7 of the 86 strings were installed during the 2010-11 summer. The drilling of the last hole, #80 (an interesting number, coincidentally the originally planned number of strings) was completed at 0500 18 December 2010. Deployment of the digital optical modules (DOMs) was completed at 1612 that day, with final tieoff a couple of hours later. Above is one of the official group hero shots (CC). Here is the IceCube press release and the Antarctic Sun article.

another party
Another group picture, this one shows both of the drill towers (CC).
having the last ball
Here's a group hero shot with the last DOM to be deployed (RS).
the real people
A shot of the actual final deployment crew (JR).
sign here
The last DOM was heavily autographed. To keep track of them, all of the DOMs have names...this one is "Moa." (RS)
the hole thing
And here it goes down the hole (RS).
balls to the wall

Multiple cameras were deployed with string #80...and video was taken with occasional text commentary. Watch it freeze! Like watching paint dry? Not.

ghost town?
After all was said and done, some stuff was retrograded, but most of the buildings were stashed away on the berm for ??. Here's Dennis Duling standing in front of some of them (TH).
 poster, child


Here's a project poster celebrating the completion of string installation...

Credits: CC is Chad Carpenter; RS is Robert Schwarz; JR is James Roth; TH is Tom Hutchings...NSF. Most of the pictures come from the IceCube public gallery