It's already my 7th day down at South Pole and today should be the day of my first real outdoor
hardware activity! So far, I was well pampered inside the station working on my software tasks for IceCube
which is an Astroparticle Physics Experiment, in detail a Neutrino Observatory at South Pole and the
reason why I am down here. I should write an intro article to IceCube at some point in this blog!
So Ralf, the responsible IceCube manager for the IceCube "Polies", suggested that the Newbies, that is Martin Wolf and me, should get
some field work experience. So lets get it on! I was pretty ecxited! The first task was to start the Ski-Doo
in order to drive out to the ICL (IceCube Laboratory).
It took more than 5 minutes and 3 men in best shape (me included ;)
to get this M****x started (picture)! I was already at my physical limits at that point...
It is not so bad to be outside if you have
your extreme cold weather gear but if your're sweating and get wet underneeth: that's a problem sometimes. But we were
alright, were prepared with heat packs all over the place: in the gloves, boots, pockets, everywere.
So we got that damn thing started and hooked the sly to it and drove out there.
Sitting on a 2cm thick plastic slay hooked up on a freaking Ski-Doo, running over 3000km thick ice with 20 mph is something that I won't forget.
After we got the flags that we would use to mark the IceCubes detectors positions (86 holes) and the heavy drill equipment we were cruising
over the ice in a quite random manner in order to find the a point to start with.
This is no kindergarden, this is really manly, tough work! It take three people, one is driving the Ski-Doo, one is drilling and the last is putting the flag in this two feet deep hole.
OK, I have to admit that the real heavy drilling for IceCube looks different. That is a hot water drilling as deep as 2500 meter under the surface!
But, hey, everybody starts a big business small, right?!
hardware activity! So far, I was well pampered inside the station working on my software tasks for IceCube
which is an Astroparticle Physics Experiment, in detail a Neutrino Observatory at South Pole and the
reason why I am down here. I should write an intro article to IceCube at some point in this blog!
So Ralf, the responsible IceCube manager for the IceCube "Polies", suggested that the Newbies, that is Martin Wolf and me, should get
some field work experience. So lets get it on! I was pretty ecxited! The first task was to start the Ski-Doo
in order to drive out to the ICL (IceCube Laboratory).
 |
| The ICL and Martin presenting it |
 |
| This is M****x |
It took more than 5 minutes and 3 men in best shape (me included ;)
to get this M****x started (picture)! I was already at my physical limits at that point...
It is not so bad to be outside if you have
your extreme cold weather gear but if your're sweating and get wet underneeth: that's a problem sometimes. But we were
alright, were prepared with heat packs all over the place: in the gloves, boots, pockets, everywere.
So we got that damn thing started and hooked the sly to it and drove out there.
Sitting on a 2cm thick plastic slay hooked up on a freaking Ski-Doo, running over 3000km thick ice with 20 mph is something that I won't forget.
 | |
| This is Ralf & MArtin on the Ski-Doo on which the red sled is hooked up to. That sled |
 |
| Me and the light drill |
 |
| MArtin, Ralf, the flag and the drill for hole #30 |
After we got the flags that we would use to mark the IceCubes detectors positions (86 holes) and the heavy drill equipment we were cruising
over the ice in a quite random manner in order to find the a point to start with.
This is no kindergarden, this is really manly, tough work! It take three people, one is driving the Ski-Doo, one is drilling and the last is putting the flag in this two feet deep hole.
 |
| Another pic of me and the drill |
 |
| Heavy outdoor worker |
OK, I have to admit that the real heavy drilling for IceCube looks different. That is a hot water drilling as deep as 2500 meter under the surface!
 |
| The Firn drill is used to drill through the compacted snow, or firn layer, down to the actual ice which is about 50 meters. This is done before main drilling to save water that would otherwise disappear into the snow. Photo by: Hagar Landsman/NSF |
But, hey, everybody starts a big business small, right?!
No comments:
Post a Comment