Daniel Leussler:

It turns out that there’s always plenty to do at the South Pole.

Work has slowed down considerably since the flood of incoming new people has become a trickle. I always have things to do, but it’s become more of a make-your-own-project kind of thing, mixed with cleaning up the clutter that’s left over from the rush of turnover. My focus has been on revamping the inventory system, which is currently a surprisingly low-tech Excel spreadsheet that’s in poor shape. Since I’ve done some scripting on OS X but none on Windows, I’ve taken this as an excuse to learn Powershell, Microsoft’s relatively new scripting/programming language. My pet project is Spo-Inventory, a script which queries all the workstations in our Active Directory OU and writes info about them to a persistent XML file for internal storage, and a prettied-up HTML file on the webserver for retrieving information about a device. I’ve labeled it as version 1.0 right now since I can actually use it to inventory machines, but every time I finish adding a feature I think of a new one I want.

I haven’t mentioned it much in this blog, but one of the best things about Pole is that we have a fairly well-kept music room, with many guitars, an upright electric bass, a drumkit, a keyboard, and an assortment of accessories. I’ve been heading down to play almost every evening since I’ve been here, unless otherwise occupied; it’s pretty common to run into someone else, but they’re usually looking for someone to play with anyway. The musicians here range from absolute novices to old pros, and generally multiple bands will form to play for events. I’ve been playing with a bluegrass/folk group that Mark (a longtime Icegoer) usually runs, and I’ve been working on forming a Violent Femmes cover band tentatively called “Violet Phlegm” starring myself on bass, Eli on vocals (and occasionally mandolin), Orin on drums, and our choice of one or two Johns on the guitar.

I’ve also been playing soccer once a week in the gym, which is unbelievably exhausting at this altitude. We play 4 on 4 in a tiny gym, with 1-3 subs ready on the sidelines. The first game I played I probably spent more time out than in, wheezing and chugging water. Playing soccer indoors is faster than on a field, since the ball never goes out and you can use the walls to bounce around people.

The satellite will be going down soon, so I’m going to finish this post and leave plenty to talk about in the future. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Satellites

The satellite that provides the majority of our coverage is called GOES-3 (pronounced like the word “goes”), an ancient weather satellite whose orbit became too wild to serve its original purpose years ago. Geostationary orbit is perfect for communications satellites, enabling them to be effectively stationary over one spot on the planet by orbiting over the equator fast enough that they complete an orbit in one sidereal day.  We’re as far as you can get from the equator here, so standard communications satellites stay well below our horizon, at least while they have sufficient fuel to maintain their position – once that runs out, the sun and moon tug the satellite out of their preferred spot, causing them to draw something like a figure-8 over the equator and allowing them to make contact with our dishes.

GOES-3 is old enough that it’s no longer useful to anybody, so we get it all to ourselves. This means that it’s nice and predictable, covering a little under 7 hours  of each day and beginning its pass 4 minutes earlier each day. Having a computer job, I get to enjoy its coverage while I’m at work, but others aren’t so lucky – if you’re working away from a computer, and GOES finishes around 2pm like it does currently, you might get 15 minutes over your lunch break to catch some satellite time. That’s where TDRS 3 and 4 come in, providing higher-speed passes later in the evening. They’re still viable satellites to NASA, so we buy time on them along with all their other clients, usually resulting in a few hour-long chunks around dinner time and later.

I’m going to skip that huge post for now, and just try to give an update on the Pole now that I’ve been here almost 2 weeks. I’ll split things up into categories for easier reading, and also to help myself focus.

The cold

Yes, it’s cold here. The average temp right now tends to hover around -40F, with windchill in the -60F to -80F range. It’s not really as bad as it sounds though, as you just get in the habit of wearing long underwear all the time, and your gear is designed for even worse. On my walk to work from summer camp (where the people who don’t need to live in the station are), I usually wear a set of light long underwear, my regular street clothes, my Carhartt overalls, my red parka (”Big Red”, in USAP lingo), a polar fleece neck gaiter (which is great), a hat with ear flaps, and my goggles (mostly just because it’s incredibly bright outside, and sunglasses tend to fog easily). If it’s bad, I’ll put up my hood.

Walking to work in the morning is probably the most cold I endure, since it’s probably a five minute walk ending at DZ (Destination Zulu), which is the windiest place outside the station due to the airfoil effect of the building. If I’m just outside for a little bit, I can get away with much less; last night I walked from my Jamesway to Altie Meadows (the central summer camp building, housing laundry facilities and bathrooms) with just my street clothes, my Carhartt jacket, and sunglasses. Without any wind -40F isn’t bad at all, as you quickly learn from being in the Beer Can (the large metal enclosed staircase on the end of the station). It’s uninsulated and generally the same temperature as the outside air, but you really don’t even need a coat in there. You just have to remember not to touch things with your bare hands, as they’re still very cold.

The food

The food is decent and plentiful, although like any place you’re not always going to like everything that’s offered. I definitely eat more here than I would at home, partially because it’s free and already prepared, and partially because you need more calories to keep warm here. Rumor has it that the average person needs around 5,000 calories per day to maintain their health at the Pole, but I’m not sure I can pack away that much. Everybody on station is very big on eliminating food waste, because anything you take but don’t eat needs to be flown back to McMurdo, and then shipped back to California. Most people clean their plates pretty thoroughly before bringing them to the dish pit.

The Jamesways

Yes, I live in a tent. It’s a large tent, with about 12 rooms in mine, and they’re separated by plywood walls on the sides and either plywood doors or curtains towards the hallway. My room is small, with just enough space for a bed and me. It’s a little chilly in there, but I think that’s because of an issue with the vent over my part of the jamesway. However, the floor is always very cold, and you quickly learn not to leave anything on there that you’d like to wear the next day, like pants or shoes.

The jamesways that people sleep in are designated as quiet spaces 24 hours a day, to accommodate people working any shift, so the only activities you do in your room are sleeping and reading. There is a wireless network that covers the entire summer camp, but since the satellite hours rarely coincide with when you’d be in your jamesway, it’s mostly just for checking your work email (which is stored locally, and can push through the Iridium satellite network 24/7) and browsing the shared drives.

The internet

The south pole is obviously not a prime spot to run a wire to, so our link to the outside world is exclusively through satellites. Specifically, GOES and TDRS 3/4, neither of which is available all the time.  Which reminds me that I have 8 minutes of internet left, so I’m going to finish this post and leave everybody waiting for more.