Another Launch Coming

Things have been busy recently, keeping track of where our payload is and how it is doing.  We successfully launched on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 10:44am local time.  It's been fun watching our payload and seeing where it's going.  For more info on all that stuff, check out the blog I've been updating recently for BARREL.  It's at: http://2010mcmurdo.blogspot.com/

And, we'll be launching our second balloon in just a few hours (if all goes to plan and the surface weather cooperates).  Wish us luck!  You can watch online, too, if you go to http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice1011.htm and click on Real Time Video.

Also, there's another balloon launch happening before ours.  It's a HUGE balloon, roughly 40 million cubic feet, compared to our measly 300,000 cubic feet.  For those who are mathematically challenged, that's over 100 times larger than our balloon!  You'll be able to watch that live, as well.  No guarantee on how good the video is, though, or even if the camera is aimed correctly at the launch site.  This huge balloon is scheduled to launch between 5-7am local time, which is 11am-1pm EST on Friday, December 17.  As soon as the big balloon is launched, we'll be next in line, and it'll be an hour or two before we'll be ready.  And of course, this is ballooning, so the weather could change at the last minute and everything could be cancelled or delayed.

Brett

2010-12-18 12:45am (NZDT)

1st Launch Attempt Cancelled

We had to cancel the launch today.  Surface winds were too strong (5-7 knots).  It's unfortunate, but we don't want to risk damaging the balloon as we inflate it.  Better safe than sorry.

We did, though, get to put our payload fully together, and we're going to leave it all "buttoned up," as we say, so that we're ready for the launch when we get our next chance.  We were able to verify that our payload worked fine, too, which is always good news!

Our "buttoned up" payload in front of Mount Erebus.

C'est moi!

A bunch of CSBF guys during inflation of the pilot balloon.
The "pi ball" is used to measure wind speeds near the earth's surface.
It is tethered by a string to the ground, and it tells the direction
and general speed of the wind.

We'll try again tomorrow!

Brett
2010-12-13 2:38pm (NZDT)

Launching VERY Soon!

Hi all,

It's a beautiful Monday morning here, and we are planning on launching our first BARREL payload very soon, within three hours of this posting!  You can check out the BARREL 2010 blog for more info, and you can go to CSBF's website for more info ( http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/ ).  If you click on the Antarctica 2010/2011 link, it'll take you to more info!

I'll update this later, when I can!  Busy morning now!

Brett
2010-12-13 8:17am (NZDT)

TP'd

This morning, I woke up and my dorm's hallway had been TP'd!  Antarctica style!

Antarctica Style:
Thou shalt not waste TP!

Brett
2010-12-11 4:23pm (NZDT)

The Rambling Entry (TRE)

Hi all,

It is now definitely warmer here at McMurdo Station than it is in my hometown in Minnesota!  It has been for a while, but I haven't officially noted it on this blog yet!  Lows here are now in the upper teens to mid twenties, with highs in the thirties and low forties!  (That's lows from -10 to -4 and highs from 0 to 6 celsius.)  Today, out at LDB, we experienced gusts of wind up to 28 knots with sustained winds between 5 to 10 knots.  I wish I had posted this kind of image more before because it is an easy way to express what the weather at LDB is like, but here's a chart of today's weather.  Note that weather at LDB can vary slightly or greatly from the weather at McMurdo station.

Weather at LDB today!
Image courtesy of the C. S. B. F. weather team.

And though I took these images yesterday, today looked much like this:

Mostly sunny, some clouds, very bright.
Many days are just like this.

And this:

Wow!

You may realize that I do not give many details on how my research is going on this blog.  Once I have some photos of a launch or something cool, I may put them up, but I think it's best if I don't put too many details of how my research is going on this private blog.  I will, say, briefly, though, that we are ready to launch our two balloons and are now waiting on good weather (both surface and stratospheric) to be in place before we launch.  We have not launched anything yet.  If you are interested in seeing some more, you'll need to go to the official BARREL 2010 blog, the link to which I posted here a few days ago.  I'm the one who keeps up that blog, along with my advisor Robyn, and it serves as one of the official BARREL websites where information can be disseminated as we see fit!  Judicious execution of public relations!  :-)  Well, not quite...  Robyn and I would truly like to post more to the blog, but often we have too much else to do and we're not as plenteous in the amount of details we publish!

I'm still having a blast in Antarctica!  Lots of fun, exciting things happening.  More exciting things about to happen (balloon launches!!!)  Lots of good people to hang out with.  I watched a movie last night with some fellow balloon guys, after the hut tour.  We all agree that "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is the worst film ever made!  I've been swing dancing twice, since I arrived at McMurdo.  I've become involved with the photography club here at McMurdo, I've become the only tenor in the McMurdo Choir, attended chapel and several interesting Bible Studies, I've been to numerous science lectures and travelogues, watched many movies, played pool, hiked around, gone on hut tours, seen seals, and gone penguin hunting (though I still haven't shot a penguin...with my camera).  There's simply plenty to do!

I think that's quite enough ramblings for one night!  (I'm allowed a rambling entry every now and again, right, eh?)  Hah!

Brett

2010-12-10 11:03pm (NZDT)

Royal Terror Theatre

About a week ago, I attended a training session to become an official Historic Hut Tour Guide.  I passed.  Last night, I led my first tour out to Discovery Hut on Hut Point, just 0.52 miles from my dorm!  I brushed up (a bit) on my history of the hut for the tour, and found out some interesting facts!

- The design for the hut was an Australian Outback design that was popular because it could remain cool in the sweltering Outback temperatures.

- The hut was not intended to be living quarters.  It was a storage facility, science laboratory, and theater.  In fact, Scott's 1901-1904 National Antarctic Expedition referred to the hut as the Royal Terror Theater.  The men would put on plays to entertain themselves inside the hut!

- The hut remained in use through Shackleton's 1914-1917 Trans-Antarctic Expedition, until Shackleton arrived on January 10, 1917 to rescue those who were stranded there.  The backstory to this is long, but the essence is that members of Shackleton's team had arrived at Ross Island to lay resupply stations for Shackleton, who was planning to have crossed the continent of Antarctica on land, starting from the other side.  However, Shackleton never even set foot on the continent.  His ship, the Endurance, was destroyed by sea ice, stranding all 28 men on board.   [...long heroic story...]  Once Shackleton and the crew of Endurance were safe, Shackleton returned to Ross Island to rescue the men who were stranded there.

There's so much more to the history!  It's rich, fascinating, and absolutely astonishing.  It is a quieting experience to walk through the historic huts and think about those who inhabited them in the past.  It's been nearly 109 years since Robert Falcon Scott erected Discovery Hut and many brave souls have found refuge there in harsh times.  And at the same time, it's only been 109 years since Scott first wintered on Ross Island.  In light of human history, it's a privilege for me to be part of such early exploration of Antarctica.

The Royal Terror Theatre (Scott's Discovery Hut) on Hut Point.
Photographed from across Winter Quarters Bay.

7 of the 9 folks who put up with me on my first official tour!
These are all fellow LDB workers, and great people!

Brett

2010-12-10 4:40pm (NZDT)

Check out these other blogs!

Hi all,

Here are some other blogs you might find worth checking out!

The BARREL blog for this, the 2010, Campaign at McMurdo Station.
http://2010mcmurdo.blogspot.com/

The BARREL blog for last year's, the 2009, Campaign at McMurdo Station.
http://barrel2009.blogspot.com/

A blog for the RENU rocket, being launched from Norway concurrently with this year's BARREL campaign.  RENU is a rocket to study the aurora.  Kristina Lynch is a professor at Dartmouth, as well as a Co-Investigator for this project.  Some of my fellow Dartmouth graduate students work on this project and are currently in Norway and Svalbard.  There isn't too great of a direct connection between BARREL and RENU, but this is still pretty cool stuff!
http://renurocket.blogspot.com/

This blog is also for RENU, and is written by my fellow graduate students at Dartmouth and their advisor, Professor Kristina Lynch.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~aurora/renu/updates.html

Another blog for RENU, written by a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire.  This one has photos and movies and story telling, much like my blog.
http://alaskanrocketadventure.blogspot.com/

Yet another RENU blog page, from the rocket range where it is being launched.
http://www.rocketrange.no/?page_id=751&campaign_id=1

Brett
2010-12-07 10:55am (NZDT)

A Storm's Snowy Conclusion

This is the conclusion of the "A Storm" post.  Check out these awesome photos of the 7 foot snow drifts!

Well, this first photo is just a quick reminder of what the area looked like just before the storm hit!  This photo was taken at 2:12pm, just as the fast winds were arriving at the LDB site!  I took this photo while I was standing inside the building holding the door open because the winds were too fierce and I didn't want to take my camera outside!

December 1, 2010 at 2:12pm
Wind condition: fierce 35-40 knots
Note: the snow being carried by the winds blurs out the surface of the horizon
Note also: the ground is flat all the way out to the stand on the left.

Monday, December 6, 2010 at 8:40am
Winds: low.
The snow drift is higher than me!
Note the stand in the background--it's the same as the previous photo.

Cool beans!

Sweet!!!

Brett
2010-12-06 11:48pm (NZDT)

A Storm

(Note: if you click on an image on my blog, the site will load the photo in better resolution for your further enjoyment!  I highly recommend this for many of these images!)

I thought about titling this entry, "The Storm," but to have done so would have implied that the storm about which I'm going to share is something strong and extraordinary.  That is not the case.  Here at McMurdo there are three levels of weather.  Condition 3 is "normal" and Condition 1 is the worst.  However, the limits on what is defined as "normal" are extraordinarily  generous!  The following document defines the designation of the three conditions:

As you can see, it requires a LOT of bad weather in order for it to be even Condition 2 here!  The weather has reached Condition 2 severity out at the LDB site a few times in the past 72 hours, but for the most part it's still been Condition 1.  Therefore, I do not feel justified in calling it, "The Storm."

Around noon on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, a low pressure concentration to the north of Ross Island began bringing in some strong weather.  Our LDB weatherman had been predicting strong winds and some snow for several days, and sure enough, it arrived right on time.  The weatherman also predicted that the region of low pressure would stick around for a few days, sustaining the bad weather.  Yet again he was correct: the storm is still here and quite strong!

The buildings at LDB are well insulated from the cold, but are not well insulated against wind!  The galley, for example, had several snow drifts that had come in from spaces in the tent where it is tied down to the ground.  And when strong winds come, we can feel the temperature drop inside the high-bay buildings!  Further, sometime Wednesday night, the heat went out in the big high-bay that I work in, so when we arrived on Thursday morning it was only 40F!  I spent practically all day with extra layers, hats, and gloves on!

Now for the story pictorial: The approach of "a storm."  Each of the following pictures is of roughly the same view.  The 1st photo is taken from the raised platform visible in the 2nd and 3rd.  Any "blurriness" in these photos is actually just snow being carried by the wind!

December 1, 2010 at 1:50pm
Wind condition when I took the photo: low to none

December 1, 2010 at 2:05pm
Wind: sustained low winds

December 4, 2010 at 1:15pm
Wind: 20-25 knots, with gusts even greater

This kind of storm is common for McMurdo and is called a Herbie.  In the first photo you can make out White Island (on the left side of the photo) and barely make out Black Island (on the right side of the photo.)  The region between these two islands is called Herbie Alley, because the winds often come right out of that direction and bring strong weather to Ross Island!  It is often said that once Black and White Islands become obscured, it is only a matter of minutes before the weather hits McMurdo Station.  True enough!

The winds in the past few days have been absolutely astounding!  I think it's a blast, because it's very rare that I've ever experienced such great, sustained winds!  At times, it's challenging just to walk outside between buildings at LDB.  Here's a short clip.  I was trying to go outside while taking video, but I never even made it out the door!  The door almost smacked into my camera!

Haha!  :-)

Thanks for reading my blog!

Brett
2010-12-04 5:08pm (NZDT)

Cape Evans - Terra Nova Hut

Here are a few more photos from my trip to Cape Evans:

Robert Falcon Scott's
Terra Nova Hut
erected in 1911 at Cape Evans
This Hut is often referred to as Scott's Hut.

Scott's Hut is in the process of being restored,
it looks much like it would have back in Scott's day.
This is the kitchen area.
The rest of the inside is equally as stunning.

The area surrounding the hut is littered with artifacts
that are protected by the Antarctica Treaty due to their
historical significance.  Things like wooden crates,
tin cans, dog bones, all still lie undisturbed.

Mount Erebus as viewed from Scott's Hut at Cape Evans.

This is a view of Hut Point Peninsula, as seen from Cape Evans.
In the foreground is Big Razorback Island.  The furthest point
on the peninsula to the right is where McMurdo is,
approximately 15 miles away.

It's time I posted a map of Ross Island.  I love maps!

McMurdo Station is at the tip of the Hut Point Peninsula, located
at the southwestern corner of Ross Island.  Cape Evans is roughly a third of the
island north-northwest of McMurdo Station.  And the Long Duration Balloon
site (LDB) is at roughly the "Ice Aerodrome" marker, southeast of McMurdo.

Brett

2010-12-03 11:54pm (NZDT)

The Skuary and the Lonely Skua

This past Sunday, I took a trip out to Cape Evans, about 15 miles northwest of McMurdo Station, but still on Ross Island.  Cape Evans was the headquarters for Robert Falcon Scott's 2nd expedition to Antarctica from 1910-1913.  The hut at Cape Evans is named "Scott Hut," and I'll post some of my photos of it soon!

When Scott first discovered this cape in 1902 he named it "The Skuary."  As I witnessed, it was probably because there was a sizable skua population there!  See all the skua in the center of the picture, in the pond's open water:

The Skuary

After discovering The Skuary in 1902, Scott pushed on south as far as open water would take his ship, the Discovery.  Though he intended to mainly live out of Discovery over the winter, Scott erected a hut on a point close by to the bay where Discovery spent her first winter in Antarctica.  The bay was thus christened "Winter Quarters Bay," the hut "Discovery Hut," and the point "Hut Point."

I spotted a lone skua while I was hiking out to Hut Point a few days ago:

The Lonely Skua

It may be difficult to spot the skua birds in these photos as they are on this page, so you may need to click on the photo to see in higher resolution.  Note, I also don't post the full resolution version of these photos because they'd be too large to upload and keep on the site.

These photos don't provide much in the way of perspective of the surroundings, but I thought they were neat photos of skuas.  Enjoy!

Brett

2010-11-30 3:02pm (NZDT)

The Seal of Approval

After a few busy days...another posting!  Short this time, since it's late here.

I've been doing lots of stuff, and have barely had time to look at all the photos I've taken!

Fortunately, we are now "launch ready" so we're just waiting on the go-ahead from some NASA safety folk and from the weatherman!

Here's a few photos of a seal I encountered on Sunday, near Cape Evans.  More to come later from this and other cool things I've been doing!

Up close and personal!

Do these photos have your seal of approval?  :-)

Brett
2010-11-30 12:33am (NZDT)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving!  Kind of.  Today is Thursday, November 25, 2010, but today is not officially a holiday here at McMurdo.  All of McMurdo, including us Long Duration Balloon (LDB) people, are working as usual today.  Except we out at LDB were able to celebrate by having a Thanksgiving Dinner!  We even had white table cloths today!

Thanksgiving out at the LDB galley!  Fancy!

The Thanksgiving meal had the traditional fare and was well done, thanks to the talented LDB chef and dining assistants!  Since they had to serve lunch as usual today, they decided to make traditional Thanksgiving food!  And then they decorated the galley special, too!  Very nice!

Now, McMurdo station will celebrate Thanksgiving officially on Saturday, November 27.  Then, the whole station will get the day off and celebrate with a full Thanksgiving dinner!  (Most support personnel at McMurdo station only have 1 day "off" a week: Sunday, so to have a two-day weekend is a special treat!)  I'm not even sure I'll take Saturday off, but even if not, it's jut great being able to be here in Antarctica!

I have some more cool photos from hikes I've been on in the past few days, so keep checking this blog out!

To all of you who are stateside,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brett

2010-11-25 1:58pm (NZDT)

The Answer to Diving: Ob Tube

In answer to my "Diving" post to this blog a few days ago, I shall now reveal where, of what, and how I took that photo!

Where: A 15 minute walk from my dorm out to and past Hut Point, just about a hundred feet out onto the ice, away from land.

What: It's a seal!!!  It's no more than 6 feet long, roughly!

How: An "Observation Tube," or "Ob Tube" as locals call it.  It's basically a hollow metal tube that is lowered into the water, through the ice.  At the bottom of the tube are windows all around, so you can see out into the water!  The tube (and you) are suspended by steel beams that are laid across the ice!

Enjoy these photos!  (click any of them to see a larger image)

The view from Hut Point.

Zoomed in...  Note the little green tube the people are gathered around...

I am walking out onto the ice.  A short ways out, the ice is already starting to melt!
You can see the patches of water which are sitting on top of the ice,
as well as the little man-made bridge over and out onto the more frozen ice shelf!

Here I am, about to go down Ob Tube!  For safety sake, they lock "Ob Tube" with a
wood lid.  I had to check out a key and a radio (so I could radio in if I met any trouble).

And down I go!  Or up I come!

I've actually taken two trips out to Ob Tube now.  On the 2nd, I wore my Norwegian Sweater!
So warm!
Note that Hut Point is in the background on the right--just a short ways off!
You can even faintly see the Hut Point cross on the far right!

Here's a good view of the whole above-ice portion of Ob Tube!
And me having a good time!

For your viewing pleasure, here's more of what it looks like down below.
The little white dots scattered about are plankton, or something.
You can also see an ice crystal starting to form in the upper left corner of the window!

Some seals sunbathing, pictured with the Ice Pier just beyond them!
I was highly fortunate to have seen a seal from Ob Tube, as not many
get to see that, I've found from asking around!

So no, I did not go diving, but the underwater seal photo was real and taken with my camera by my hands!  Cool stuff, eh!

Brett

2010-11-23 11:57pm (NZDT)

Cold today!

It was -4 F when we got out to LDB this morning!  It's now up to about 10 F!  LDB stands for Long Duration Balloon, and is the name of the site where I work every day.  It's a 40 minute "bus" ride to get out here every day!

LDB can be seen in this photo, it's the tiny clump of buildings way off in the distance, on the right side of the photo.  This photo was taken from Ross Island, right before we get off the land and onto the ice at the transition point.

Brett

2010-11-20 1:53pm (NZDT)

Ice Pier

Hello all,

I encourage you to keep guessing for another day on what, where, and how I took the photo from my previous post to this blog!

Here's a photo of a pretty amazing thing: the McMurdo Ice Pier.  It's the gravel covered surface that is surrounded by ice and snow and has a bridge going onto it.  Basically, it's a man-made iceberg that acts as a docking pier for the supply ships that come in towards the end of summer.  You should check out the Wikipedia page on "Ice Pier" if you want to learn more.  Unfortunately, I left McMurdo last year before the ice melted and the ships got through.  I'll likely leave before then this year too.

In the distance, beyond the ice pier, is the airfield I landed at this year: "Ice Runway".  On December 1 they will close this airfield to begin clearing it of equipment and buildings, as this ice will melt and become open water in a roughly a month's time!  Operations move out much further away from McMurdo base to Pegasus Field once they close the "Ice Runway."  Pegasus Field is on the permanent ice shelf, so it is safe to land on year-round.

Pretty cool, huh!

Brett
2010-11-19 10:59pm (NZDT)

Diving

Here's a photo I took today.  Can you guess where I am, what it is a photo of, or how I took it?  Leave a comment if you want to guess.  The winner will receive a personal e-mail from me!  :-)

Brett
2010-11-18 11:36pm (NZDT)

The Light at the End of the Tunnel at 11pm

Can you imagine waking up in the middle of the night and seeing pure light streaming in through the hallway?  I've acclimated to this 24/7 daylight much quicker than last year; in fact, it seemed quite natural right away this time!  I remember a year ago, though, when I first saw the sun at "midnight."  It was surreal and foreign, and it took a week just to get used to the sun never going down.

I also enjoy seeing the sun, at all.  It is supremely uplifting for my spirit!  The clouds rarely reveal the sun in New Hampshire, sadly.  I don't take any moment for granted here.  Stunningly bright and beautiful it is!

I took these photos last night at roughly 11pm.

I'm standing at the end of the corridor my room is on.
My room is the second room from the end on the right.

My room is through the door on the right, closest to the camera.

The view out the window.

Brett Anderson
2010-11-17 9:22am (NZDT)

Arrival on Ice

I made it!  It was mostly smooth flying today, a wee bit bumpy on the way down to McMurdo on the C-17.  I was hoping to get a photo of the view as I was actually stepping out of the plane, but alas, the force of the mob behind me was too great and I couldn't stop to take a photo.  So, after I stepped onto the ice, here's what I saw:

And here's a photo of me:

I'm off to bed--work starts bright and early tomorrow!  Lot's to do!

Brett
2010-11-15 9:54pm (NZDT)

EARTHQUAKES!!!

I have now felt my very first earthquake!  And, I can now add an earthquake to the list of things I've slept through!

Exactly 24 hours ago, at 1:34am Sunday morning local time, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake shook Christchurch.  My hotel building (one of the tallest buildings in Christchurch) swayed quite a bit, according to a couple I met who were staying a floor above me.  They said it was very scary.  Swaying is a natural response of the building, intentionally designed into the architecture, and the building was and remains structurally sound.  However, I felt nothing!  I slept right through it!  The couple was shocked that I was shocked that there was an earthquake in the night!

And then this evening, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake set on!  I was at dinner, and I felt it!  It was so cool!  I was really bummed that I slept through the one last night, especially since I didn't get to feel the building sway, but I can now say that I have experienced an earthquake!

Now, earthquakes are a serious thing, and Christchurch and areas in this region are still working to rebuild the damage from the September 4, 2010 earthquake here.  It was a 7.1-magnitude earthquake--just slightly stronger than the one that devastated Haiti and killed hundreds of thousands of people 10 months ago.  Fortunately for New Zealand, no deaths occurred as a result of the quake, and most buildings survived, but some buildings and homes have had to be condemned.

Brett
2010-11-15 1:47am (NZDT)