February, 2010....J.
Dana Hrubes...updated February 28, 2010 , 2050 GMT
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The last of the summer crew board the last LC-130 for nearly 9 months [photo: Steffen Richter, BICEP II]
The last LC-130 ski-equipped aircraft
lifted off from the nearly 10,000 ft high ice pack on February 14th at 2:30 AM New Zealand
Daylight Time leaving us 40+ Polies stranded in the most isolated place
on earth for nearly 9 months. It was fun seeing alot of old
friends I have met over the years during the short Austral summer, but it was also nice to finally have the
station to ourselves for the upcoming long, dark, frigid winter. Last of the summer crew inside the LC-130 aircraft leaving South Pole Last LC-130 dumping the last load of JP-8 fuel in the under-ice storage tanks to run our generators
The last aircraft for nearly 9 months waves its wings goodbye [photo:
Daniel Luong-Van,
SPT]
Once the station closed, we all have been participating in station
closing activities including removal of fuel lines, removal of 6 miles
of aircraft skiway flags, preparing our emergency extreme cold weather
caches, moving into our winter rooms and many other tasks that must be
completed before the sun sets for 6 months on March 21st. We also have
completed the installation of flaglines to all of our remote buildings,
including the Dark Sector Laboratory where South Pole Telescope is
located.
Daniel and I have been operating South Pole Telescope 24 hours a day as
well as attending to other SPT tasks such as telescope maintenance,
troubleshooting and repair, some data quality analysis and some writing
of computer scripts. We also have bi-weekly telecons via satellite with
the SPT collaboration back in the States. The collaboration has been
hard at work this past year writing numerous technical papers on the
great SPT results to date. some of the recent SPT papers
The Dark Sector Laboratory nearly a mile from station with South Pole Telescope (SPT) and BICEP II Telescope
the pilots of the twin otter aerial photo aircraft [NSF aerial shots by A Williams]
On February 3rd, I had the pleasure of presenting a briefing on
South Pole Telescope to the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Maybus, and the
Air Force Commander of the Thirteenth Air Force and Forces in
Antarctica, Herbert J. "Hawk" Carlisle. They were flown in to the Pole for about 3 hours, less than two weeks before station closing. The briefing took place in the
control room under the telescope and then on the roof of the dark
sector laboratory adjacent to the telescope. Both the Secretary and the
Commander were very personable and interested in what we do here, which made it worthwhile
and interesting.
the Secretary and General at McMurdo Station on their way to the pole Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and myself in front of SPT
March: Sunset - the sun will be gone for six months!
Recent South Pole Telescope Technical Papers
A Real-Time Photo of South Pole Station as Seen
from the ARO
Building (live when satellite is up)
A
Comprehensive
South Pole Web Site by Bill Spindler
Winterover
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