I often wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to have sufficient medical resources ad Amundsen-Scott, than to repeatedly mount risky and expensive rescue efforts. Is it just human nature to expect the best outcomes, and not plan for disaster?
Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
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Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#42I often wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to have sufficient medical resources ad Amundsen-Scott, than to repeatedly mount risky and expensive rescue efforts. Is it just human nature to expect the best outcomes, and not plan for disaster?
They always have at least one doctor at the pole over the winter. They have two hospital beds, an operating table, and a relatively extensive pharmacy. If someone's coming home, it's because it's extremely serious.
Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a blog post from someone who was there: http://www.funraniumlabs.com/2013/06/alcoholism-in-antarctic...
That was a great read. Not sure what to think though after reading it. I suppose I'll remain nuetral with regard to alcohol in dark and cold places.
Deadhorse, Alaska (beginning of the Alaska Pipeline, and as far north as one can go in AK) isn't neutral: no alcohol allowed, and it appears to be at least mildly enforced. Drunk oil workers where it's dark for three months? Yeah, Deadhorse decided that was a bad idea, apparently.
Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#44How does this sort of experience bode for long term space missions and exploration. Will contingencies be better planned in environments with even less access to equipment?
I guess most of it would go into crew selection and health screenings, but stuff still happens.
Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#45Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#46One of the heroes involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Otter These planes are special things. If you want to go somewhere dangerous, or just weird, this is what you want carrying you.
These are the little planes which fly tourists between Kathmandu and Lukla airport (with its notoriously short runway) when you go trekking in the Himalayas.
http://www.markhorrell.com/blog/2011/the-lukla-flight-is-it-...
Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#47One of the heroes involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Otter These planes are special things. If you want to go somewhere dangerous, or just weird, this is what you want carrying you.
I go from reading about that plane to that a Panamian president died in a crash of that plane, to Noriega's payments by the CIA to the US invasion of Panama: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Pa... At 3am when I should be sleeping. The internet is the invention of our lifetimes..its just amazing how just on the notion of sheer information - and education of us regular citizens, has totally bee…
And still there are likely numerous stories that are not on Wikipedia, because of their rule against "original research".
Makes one wonder if there should be an attempt at setting up a wiki for personal stories and such, as i doubt blog services have any dedication to preservation.
Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#48I tried like 30 different mailinator e-mail address as a way of getting through to this article without giving my real e-mail address. Kudos to the Washington Post tech team!
Anti anti-adblocker GreaseMonkey script for the Post: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/12363-wapo-escalation
Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#49How does this sort of experience bode for long term space missions and exploration. Will contingencies be better planned in environments with even less access to equipment? I guess most of it would go into crew selection and health screenings, but stuff still happens.
Nations that conduct deterrence patrols on SSBNs have built up many decades of experience in terms of sealing up individuals for months at a time, operating in an unforgiving environment and being self reliant for that period. There's a surprisingly large pool of information potentially available to learn from.
Re: Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station
#50I often wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to have sufficient medical resources ad Amundsen-Scott, than to repeatedly mount risky and expensive rescue efforts. Is it just human nature to expect the best outcomes, and not plan for disaster?
They always have at least one doctor at the pole over the winter. They have two hospital beds, an operating table, and a relatively extensive pharmacy. If someone's coming home, it's because it's extremely serious.
...and that seems to happen every couple of years. Again, they're not prepared.