Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
antarctica.gov.au
Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
1–10 of 15 posts
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#2This is interesting but I don't know how practical it is.
The key takeaway is...
> The single most important thing is to test your equipment before taking it to Antarctica. This is obvious, but many people don't do it and their research programs are compromised by equipment failures which are completely avoidable. [....] Make sure that your equipment works correctly at the temperatures you will encounter in Antarctica.
But no advice is given on where to find a test environment that can simulate:
> Temperatures may occasionally go below −80 Celsius in far inland regions.
> The wind can blow up to 200 km/h in coastal regions, and it will carry grit in areas where there is no snow cover.
> Antarctica has very dry air which results in large amounts of static electricity, particularly when the wind is strong. Static electricity can instantly destroy unprotected electronic equipment.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#3This is interesting but I don't know how practical it is. The key takeaway is... > The single most important thing is to test your equipment before taking it to Antarctica. This is obvious, but many people don't do it and their research programs are compromised by equipment failures which are completely avoidable. [....] Make sure that your equipment works correctly at the temperatures you will encounter in Antarctic…
Commercial environmental test labs exist and are widely used to test electronic equipment. The ESD testing shouldn't be an issue for any of these labs, but the temperature and grit testing might be a little extreme for the equipment at some labs. Still, my experience has been that these labs are eager to solve any unusual environmental testing requirements and they can probably figure something out.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#4This is interesting but I don't know how practical it is. The key takeaway is... > The single most important thing is to test your equipment before taking it to Antarctica. This is obvious, but many people don't do it and their research programs are compromised by equipment failures which are completely avoidable. [....] Make sure that your equipment works correctly at the temperatures you will encounter in Antarctic…
It's not too hard to get dry ice (or liquid nitrogen) and a styrofoam box to do the low temperature; I'd think that dust ingress testing in Australia would be pretty straightforward ;).
One thing not mentioned, and a bit harder to simulate, is that the altitude is rather high at some stations which can make cooling problematic.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#5Working in a system where people say:
"STS has a low temperature environmental chamber which is used by STS staff for equipment development and testing down to −85 Celsius. It may be possible for you to use this chamber to temperature test your own equipment"
is what science is about, we have learned from our mistakes, can we help you to not do the same.
The reference to XLR connectors, an aged technology, shows the ruggedness of the the design, a good example of the evolution of survival of the fittest in design. It is not the best, but the most fit.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#6I haven't been to Antarctica but have done a lot of cold weather hiking (mostly in Iceland) with various electronic equipment.
One tip relevant to this article that you can use to increase the performance of battery powered electronic equipment by keeping it heated.
Of course you're not going to bring along dedicated heating equipment, but you yourself function as a portable heat generator.
So e.g. if you need to carry a radio you can arrange your clothing so it's strapped to your chest with the battery facing your body, with all your clothing going over the radio, and a hands-free headset on a wire going up to your neck to use the radio.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#7I did robotics research in Antarctica. The key challenge I encountered was designing an appropriate interface for interacting with a robot in that environment. Coding was completely impossible when it was -25 or -40 out, but we still needed a minimal interface for interacting with a semi-autonomous robot, and few off the shelf solutions worked well, so we basically ended up with ruggedized laptops and minimal interaction.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#8This is interesting but I don't know how practical it is. The key takeaway is... > The single most important thing is to test your equipment before taking it to Antarctica. This is obvious, but many people don't do it and their research programs are compromised by equipment failures which are completely avoidable. [....] Make sure that your equipment works correctly at the temperatures you will encounter in Antarctic…
Commercial environmental test labs exist and are widely used to test electronic equipment. The ESD testing shouldn't be an issue for any of these labs, but the temperature and grit testing might be a little extreme for the equipment at some labs. Still, my experience has been that these labs are eager to solve any unusual environmental testing requirements and they can probably figure something out.
Sure, but not on a shoestring budget.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#9This is interesting but I don't know how practical it is. The key takeaway is... > The single most important thing is to test your equipment before taking it to Antarctica. This is obvious, but many people don't do it and their research programs are compromised by equipment failures which are completely avoidable. [....] Make sure that your equipment works correctly at the temperatures you will encounter in Antarctic…
Everything but the wind can be simulated in a thermal-vacuum chamber (with the vacuum part turned off).
Big t-vac chambers are pricey although you can typically rent them (eg from your local NASA or ESA facility). A Tier-1 research university with an aerospace engineering program will have several smaller ones, which still have the internal capacity of a refrigerator.
Re: Planning scientific equipment for Antarctic conditions
#10I did robotics research in Antarctica. The key challenge I encountered was designing an appropriate interface for interacting with a robot in that environment. Coding was completely impossible when it was -25 or -40 out, but we still needed a minimal interface for interacting with a semi-autonomous robot, and few off the shelf solutions worked well, so we basically ended up with ruggedized laptops and minimal interac…
Did you consider something along the lines of a keyboard in a glovebox with a heater minus the gloves?