Not sure why I’d never learned or noticed the altitude of the South Pole is so high, no wonder it’s extra chilly. I assume the screenshot is off by a bit maybe because it’s estimating altitude from barometric pressure or something?
Last Flight Out
61–70 of 322 posts
Re: Last Flight Out
#62What a tastefully designed and executed blog site. Well done.
Re: Last Flight Out
#63I would love to try this out for a week or two, but I can't imagine doing this for 9 months. For me the feeling of claustrophobia and loneliness would be overwhelming.
Re: Last Flight Out
#64That is something i've long dreamed of doing. Would love to work with british antarctic survey etc. Not sure if my background in robotics/engineering would be that useful there though unless I push in a tangential direction like radios
There are often openings for people with electronics engineering backgrounds for roles supporting science and met, as opposed to comms and base IT. It doesn't hurt to apply. Edit: https://www.bas.ac.uk/jobs/careers-at-bas/operational-suppor...
Another over winter opportunity - for Ice Cube https://jobs.hr.wisc.edu/en-us/job/516435/winterover-experim...
> Winterovers enjoy a variety of job duties during their estimated 12 to 13 month deployment at the South Pole. Technical duties include operating and maintaining the IceCube detector subsystems; operating and maintaining complex computer data systems at the South Pole; uploading the research data via satellite to the northern hemisphere; analyzing and resolving problems with the detector electronics; providing critical hardware and software support; writing and submitting weekly reports to the collaboration and monthly reports to the National Science Foundation; and participating in Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center outreach activities.
(Note that if that does interest someone, the application deadline is March 1)
Re: Last Flight Out
#65If you're interested in the people and personalities and activities at the South Pole, the Werner Herzog film Encounters at the End of the World is a revealing and interesting documentary. It includes a fascinating part about a deluded penguin choosing to leave its flock and begin a fatal journey towards the center of the island... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounters_at_the_End_of_the_W... - https://www.imdb.c…
FYI, many people who spent time at McMurdo around the filming of Encounters are not big fans. The interviews were intentionally set up to make people look weird. The narration implies there's something wrong with "polar people." You might find us dissapointingly normal. A Year On Ice is a more accurate representation. I'm in Frozen Planet, but you can't believe all the narration in that either.
I can see that, with only a few hours of footage to portray the situation they want. Is there not something interesting or an underlying personality trait that makes the voluntary inhabitants of the frozen world different from the average person? How much time have you spent there?
Re: Last Flight Out
#66Re: Last Flight Out
#67> "Slow and intermittent Internet access." Hmm, how long until Starlink (or similar) reaches the South Pole?
The only Starlink satellites that can hope to reach the north pole are the satellites that reach 82.4 degrees north/south (orbits at inclination of 97.6 degrees) and there's currently only 187 of those operating so very few will be in view at any one time and the Starlink dish needs to pick an orientation so you will only see some of them at any given time (FOV is only part of the direction it's facing, missing at least the other half of the satellites, if not at least 2/3 of the satellites in view).
Whether that makes service impossible, I'm not sure. US government may work with SpaceX to make a customized 360 degree antenna that can reach them. Or they may mount it on a tower. I think a customized antenna would be needed anyway to survive the temperatures there. Starlink is technically only rated down to -30C though people do use it below that temperature and it seems to work. I doubt it'd work at those -60C temps however.
Re: Last Flight Out
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
FYI, many people who spent time at McMurdo around the filming of Encounters are not big fans. The interviews were intentionally set up to make people look weird. The narration implies there's something wrong with "polar people." You might find us dissapointingly normal. A Year On Ice is a more accurate representation. I'm in Frozen Planet, but you can't believe all the narration in that either.
I can see that, with only a few hours of footage to portray the situation they want. Is there not something interesting or an underlying personality trait that makes the voluntary inhabitants of the frozen world different from the average person? How much time have you spent there?
7 summer seasons, about 2 months each. Most of that was in a tent up on Erebus, but about a week transitioning through McMurdo at the beginning and end of each season.
Re: Last Flight Out
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see that, with only a few hours of footage to portray the situation they want. Is there not something interesting or an underlying personality trait that makes the voluntary inhabitants of the frozen world different from the average person? How much time have you spent there?
7 summer seasons, about 2 months each. Most of that was in a tent up on Erebus, but about a week transitioning through McMurdo at the beginning and end of each season.
Interesting, doing field research?
Re: Last Flight Out
#70The shower page was interesting, you get 4 minutes of shower time a week https://brr.fyi/posts/showering-at-the-south-pole I'm surprised they can't just melt snow water to run things like showers. Oddly no suggestions on the page about doubling up your shower with someone else to have longer or more frequent showers.
Doesn't that post explain that this is just what they do, and that melting the snow is pretty involved?
There's also limited fuel that they have to conserve, so infinite snow does not mean infinite water.