fascinating blog. just read the one article so far, but sure to read the rest. what a great experience!
Last Flight Out
121–130 of 322 posts
Re: Last Flight Out
#122This guy is living my dream! Unlikely I'll have have the chance to work in inland Antarctica as I'm not from a country that sends people over there for tech stuff, but I still hope someday I'll have the chance :)
If you really want to go, be a dishwasher or cook or something similar. I've had 4 friends do exactly that. The work was crap, but the experience was well, well worth it.
How do you apply though? I'd assume vacancies would be extremely rare - quite interesting you've had four friends do it.
Re: Last Flight Out
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently not great if you're a woman: https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/as-antarctic-fieldwo...
Jesus christ. "In one online survey published in PLOS ONE and covered by Science in 2014, 71% of 512 female respondents reported being sexually harassed during fieldwork; 84% of them were trainees." "In the NSF report, one interviewee said she’d been told on her first day at McMurdo to stay clear of a certain building unless she “wanted to be raped.” Another woman said she felt like she was seen as “prey” no matter w…
How do you become that evil?
Re: Last Flight Out
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like a decent opportunity to use a nuclear reactor .. something like what you would find on a submarine.
It was tried! http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/reid2/
I wonder what it'd take to adapt NuScale's SMR design. Probably a lot, given the unusual rigors of the Antarctic environment, but for basically the same reasons it seems like something that'd be worth funding.
Re: Last Flight Out
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> a million times easier to grow food on the South Pole than it is to grow it on Mars And it's a million easier still to import it. So apart from hydroponics for treats and research, it's not a problem worth solving.
> it's not a problem worth solving. Exactly. Farming on mars is not a problem worth solving.
> Exactly. Farming on mars is not a problem worth solving
I know you're being flippant, but this is a textbook propositional fallacy. (Affirming a disjunct [1], I think.)
In summary, you argue: farming on Antarctica is difficult, so we import food instead. Farming on Mars is difficult, but we don't want to import food. Herego, we shouldn't farm on Mars or bother with it at all. Alternatively, if X (farming is difficult), Y (farm) or Z (import). You're arguing neither Y or Z by, implicitly, rejecting Z. That doesn't make sense.
Re: Last Flight Out
#126I thought those fuel bladders were pretty cool! Never thought about transporting volatiles in anything other than a rigid tank. Also had to look up what AN-8 Fuel is:
"AN8 is a special fuel blend unique to the Antarctic and Arctic. It has a lower flash point of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which also lowers the gelling point when extreme cold temperatures can cause wax crystals to start forming in the fuel. AN8 will remain liquid until about minus 72 degrees."
Re: Last Flight Out
#127This guy is living my dream! Unlikely I'll have have the chance to work in inland Antarctica as I'm not from a country that sends people over there for tech stuff, but I still hope someday I'll have the chance :)
If you really want to go, be a dishwasher or cook or something similar. I've had 4 friends do exactly that. The work was crap, but the experience was well, well worth it.
My grandpa did the same thing when he was 72 years old. Applied for food services, worked in the cafeteria but did extra stuff like DJ a radio show, drove a shuttle, and gave tours. A couple weeks into his stay, my grandpa ended up being the "most qualified" person at the station to take over the greenhouse (he had an agriculture degree which he hadn't used in 48 years) but ended up doing a good job. He travelled a lot but Antarctica was his favorite adventure.
Re: Last Flight Out
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting, doing field research?
Yeah, here's a taste: https://aaroncurt.is/frozenplanet.html
I remember watching this. Turns out BBC Natural History documentaries are more theater than just documentaries. If you watch the "making of" clips at the end of some of the series, you do get the sense that they may not be just captured natural footage as much as highly-scripted activities with the actions of the cameramen, crew, etc. edited out. Still fun to watch, but isn't being manipulated as a viewer disingenuous for a studio that calls itself "Natural" History? Maybe a better name would be BBC Studios Artificial History Unit.
Re: Last Flight Out
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once inter-satellite links are operational, presumably. Looking at [1], there are already some polar orbit satellites, but without these links, that doesn't help Antarctica much. (I'm also not sure if the polar satellites are operational for regular traffic yet.) [1] https://satellitemap.space/
Can someone explain to me how you can have geostationary orbit around the poles?
You can't. Starlink satellites are in LEO, not geostationary orbit.
Re: Last Flight Out
#130The prospect of a medical emergency would be terrible. I think there was an unplanned cancer surgery at this base many years back, but there are so many other things that can go wrong with no ER or quick evacuation to turn to. Even a dental emergency would be a disaster.
ETA: The cancer emergency was in 1998 required a special air drop but they had to wait until October to fly out the patient. https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/1812/