Breakfast is served from 5am-7:30am, so we set the alarm for 6:00. I slept like a rock and woke up feeling slightly refreshed. After eating way too much breakfast (the free food here is going to be the death of me), we gathered near the handwashing station for Jim's 7:30am walking tour of McMurdo.
Jim took us all over town and pointed out what each building is as well as some history of the area. It was interesting to see the actual structures that we've been coding POLAR ICE to support over the last year. As I mentioned earlier, the piping is all above ground here due in part to the frozen earth and ease of maintenance. At one point we walked over a small wooden bridge that crossed a set of pipes. Jim stopped and mentioned that the bridge crosses the sewage line and had become known as the "Bridge Over the River Poo."
After the tour we headed up to building 175, which is where the IT department is located. They had 3 cubes set up for us in "Cubeland." The PC techs checked out our laptops to ensure that our virus definitions are up to date, etc., and we were then able to get on the McMurdo LAN.
One of the things we're going to look at while on station is ways of improving POLAR ICE performance for the folks down here. We've heard complaints about how slow the application is on the Ice so we're going to see if there's anything we can do about it. We've made some significant performance improvements to the system recently and in Denver the thing is smokin' fast. That leads us to believe that the problem down here is about 99% due to the limited bandwidth.
I can't believe how slow the network is down here. I had heard it was "painfully" slow, but you're not prepared for it until you're actually forced to use it. It's much worse than a dialup connection. At least with a dialup you know it's consistently slow. Here it seems that not only is it slow, but sometimes network traffic just drops off the face of the earth (much like our Halloween). With POLAR ICE being a mission-critical application for a large group of people down here that is a very bad thing. Not only is the bandwidth limited but the network topology here seems to be very slow as well. It takes several minutes just to get logged onto the network.
I have a full working copy of POLAR ICE on my laptop, so we're going to see if it's any faster running it locally rather than the round trip to Denver. It should be, but the network is so uncertain that it might not make much difference. If we can come up with some good benchmark statistics that would justify mirroring the application on the Ice.
Enough techno-jargon. After getting familiarized with the pain associated with everyday computer tasks we headed back to 155 for lunch. I'm still amazed at all the free food being thrown at you constantly. If I don't start running again I'm going to gain some major weight. I'm talking world record gains, going from running a marathon in mid September to being Mr. Roly Poly in mid December. (Sorry Sara, I'll try to curb it before it gets much farther)
On our way back to 175 we ran into Kelly Brunt, who runs the GIS system for the USAP (she's the "maps girl"). She said that there was a signup sheet for a trip to Cape Evans and she put our names on it for us. Apparently when these trips are offered they fill up instantly, so getting on the list is a big privilege. Cape Evans was where Robert Falcon Scott set his last winter camp before the doomed South Pole excursion of 1912. His hut is still there, still fully stocked with all of his original supplies and whatnot. The trip is set for tomorrow night at 6:30 (remember, it doesn't get dark here). I can't wait, it should be fascinating. We'll be riding out on a Delta, which is like a monster truck that has room for passengers. It's about an hours drive across the sea ice to get there, and we're required to wear our full ECW gear (including bunny boots).
We had a meeting scheduled with Mike McClanahan at 2:30. Mike is the Assistant Science Support Supervisor here at McMurdo. He is probably the main user of POLAR ICE, so our meeting was two-fold: to ensure him that we're working on potential solutions to the bandwidth issues, and to get a sense of how POLAR ICE can better suit him and his people. To start towards number two, he took us on a tour of each workcenter.
Jim had given us a brief walking tour earlier in the day, but Mike gave us a detailed workcenter tour, complete with introductions and tours of each building. We started at the helo pad, where we met two of the helicopter pilots. We also chatted briefly with Monika and Patrick, the two Raytheon people who run the helo operations. They were both on the Courage Classic ride as well. I'm starting to think that riding the charity event was the best career move I could have made with this company. Mike showed us how the helo people do their scheduling, the process for passengers going to the field, how they "sling load" cargo to the camps, etc. Sling loads are fascinating. They're essentially just a big net full of cargo that gets "slung," or suspended, from the helicopter. Think Operation Dumbo Drop (I think, I never saw that movie, but it seems like there was a picture of Dumbo being slung from something?) Helo and Fixed Wing are two of the most essential components of scheduling science groups on the Ice. Most of them need to go to remote field camps, so coming up with an elegant scheduling solution for the air transport to those camps is a critical piece of POLAR ICE. To better understand what's involved, Mike thinks it would be a good idea if we can get on a helo flight out to the McMurdo Dry Valleys field camps sometime in the next few weeks. I couldn't agree more :-)
In order to get to the Dry Valleys we first will have to take FSTP (Field Safety Training Program) training. We met Dawn, the FSTP scheduler, and got signed up for a class early next week. This class is a two-day affair, where we'll go out into the field and learn how to survive in the Antarctic Wilderness. We'll be making our own igloos and sleeping in them amongst other things. I can't wait, this is exactly what we came out here for. Scientists have to do all of this to get to the field, and now we'll know what they're going through. It can only help the application, and in the process we hope to do some gap analysis to see where processes could be improved and/or streamlined.
Next we made our way to the dive building. Rob Robbins is the diving coordinator for the entire USAP. Scott & I have worked closely with Rob in the off season to try and streamline the diving request procedure in POLAR ICE. Right now our application will capture diver information such as certifications, affiliations, etc., and based on that and their dive plan will prepopulate any necessary diving permit forms that must be completed. Version 2 of POLAR ICE will have a much improved process for this, integrating the NSF and Smithsonian into the system as well. However, it's still kind of a black box for us, as I'm not a diver and certainly not an Antarctic diver, so I don't really know what all this stuff means. Rob wasn't in his office, but we had run into him the day before at dinner. He mentioned at that time that he thought it would be good if we joined him on some dive put-in camps, so we eagerly agreed. We'll be driving out onto the sea ice with Rob to drill holes, sometimes blast holes with explosives if the ice is thick enough, set up dive tents, etc. It should be quite an eye-opening experience. In order to get there, though, we have to take a sea ice training course. We'll learn how to evaluate cracks in the ice to determine safe routes, etc.
We then moved on to the fixed wing operations. Joni English is the Raytheon person in charge of this division. This building is also shared with the Air Force and Coast Guard. Walking through it it almost looked like a scene from Independance Day or something. There are plasma flat screen monitors on the wall with flight charts, weather reports, all kinds of things. Rooms full of people staring at 5 or 6 monitors of what appeared to be air traffic control type operations. Joni is in charge of coordinating all the different groups that comprise a flight mission, from pilots to cargo to fueling, I was shocked at how much goes on in this building. The weather people are also in here, and they were forecasting some nasty weather patterns that should be moving into McMurdo tomorrow. Joni looked rather stressed, and mentioned that the previous day they had done 7 missions, only one of which had been scheduled. Challenges were arising all over the place, such as a full fuel tanker en route to a fuel cache site that had a broken nozzle on the tanks. Luckily the nozzle was repaired just before the tanker arived or it would have been a wasted, and thus very expensive, mission. I don't envy her, but she seems to have a fascinating job.
Things quieted down a bit after that as we made our way to more workcenters. We stopped in the Crary Lab, a state of the art 4000+ square foot facility that houses laboratory space, computer space, and two large aquariums. Steve Alexander, the lab coordinator, wasn't in his office so we pressed on. I don't think I've mentioned it, but this tour was to show us the workcenters, but also to schedule a time next week to meet with each supervisor. We'll be meeting with them for an hour or more to go over exactly what they do, see it first-hand, and determine how POLAR ICE could be improved to help support what they do. Rather than just talking to them in an office in Denver, we'll get to see how they do these things by observing them in person as they interact with the science groups. It should be extremely valuable.
Next we went to the BFC, or Berg Field Center. Jim had called this the "REI of McMurdo." When a group goes out to the field they get all of their camp equipment from the BFC. We spoke with Karla College, the BFC supervisor, and set up a time to meet next week. We know Karla well from Denver and she's a super nice person to work with. Her facility is fascinating, as it truly is an REI on steroids. I've never seen human waste buckets and giant nancy sleds at the flagship store down the street from our house.
After that we went to the USAP Cargo building to see how our buddy Michael Davis does his thing. Every piece of cargo going in or out of station goes through this facility. Our C-141 was filled with cargo, and it apparently all goes through Mike. He was helping a science group load up a pallette to go out to the field, so Mike Mc. gave us a tour of the cargo facility. There are cages set up that hold the cargo for each science group. Karla will gather all the field camp equipment they need at the BFC and send it over to the cargo building to go in the group's cage. Michael Davis adds any scientific cargo that has come in for the group, and these cages are locked with a padlock. The group gets the combination and can access their gear 24/7.
The Food Room is upstairs in the cargo building, but it was closed. This is run by Peggy Malloy, another Courage Classic rider. The Food Room is essentially the grocery store for groups going to the field. They can grab as much food as they need for their stays in the wilderness (by wilderness I mean in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by ice and snow). Many groups spend several weeks or more in the field, so the food room is imperative to their survival. Josh developed a proof-of-concept for the Food Room earlier this year so we're excited to see it in action. It's a barcode system for checking out food. The groups use a modified PDA that has a barcode scanner on it, and as they grab food off the shelves they'll scan it with the PDA. Peggy then syncs the device and the food is deducted from the inventory database. She can then run reports to see who has taken what food, when, and how much should be left. It's a pretty cool concept that we hope to extend to the rest of the inventory-based workcenters. We've run into Peggy a couple of times around town and she's eager to meet with us, so hopefully we'll get to see the system in action shortly.
From there we continued on to the Carp(entry) Shop. Here is where any custom construction needs are fulfilled. Jay Ranson was in his office and we set up a time to meet next Saturday. (The work schedule here is 7:30am-5:30pm Monday through Saturday.)
We continued on down to the SSC (Science Support Center), where the MEC (Mechanical Equipment Center) occupies the lower level. This is where science groups get mechanical equipment such as chainsaws, snowmobiles, generators, portable heaters, etc., en route to the field. Alan Corneilson runs this shop and we scheduled time to meet with him next week. Mike gave us a brief tour of the facility and it's highly impressive. It reminded me of a rent-all shop on steroids.
That was it for the tour, and after scheduling some more time to meet with Mike again we headed back to 175. First, however, I stopped at my dorm to see if I could get ahold of my nephew Tyler, as it was his birthday back in the States. It's the 4th of November on the Ice, but still the 3rd back in Iowa. Unfortunately I was a little late, as it was 9:30 back home and his 10th birthday party had already ended. However, I got a chance to chat with my parents for a few minutes, and they were pretty surprised to hear from me.
After finishing up a few things at the office we headed back to 155 for dinner. The feeling of being an outsider is starting to diminish now, as we've met more people and the faces are looking familiar. After dinner Scott had a "bag drag," where he has to check in his bags and get weighed for his flight to South Pole tomorrow. He's the only one in our group that is going, I'd love to see it but it's a rare and priviliged occurrence to get to go to the true bottom of the world. Maybe next time, but it's still extremely cold there. Last I saw it was -50 degrees.
Josh and I went to the Crary Lab for the 7:00 Safety Outdoor Lecture. This is required before you can take advantage of any of the outdoor recreation opportunities on station. We learned how to identify safe routes on the hiking trails, and to stay away from the black flags, which mark danger areas. Crevasses are very common, and very deep, around these parts. Several years ago two hikers strayed from the marked route, fell into a crevasse that had been concealed by a snow drift, and died before being rescued. I'll try to avoid making the same mistake.
After class we met back up with Scott and headed over to the bowling alley, where we had made plans to meet Michael Davis. McMurdo Station is home to the oldest AMF bowling alley in the world. It's a two-lane job that has seen better days, as the lanes are smooth but far from level. If you look straight down them you can see arcs and bends, as the wood has been distorted over the years. It's also supposed to be the last remaining manual pin system in the world. Each lane has a guy at the end who picks up the knocked-down pins, re-sets them, and sends the balls back up the lane after a throw. It was highly entertaining, and I got some good video of Josh throwing a strike. Due to the warped lanes, each team swaps sides after each round. We destroyed our competition and headed to Gallagher's to celebrate. There are three bars on station, and Gallagher's is known as the non-smoking bar. There's another bar where smoking is allowed, and then the "Coffee House," which is more of a subdued, laid-back wine bar that's popular with the scientists.
Josh and I lost to Mike & Scott in a series of foosball games, got a ton of crap from them, and then called it a night. We walked out of Gallaghers, which is lit up just like any other bar back home, very dim atmosphere, and the brighness of the 11pm sky blew me away. Here it was, 11:00 at night, and the sun was still high in the sky. It won't set until April or so, when the cold, long, dark Antarctic Winter begins. A helicopter carrying a sling load was landing at the pad, so we watched that process, soaked in the beauty of frozen McMurdo Sound, and then headed up to call it a night. The tour that Mike gave us was invaluable to our mission, and I felt like it had been a very good day. This place is great, I can't wait to see what the rest of the trip holds.
