With nearly a complete crew of 255 people and snow being removed from buildings and materials projects projects are kicking into full gear. The dome is being cleared, ICE Cube has its generators running and the siding crew is making steady progress on completing the siding of the new station. This week also heralded the opening of the remote AGAP field camp.
All the activity brings with it lots of flights! Up to 13 or 14 a day. Always an amazing sight, the LC-130’s are the primary aircraft. They bring crew, supplies and fuel while removing waste and transporting crew back to McMurdo. We also see two small Twin Otter planes and a Bassler DC3 outfitted with Turbo Prop engines. The smaller planes are generally used for transporting people and supplies to field camps.
One of the big events on station in the past couple of weeks has been the food pull. Food was being moved from the old station dome to the LO arch. This is where food and materials will be stored from here on out. The LO building is a large steel arch buried in the snow. Inside of it is two rows of new shelving making it one very cold warehouse. The front of the LO has a materials handling building that is heated. This is where new materials coming in off the planes can be sorted and then moved out to storage.
The purpose of moving the food from the old station dome is to clear the site for deconstruction of the dome which should commence sometime this week. Snow has been being removed around the dome and Sky Lab for the past two weeks. There is now a solid ring around both structures and the two mini arch “tunnels” are now exposed and almost ready for removal. Saturday, a crew was removing the utility conduit from the mini arch that connects the dome to Sky Lab. The goal is to remove both mini arches so that the cranes can drive around the dome with no obstructions.
The very top of the dome is going to be removed as one piece for a museum back in the United States. The removal is going to require the use of a crane to pick it off the top. The rest will be removed in sections from top to bottom using the crane as well.
As one can imagine sentiment is high for this legendary structure. As of now, the entire structure is being disassembled and returned back to the states. It is unsure what will become of the old dome. There is rumor that several groups are interested in rebuilding it for a museum stateside.
Around station there was a Emergency Response Team Drill two weeks ago that ended in an actual fire alarm during the drill de-briefing. Ironic as it was the all emergency teams were right there ready to go. It was quite a sight, the entire galley stood up and rushed to their positions. A perimeter was established, crew was evacuated and sweeps were done by team two fire fighters. In the end the alarm turned out to be a malfunction. But all alarms must be treated as real. An actual fire down here could be disastrous, particularly in winter. It was an erie feeling to be hearing the alarms going off and watching the firefighters gear up. It was a strong reminder just a precarious life is down here.
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