The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Part 2
go back to part 1
Let's have a look outside.
View from summer camp, you see
the dome, the cargo arch (it's history now) and a Hercules C-130 on the flight
deck.
Everything has to be brought
in by plane. The Hercs coming from McMurdo a 3 hour trip one way.
The two arches.
A cat is unloading the Herc. It
takes normally 45 to 60 min. to unload and load the planes, get the extra fuel... Nearly
everything here is powered by JP8 the same fuel the planes are using.
The engines are running all the
time. It's just to cold to turn them off.
Some stuff that goes back out
and some incoming stuff.
To get to the "Dark Sector" where our
experiment is located, we have to cross the runway. Of course planes have the right of way,
so you are warned by the beacon. MAPO in the background.
The "Dark Sector" with CARA and
AMANDA
MAPO (Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory) building.
Here is all the AMANDA electronics, part of CARA and a workshop. SPIREX and SPIRAC telescopes
to the right.
The Bavarian flag over South Pole
:)))) on top of MAPO.

View from top of MAPO, the Python
Radiotelescope and the ASTRO building in the foreground.
Half of the flag is already missing
- gone with the wind. The PICO drill site in the background.
GASP
(Gamma ray Astronomy South Pole) another of our experiments.
The lab is
alredy buried by snow. To get there you have to climb down 5 meters.
SPASE2 (South Pole Air Shower
Experiment 2).
The cargo area
The
South Pole International Passenger Terminal.
The new BIT (Balloon Inflation Tower)
Another Herc is coming in. During
summer time we had up to six planes a day.
The big helium tank is getting
unloaded. The helium is needed for the weather balloons and a couple of instruments (cooling).

Taking off again


All the adventures, tourists...
are coming in/out with the Twin-Otter (and these are not many).
The
blue building or "Beaker-Box". Beakers are the scientist here. This is also an emergency
backup building for the winter and everybody has stored some clothes and personal stuff there.

View
of summer camp with Jamesways and Hypertats.
Behind
summer camp are the cargo berms.
The blue Hypertats. The 2nd
generation of Jamesways.
View from the dome to the summer
camp.

continue with part 3
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© copyright, 1997, Robert Schwarz. All rights reserved