I was so excited to find a great set of questions from a class of fifth graders that are taught science by a phenomenal teacher friend of mine from Houston - Lollie Garay. Lollie and I are both Mercury Messenger Fellows - working to get folks excited about the science of the Mercury Messenger satellite which is currently enroute to the closest planet to the sun. We're both extremophiles - so Antarctica is a natural next collaboration! They sent a great set of questions which I thought I'd reply to here in the forum so I can add in some pictures as well.
Michael: How does the Oden break the ice?
The Oden at work
As you can probably see - the ship has a flat front keel - which allows its powerful motors to push it right onto the ice - after that its that all powerful force of gravity teamed up with buoyancy that creates the pressure necessary to break solid sheets up ice up to 10 feet thick.
Lollie: How big is the ship, we see that it has a helicopter on it.
It says that the ship is over 100 meters long and 30 meters wide which is nearly the same dimensions as a football field. It weighs over 11000 tons.
CJ: When do you use the helicopter?
That will be one of my first questions when I board this Friday. I'm a pilot with the Civil Air Patrol and am always fascinated by anything to do with aviation. I expect we'll use it primarily to transport researchers to / from shore enroute to McMurdo and for emergencies as well.
Esteban: Do you have pictures of the clothing and equipment you will use?
They will issue us over 30 pounds of extreme weather gear in Punta Arenas and here are a couple pictures of some students at Barrett Elementary School in Arlington Virginia wearing just a few of the many layers it takes to be safe at temps that have reached as low as 130 degrees below zero fahrenheit!
Barrett student with extreme weather gear
That suir should keep me warm don't you think? If you ever read accounts of the early Antarctic explorers - Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, etc. - you'll find that frozen feet were one of the great dangers. So they have something extra special and stylish to protect the toes from frostbite - the legendary "bunny boot" Not too good for dancing - but they sure work well. We use them all the time in Alaska for snow-machining.
Bunny boots at work
Here's one more picture of our upper body ensemble - in the background you can see a student from Longbranch Elementary in Arlington Va wearing the snowsuit, and next to him I'm wrapping up dressing up a young lady with our outer layers - the traditional US Antarctic Program fur hooded parka, 2 hats (one for warmth and another for wind) and some ski goggles to protect from snow, wind, and bright sun (remember its summer down there!)
Longbranch Polar Explorers try on their gear
Megan: How risky is it going through the ice?
If you're talking about being on the boat - probably not too risky since its well designed with up to 60 centimeters of steel on the keel to protect the ship from being punctured. But if a human falls into the ice - you only have about 8 minutes to live due to the extreme cold temperatures. I have a swimsuit with me - but it's for the traditional Swedish sauna (there are two on board) rather than a little Antarctic dip
Matt D. How do you keep water and food from freezing on the boat?
The cabin of the ship is really large - and a good part of the energy from the engines goes to heat the cabin and therefore keep our food and water at useable temps - fortunately it doesn't have tobe stored up on deck. I was interested to learn that the ship is capable of converting seawater to freshwater so that it doesn't have to store tons of fresh water for the entire journey - the desalinizer produces up to 30 cubic meters (good math problem - how many gallons is that) every day.
Brandon: How long will it take to get to the edge of Antarctica?
Hopefully this will go as quickly as possible - probably 2 days from Punta Arenas to the Antarctic Peninsula. They're predicting that this could be a bit of a wild ride - the boat is designed for riding in the ice, and so on open seas such as those in the Drake Passage south of South America - it promises to be a rollercoaster if we get into heavy seas. I never got seasick fishing in the Gulf of Alaska - but have a good supply of motion sickness medicine just in case!
Eitan: What kind of wildlife will you see from the boat- take pictures!
Here is picture of my carry luggage for yesterday's flight - I love photography and I will hopefully have a ton of pictures to share on this site over the coming weeks.
Not much room for clothes - but the its the pictures that count
I'll also bring it all down when I'm in Houston in February for the Space Exploration Educators Conference at Space Center Houston when I hope to be able to come over meet you all in person!
As for animals - we'll have researchers on board whose sole goal is to take animal census data on the penguins, seals, other birds, whales, etc - should be a phenomenal collection of animals. I'll also be introducing a new species to the area - owing to a stowaway who hopped out of my bag when I arrived in Salt Lake yesterday. I'd like you to meet my fellow Alaskan - Mrs. Chippy II, who will be my stalwart companion throughout the trip. I expect she'll be the first polar bear in this region of the Antarctica and should help me overcome any homesickness during the trip too.
Mrs Chippy - our Arctic stowaway
Mrs. Chippy II - shares her name with a previous animal explorer of the Antarctic - see you what you can find out about his previous namesake - Mrs. Chippy I?
Armand:
Willl you stop along the way to McMurdo, and if you do, where will you sleep? We're going to push pretty much straight through to McMurdo, since the primary goal of the mission is to break open the yearly supply channel so that ships can deliver fuel and goods to the station during the short summer season. So we should arrive at McMurdo on Dec. 25 - pretty fast for busting halfway around the continent. Here's a picture of our final destination and one of the residents there.
Skua and McMurdo station in the background
Hope that answers at least some of your initial questions - and I look forward to keeping in touch with you throughout the journey. Off to teach some teachers! Talk with you soon!
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