Did you guess right? The object in the picture is a refrigeration unit. We have four of these units inside the drill arch. The arch is cooled to -28C to keep the ice cores cold. Keeping the ice cold is important for several reasons. First, we don't want the ice to change in any way so that the results of studies like those of ice gas concentrations are not altered in any way. The ice also has to travel thousands of miles back to Colorado, where it is stored at the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL). For this long journey, the ice needs to stay cold. If the ice starts off cold, it takes more time for the ice to warm if anything were to happen to the refrigeration units as the ice travels (the ice travels in several different freezers along the way). Overall, the goal is to not let the ice warm at all! If the ice melts before it reaches laboratories in the United States, we can't use it for scientific studies! Ice is certainly precious cargo!
Mystery photo #2 is a refrigeration unit.
This is a view inside the arch. There are two sides of the arch, one is for science, and the other is for the drill.