6 December 2017 First Day with the ARA Drilling Team

I exited the station at Destination Zulu and was immediately blasted by a gust of cold air. I pulled my hood over my beanie and carefully navigated down the flight of stairs to the hard packed snow. It was a short walk over to the drilling station, but the cold air and high altitude made the trek feel much farther than it actually was. I paused to catch my breath then made my way over to James Roth, one of the engineers on the ARA drill team.

Terry Benson stands on a ladder at the front end of the drill train.

He quickly gave me a tour of the drill train and showed me around the complex workings of the 75 foot long monstrosity. The drill was used during an ARA deployment in 2012-13 but lack of funding caused the project to be put on hold. The drill was used again in a contract mission to drill into the Rod Well at the station in 2013-14. The drill team is currently in the process of unfreezing all of the working parts of the drill and replacing the drill hose and drill head.

There are two different drill heads that will be used in the two different types of ice. The deep ice has been compacted by gravity and is pure ice without any air holes. This ice can be drilled through by using hot water pumped into the hole and a second hose to pump out the cold water from the melted ice. The top layer is called the firn. This is snow that has not been compacted completely and it is very porous in nature. The same procedure cannot be used because too much hot water would be lost through the pores in the ice. So the drill team has designed a new drill head, affectionately known as "carrot". This drill head can heat up the firn and bore a neat hole all the way to the more compact ice. This is modeled after the IceCube drill. At this time the drill heads will be swapped and the hot water process will take place. This is the first time that either of these new drill heads will be tested in the field and the team is eagerly awaiting the chance to try it out.

"Carrot", the drill head used for the firn.

The drill team was also delayed in their start date due to storms in McMurdo and are now behind their projected schedule. The team works long hours: 7-12, 1-6, and sometimes goes back in the evening to work even longer. Their tasks are very arduous as they spend much of their time outside maintaining the drill in the cold and harsh elements of the South Pole. Their job is not a glamorous one, but is essential for the deployment of the ARA sensors in the ice. Some of the scientists from the ARA project are now working with the drill team because data analysis cannot happen until the drill is up and running. It is amazing to watch scientists and engineers working together so collaboratively.

The engineers that are working on this project are some of the most intelligent problem solvers on the planet. They are working with challenging machinery that has frozen for several winters and they don’t have a Home Depot that they can go to if a part is missing. I am constantly impressed with the way that they see problems and look for solutions. The communication is essential to make sure that everyone is on the same page before moving on to the next problem. This is one of the most important aspects of polar science: communicating problems effectively and looking for solutions to every problem.