So, what amenities do we have available?
When I told people I was coming to the South Pole, a lot of them pictured me sitting in a tent, eating beans out of a can.
A tin of pemmican. Arctic and Antarctic explorers ate this. There were special types, too: dogs had different pemmican than people although sometimes, if the people got hungry, they'd eat the dogs' pemmican. And then the dogs.
They thought I would be freezing and who knows how I'd go to the bathroom.
One potential way of going to the bathroom in the field. Photo courtesy of Blaise Kuo Tiong.
When Robert Falcon Scott traveled to the South Pole in 1911, his expedition wasn't able to contact the outside world for months at a time. Now, a hundred years later at the South Pole, I'm posting blogs and uploading videos while wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
The typical attire of people inside the station. People wear shorts, pants, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, etc. It's pretty much the same as what you'd see in a school somewhere.
So, here are the luxuries we have:
- Internet - It's not available all the time because it depends on when the satellites are visible over the horizon. There are three different satellites we use for an internet connection. GOES - super slow and available in the morning hours, before you wake up and during/after breakfast. It's usually up till around 10am (the time shifts forward by a few minutes every day). TDRS (aka SPTR) - The best satellite. NASA commandeers this one sometimes and so it may not continually be available. Generally, this is visible in the middle of the day, from about 1pm to about 5pm. We almost always miss this one because we're at work. (That's probably another reason it's the best - there's more available bandwidth because a bunch of people are outside working.) And the last satellite.. well, it's named SkyNet.
SkyNet is available starting around 11pm. It's about as slow as GOES and it's also not reliable. Sometimes, if you wait up for it, it doesn't actually start until much later than it's supposed to so it's really not worth staying up just for the internet. If you're awake at midnight anyway (and lots of people are), you might as well see if it's up.
SatStat (Satellite Statistics) is one of the things in the loop of slides that's displayed in the galley. This is a typical shot. Looks like we got back from work too late for the internet so we'll have to wait till SkyNet is up or catch GOES in the morning.
- Electricity and heat - Being inside the South Pole Station feels just like being inside any other building in the world. It's kept at room temperature and it's got electric lights and power outlets and phones, just like you'd expect to find in a building that functions both as dorms and as an office. If you live in the station, you've got a phone, lights, and desk lamps in your room. I also have a plug for an ethernet cable. One of my friends has a TV/VCR in his room! Another has dual monitors and a gigantic room! (He is in one of the winter berths - they're a foot wider than the summer rooms, where I am.)
This room feels huge compared to the other rooms. Notice the computer monitors, one says: Science is Power and the other says: Sleep. Social Life. Good grades. (choose only 2.) Photo courtesy of Dave Pernic.
When we're at the drill site, we've got electricity provided by the generators. The MECC is heated and so is the Strut Palace (by the NGH - our noisy little yellow heater).
Our NGH. He's pretty noisy but I don't think any of us would give him up.
The crystal palace and the USAPee are both heated by the sun, which we have plenty of as long as the weather isn't bad.
- Food - In the station, there's a well supplied kitchen and the staff makes us three meals a day. For breakfast, we usually have some variation of eggs, hash browns, and bacon or sausage. There's also toast, coffee, and juice available. Most days, there's fruit, too. For lunch, there have ben wildly different things served. I've had all sorts of pasta, sloppy joes, french dip sandwiches, etc. When we're working, we don't come back for lunch because it's too far away and we have to keep drilling (because, once you start a hole, you can't stop till it's finished.) So, usually, we send one person back on a snow machine to go pick up food for us. Then we eat in the MECC when they get back and when there's a good time to take a break - usually that happens around 2pm.
The ARA coolers, waiting for someone to fill them with food and carry them back to the drill site. Since I'm looking at them, I guess that's my job today.
Either we're about to eat or we've finished eating. Either way, the MECC is where we have lunch. We've got paper plates and bowls, plastic utensils, and our very own styrofoam cups here. We even have ziploc baggies of salt and pepper.
For dinner, there's also a wide variety of meals. Burgers, chicken, fish, etc. One night, we had a German-themed dinner with spaetzle, potatoes, pretzels, sauerkraut, and some other German dishes. We've also had Italian and American food.
Some people getting food in the galley.
For the first week or so that I was here, I had a really small appetite but, now that I've been working and have adjusted to the environment, I'm eating a ton more than I would at home. I heard that, down here, it takes 5000 calories a day to maintain weight! That's good to know because, every time I step into the MECC, I eat a cookie. Nutter Butters and Chips Ahoy are my favorites. :) Antarctica - it's a harsh continent.
- Running Water - If I'm in Station, the then I've got access to running water. We have water fountains, public restrooms, and showers, just like any dorm/office building.
Each berthing hallway has it's own bathroom. This is the A1 women's room. The residents of the hall are responsible for cleaning the bathroom (called house mousing) and everyone is assigned a day to clean.
One of the showers. They're pretty basic. We get two 2-minute showers each week. You can take them on whichever 2 days you choose. I picked Mondays and Thursdays for mine, to keep them spaced out.
The toilets at the station. You can't even tell that this picture was taken at the South Pole. They just look like regular public restrooms.
If I'm at the drill camp, I don't have running water. We bring our own drinking water and we have to use the USAPee solar potty. It's actually quite warm though and not a bad place to go. The toilet seat is made from hard foam so it's never cold. The foam is actually smooth there, too, not like in the Trebuchet at the ICL. That foam is old and all scratched up.
Inside of our cozy little solar toilet. Photo courtesy of Dave Pernic.
The only thing that I wish I could do here that I can't is order a pizza and have it delivered. We seem to be outside the delivery area…