Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 08:34
Forums
IceCube: In-ice Antarctic Telescope

Hey Mr. O'hara! Have you actually put the telescopes in the in the ground yet? how long do you spend at the Ice Cube place and are there any coll things you can do in your off time (besides talking to us)? Have you played polar frisbee golf already? -Love, Spencer, Jimmy, Abby, Isabel P.S. How are your feet cold or warm?

In the pictures, I notice that you are wearing a mask that looks like a gas mask/oxygen mask what is the purpose of those masks? What is an Ice top tank? When you scrubbed out the dirt, why did it have to be done so quickly? where did the dirt in the tanks come from? How did you unfreeze the water in the tank since the heat guns didnt work? - Chelsea, Camerone, Jordan, Shannon

Why is one satellite pointy and the other is round? How do you heat all the water? What is your main contribution to the experiment? Have you detected any neutrinos? - Ari, Tyler, Tal, Ryan

Did you find anything in the berms that you maybe werent supposed to find? What is the coldest temperature you have seen so far? Is your body clock messed up? Is it harder for youu to sleep at "night"? How long have has the equipment been kept in the berms? Do they have to be shipped out and replaced? -Casey, Bo, Sean, Jose

Have is the research going> How long do you usually do research everyday> Have you found any neutrinos yet? What do neutrinos look like? what do they taste like? We hope that your doing well. The food looks pretty good, it would be cool to implement some of the energy conservation mechanisms from your camp here in the states. Hope to see you soon! -Nichele, Thomas, Will

I saw you got to ride on a snowmobile, what is the fastest you've gone on it so far? Has anyone gotten hurt from your expirement? Does it ever get gotter from thermal radiation when the sun relects off the snow? Cause that happens on Mount Everest, and its even colder up there. I hope you are having fun! :D -Brandon, Audrey, Alysha

Mr. O'hara I was wondering if you compost (or can compost) your food waste before you send it back to the U.S.? what is the likeliness of a black out there? What is your job in your team. Do people grade and evaluate your work. -Sean, Adam, Tyler, Kevin

Hey Mr. O'hara! we have a few questions for you. How much light from the sun reflects off the snow? is it possible to get severe snowblindness? has anyone ever considered using wind power or solar panels in the south polar as a source of power? or do they already? How many days a year is the sun out for at least 20 hours? -Kevin, Nathan, Alberto

We all hope your doing well and cant wait until you come back!

-From your EGT team

Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:11

Casey OHara

2nd periodHi everyone!  I'm glad I had a chance to talk to a few of you on Friday - that was pretty neat, an intercontinental chat kinda thing.  I hope you are all doing well! things are great down here and we just finished putting in all our IceTop tanks for this season.
Actually they have been putting the IceCube sensors and IceTop sensors in the ice for years, and even though the whole telescope (which is the whole array, not just individual sensors) is not complete they have already been gathering data with the partially complete one.  There are lots of cool recreation activities, and I have visited the music room a bunch of times and went out to watch an "open mic night" where some of the long-term people have put together bands and put on a show.  I unfortunately didn't bring a frisbee so no frisbee golf for me!  And, my feet are nice and warm.
The mask I'm wearing is actually just a face shield that helps in a few ways: 1) keeps the wind off my face a bit better, 2) when I breathe out it directs the breath away from the goggles so they don't fog up, and 3) makes me look evil.  The dirt from tanks probably blew in when they sat at McMurdo station waiting to be put on a plane.  We cleaned them quickly because we needed to fill it with water, and dirt in the water would interfere with the sensors.  And to unfreeze the water we used a combination of "heat tape" (which is an electric cord that gets warm, like an electric blanket) and bringing it inside to a warm room.
No idea why one satellite is pointy... probably just different manufacturers and different times.  The water is all heated with a four-stage heater system that burns JP8 jet fuel.  Each stage of the heater system is a cargo container the size of a railroad car.
Things I found in the berms that I wasn't supposed to find: Jimmy Hoffa's body, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Colonel's secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices.  The first station was built in the 1950s, so the berms can only be as old as that - I imagine there are one or two things from that long ago!  Eventually that stuff will be shipped back to the U.S. for disposal, recycling, or reuse.
I usually work about 8 hours a day, not so much research but installation of the sensors.  The research is mostly done in universities around the world.  Every day neutrinos are detected, but these are mostly neutrinos created in our own atmosphere - not the ones from deep space that we would like to find.  
Neutrinos taste like burning.  Actually, since they don't interact with matter so much, they would not interact with your taste buds so they don't have a taste.  They have what physicists call a "flavor" which is a way of describing this other property, like electric charge (positive or negative) that determines how they interact.  Neutrino "flavors" are electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos, and tau neutrinos.
Officially I have not gone above 10 miles per hour on a snowmobile - that's the official speed limit and that's all I'll admit to :)  and yes, on sunny days it feels a lot warmer - especially if it's sunny and not windy.  It actually is pretty nice out today!
Food waste is collected and frozen until it can be taken back to the US.  Apparently it goes to California somewhere.  Unfortunately it is just burned... why? because: the waste contains agricultural stuff (fruit, veggie waste and possibly seeds) from New Zealand that the US doesn't want around (to prevent invasive species), and it also contains agricultural stuff from the US that New Zealand doesn't want around (also to prevent invasive species).  So no one want this great source of organic matter, so it gets burned and wasted.
And it can't get used here, because the Antarctic treaty prevents bringing in foreign soil products (to avoid any contamination) so the greenhouse here is limited to hydroponics - no compost allowed.
The South Pole Station does implement a lot of conservation efforts though, despite their lack of good agricultural ideas.  Energy and water conservation in particular!  we can study more about that later in the school year.
The likelihood of a blackout is slim because they are very cautious about power - a blackout could be catastrophic here because we would lose communications and heat as well as electricity.  So they have backup generators and lots of trained techs to make sure it all runs well.
The amount of light that reflects off the snow (or any surface) is called "albedo" - a ratio of (reflected light)/(incident light).  The albedo of snow is around 80-90%, meaning 80-90% of the light hitting the snow is reflected off.  So yes, this can cause severe snow blindness, thus the dark goggles.
Solar power would be inefficient because even though it's light 24 hours a day, the sun's angle is very low, and there's also a 6-month period of total darkness.  Wind power would be a good idea because there is almost always a good breeze, always from the same direction, and rarely storm-like winds; there are prototypes being tested for wind power for various needs.  But most of our power is still from burning fuel.
Phew, that was a lot of great questions!  I look forward to seeing you all in January, good luck on finals!
--Mr. O'Hara

Tue, 11/30/2010 - 04:35

Anonymous

wow.im only in third grade but your class looks awesome!I hope you have a good time teaching.