Running a large science experiment anywhere in the world can be challenging. You need materials, scientists, engineers, safety officers (that’s me!), logistics support, cleaning crews, administrative support, etc. Now imagine taking a large science experiment that’s never been done before and setting it up at the South Pole – boom, everything just got way more complicated! But that’s exactly what the folks behind the IceCube Neutrino Observatory did, and we’re doing it again right now. So what exactly does it take to get ready for installing and setting up an experiment here? It turns out, you need lots and lots of shovels.
At the South Pole, there is one sunrise and one sunset per year, leading to roughly six months of summer and six months of winter. The South Pole, being a desert, hardly ever gets precipitation, but that doesn’t keep snow from blowing around all winter long. Check out the photos to see how our drill camp equipment looked at the end of winter in September, compared to mid-November. See all that snow piled up around the containers?! Lucky for us, some heavy machinery was used for the initial clearing of the drill camp. But we still had lots of shoveling to do.
