Carhartt

I had my 1st opportunity several days ago to drive to NASA sponsored sporadic Long Duration Balloon (LDB) complex and delivery equipment. NASA paid for the six buildings, which were built on the Ross Ice Shelf near the transition to Ross Island about 2 miles from McMurdo Station during the winter 2005. The buildings were erected outside , where the workers had to face months of dark winter days with temperatures dipping into the negative 70s Celsius. After completion, in late September, the buildings were pulled one-by-one behind D-8 Caterpillar tractors in a slow parade to Williams Field. The last one was put into place on October 14, 2005.













In the picture bellow can be seen an aerial shot of the LDB field site.



The first two buildings on the left are the payload assembly buildings. They are both identical. The next is the CSBF mechanical/rigging workshop. The telemetry building is the one with the domes on the top and the next at right is the "mechanical" building which has the heat exchangers and the toilets. The blue structure is the dual generator set, which has the waste heat exchangers on the exhaust system which are connected to the "mechanical" building which has the heat exchangers to provide hot fluid to the rest of the complex. Finally the small cylindrical building on the right is the Jamesway tent structure that is used as a kitchen for the facility. 

Right now they are the tallest buildings in Antarctica and with a weight around 160,000 pounds each, they are certainly the largest moveable structures down there.





















Pictured on the left in payload
assembly Bay 1 is NASA employee Derek Dolby and myself in our Men's Bib Overalls, Sweatshirts and Headwear.

Now, at the end of the summer season, workers free the buildings from the locations where they are currently anchored and move them onto snow berms,where they will be re-anchored for storage. This eliminates the need to excavate the buildings at the end of every winter as occured before with the previous facilities at the ICE. 

A reoccurring problem is that the skis will often freeze to the snow after sitting still and immobilize the building. When it's time to move them, the skis are warmed by electical heating strips to melt the ice cementing the buildings in place. This frees them in a gentler way than many other methods such as using explosives.

The nominal Antarctica LDB launch window is December 10 through January 10 each year. The opening of the launch window is determined by the establishment of the seasonal polar wind circulation pattern necessary to maintain trajectories over the continent. The end of this window is determined by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) requirements to complete seasonal close-out and retrograde operations. More information can be found at www.csbf.nasa.gov along with www.carhartt.com for your everyday balloon tracking or star gazing attire.