Blueshift - January 19, 2010

Science at the End of the Earth, Part II

[music]

Maggie: Welcome to the January 19, 2010 episode of Blueshift, brought
to you from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. I'm Maggie Masetti.

Last month we shared the first part of an interview with Dr. John
Mitchell about doing science in Antarctica. He talked about his
project BESS, and why he has to trek to such a remote location to get
the data he wants. Antarctica is a continent of emptiness and
extremes, but some people call it home, at least for part of the year.

McMurdo Station isn't simply the largest Antarctic research center -
it's Antarctica's largest city. Even if you're headed to the South
Pole or another remote research location, you'll probably stop
in McMurdo first. So what's it like there?

John: McMurdo Station is a rather interesting place. It's been
compared many, many times to a mining town in the Midwest. It's
located on Ross Island, which is a volcanic island, and it's mostly
volcanic rock and dirt and indeed it does look actually very much like a small
mining town. Across the McMurdo Sound from McMurdo is what's called
the Royal Society Range, which is a mountain range named for the
British Royal Society. Just gorgeous. Everything is lovely. It does
get a little old after a few weeks, but it ages quite well.

Maggie: Though Antarctica may seem like an unfriendly place to visit,
McMurdo Station has many of the comforts of home.

John: Well, in McMurdo we live relatively well. We have of course
heated buildings - some people even think they're maybe a little too hot. An
excellent cafeteria that actually also works 24 hours a day. It feeds
the workers who work night on a different shift from the workers who
work during the day. We have dormitories. They're not the world's
highest comfort level, but they're nice.

Maggie: One of the most interesting aspects of doing science in
Antarctica isn't where you go. It's who you meet.

John: At peak, in the middle of the summer, there are about a thousand
people that live there. That includes everything from scientists to
heavy equipment operators to janitors to cafeteria workers to artists
and musicians. And it's a remarkable place because everyone there has
a purpose. Everyone has a job. Everyone wants to be there. And it's
bustling with activity 24 hours a day because, of course, we are in
the middle of the Antarctic summer, and it's sun 24 hours a day, so
there's nothing that stops it. The people that go down there are
interesting, the work they're doing is interesting. There's winderful
work being done on Antarctic fish and crustaceans, smaller
animals, plankton. The fish in particular are fascinating because
they live in temperatures that are actually cold enough to freeze the
blood in normal fish. They have in their blood a material that acts
basically as an antifreeze, that allows them to keep from
freezing. You share rooms when you're in McMurdo, and my first roommate happened
to be the world's expert on these fish, and so I learned a lot more about
them than I had ever expected to. My second roommate was a man that's
an expert on volcanoes, so I learned a lot about volcanoes. And when I
was doing a similar recovery from our 2004 flight, I shared about a
week of camping with an expert on glaciers, and so I learned a lot
about glaciers. None of which I would normally have learned anything
about as an astrophysicist. So it's a broadening experience.

Maggie: And Dr. Mitchell said you might find yourself learning some
new skills, or tagging along for unexpected adventures.

John: Oh you get into all kinds of interesting things in McMurdo. The
first year that I was there I learned to drive some of the tracked
vehicles and as a consequence I ended up going out on a couple of
parties to service dive holes, which are places where divers actually
go in to study the water under the ice, and you have to clear those
out periodically. And it's rather interesting because of course the
seals see the dive holes as a unique opportunity to come up without a
lot of work, and so anywhere you have the dive holes you also have
seals. And so going out and driving out to help clear some of those
dive holes was rather remarkable. And I've gotten to do other kinds of
work and operate other kinds of equipment that I might not have had
the opportunity to do elsewhere.

Maggie: Even though McMurdo is a small city in one of the most remote
and empty places in the world, most visitors rarely find themselves
bored.

John: One of the very intesting things that you notice in Antarctica
is there's a great deal of effort put into keeping the people
down there happy. There are lots of different athletic activities,
musical events. They have what are in effect garage bands, but
everyone loves them. Social events of various sorts. The world's
southernmost bowling alley. And there are outside parties. There's even
skiing. So it's an interesting place from that perspective. It also
boasts the world's southernmost outdoor music event, known as
Icestock, which is extremely well-attended and tremendous amounts of
fun. And in recent years has also incorporated a chili cook-off. And
oddly enough, I believe the last time I was down there the chili
cook-off was won by the New Zealanders, which can't be explained in
any rational way.

Maggie: Dr. Mitchell's trip out onto the ice to recover the BESS
hardware was a success, and he's now headed back to McMurdo to pack up
the instruments and prepare for the long trip home.

Want to know more about what it takes to get to McMurdo, and what it's
like when you get there? Visit our website at
universe.nasa.gov/blueshift. You can also follow our updates on
Twitter, we're @nasablueshift. Send us your questions about doing
science in Antarctica through our website, or on Twitter, and we'll
see if we can get them answered for you. This wraps up our short
series about Antarctica. Join us at the end of January, when we'll
take you on another adventure. This is Maggie Masetti, bringing the
universe closer to you, with Blueshift.

[Musical outro]