October 30th, 2007 | | By Ken Mankoff
My friend Mame asked me a bunch of questions about life down here and I figure I’ll reply to them here as they are good questions and you all might be interested in the Q&A.
Do we fantasize about surviving down here with an end-of-the-world scenario (superbug, aliens, etc.)?
Surprisingly it does not feel isolated enough that we have these fantasies. In one sense of course we are very isolated. But there is a new plane of arrivals (30 to 90 per flight) every day that the weather allows it, and sometimes two per day. The amount of people on base is holding roughly steady at around 1,000 because others are leaving northward or to the South Pole.
However, we do have a lot of issues with bugs here. For some reason (everyone living in close quarters indoors? Isolation + new arrivals?) we are very susceptible to bugs down here. I avoided the flu but it got about half the base shortly after my arrival. There are handwashing signs EVERYWHERE, special sinks right outside the dining hall, and hand sanitizer pumps all over the place. Joanna wrote a post about hand washing.
What are the support personnel like?
There are 9 to 10 support people per scientist. There are about 10 science projects on base. Most of those are teams of two to five scientists. ANDRILL is an 800 pound gorilla on base as there are around 60 to 70 of us. So, 10 science projects, around 100 scientists total, and around 1100 people on base. “Support personnel” include H&R, IT, cargo logistics, flight operations, recreational activity, search and rescue (SAR), dining services, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, and a million other positions. Many people play two or three roles, plus bartend or DJ or are the base hair cutter and/or masseuse too.
The support personnel cover a broad spectrum from non-publishing scientist to migratory world-wandering general worker. Examples of the former include the sea ice safety group who meticulously studies the sea ice, how it moves and cracks, salinity, depth, temperature, etc. but rather than publishing the results they decide if it is safe to drive or walk or land a plane. Or last week we had a very neat engineering (not science) talk about the road one group is building to the South Pole and the mechanics and logistics of transport.
There is a saying down here that there are more janitors with PhDs than anywhere else on the planet. I’m in a strange role myself down here as I’m not actually here as a scientist but as an educator/teacher. But I’m not really a teacher. But my job as a teacher is to be embedded with a science team. I’ve taken to just saying, “I’m a climate modeler”. I’m also very much in a world-wandering nomadic mode much like some support people, but I have a serious career while I wander.
Whatever… long complex answer to a simple question: They are not any different than the science groups and I’ve made some friends in both groups.
Who does the laundry
I do. If you saw my packing list you notice I only brought a weeks worth of socks and underwear. The dorms have laundry and it is pretty easy to throw it in the washer before or after dinner. I don’t use the drier because there is so little humidity here. Most people have permanently cracked hands and use lots of cream. I’m doing OK, perhaps because of my long time high up in the Colorado plateau. But I hang dripping wet laundry at night and in the morning it is dry.
Where do you get water?
Suck it out of McMurdo sound. Desalinate.
What’s the major power source?
Diesel generators. Seven million gallons/year usage I think. We’re verifying this number with the Fuelies. There was a nuke plant down here that was used back in the day but is no longer due to containment issues.
There is a steady strong wind and six months of sun per year so I’ve spoken with people about wind and solar power. A lot of the field camps and fish huts are solar powered. But on base, the energy is used to drive big vehicles, and you cannot do that with sun or wind.
I’m not sure what our per capita consumption is relative elsewhere on the planet. I get the feeling we use a lot, but then again, we are packed in here pretty tight, whereas back in the U.S. the climate might be more temperate but people have McMansions bigger than our entire dorm or the entire Crary science lab, plus malls that are lit 24/7.
The recycling down here is phenomenal. We recycle 70% of our waste (best U.S. city might be at 15% or 20%), and zero garbage stays here. All our trash, including bodily waste, gets shipped back to the U.S. for disposal. Of course by the time the bodily waste gets back it is nice dirt with plants starting to grow out of it. When you go hiking off base you bring a pee bottle and carry your own waste out of field camps. Each dorm and office floor has recycling bins. About 10 of them. Details here. I’ve scheduled a tour of the wastewater plant (a.k.a poo plant) and I’ll write and post photos after that happens.
Who has the most time logged there?
One person has been here 27 seasons. She has a small island named after her. The longest duration is 14 months as you get kicked off for 60 days after that. Many regulars go to Fiji or back to the states for 2 months, then come back, and repeat.
How soon do people start showing signs of cabin fever?
I’m not sure. It is a strange crowd here, many people have been here before, everybody wants to be here. I’m here early in the season and leaving early too, so I won’t get to experience it nor observe it in others. I think everybody would like it if it were a bit less crowded, and the first week when there were only 5 to 6 hundred people on base it was much nicer.
I bet some people experience cabin fever on day 1, and others never. I think in the summer it is easy to get out and the sun is up, so this might be something experienced a lot more during the winter, and/or at the South Pole where it is a lot smaller and harder to go outside.
As for me, I think I could be locked in a small room for a couple days before it started to get to me. The loneliest I’ve ever been was one evening standing in Times Square, New York City. It is all relative.
I want a photo of a quinzee
I didn’t take my camera to Happy Camper School, but Eva and Joanna took a bunch of pictures. Here they are, of a Scott tent, the wind wall we built of snow blocks (and our kitchen), simulating a search and rescue in a condition one, a sleeping trench, and two pictures of a quinzee. Enjoy.
Tags:
ANDRILL,
Antarctica 
