[meteorite-list] Ice Diary

From: Rob Wesel <*Nakhladog_at_meteoritecentral.com*> Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:31 2004 Message-ID: <002701c2def0$5ef5a770$4e9fe70c_at_GOLIATH> · Nakhladog_at_meteoritecentral.com

--
Rob Wesel
------------------
We are the music makers...and we are the dreamers of the dreams.
Willy Wonka, 1971
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 11:16 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Ice Diary 2: Great Scott, A Ghost (Life In The
Antarctic)
>
> For JPL internal use only.
>
>
http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&s
id=384&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
>
> Ice Diary 2: Great Scott, A Ghost
> Astrobiology Magazine
> February 27, 2003
>
> Summary: The "Ice Diary" series explores the adventures
> of a dedicated group of meteor hunters. The National
> Science Foundation, NASA and the Smithsonian collect and
> curate extraterrestrial samples scoured from the South
> Pole. In this chronicle, our explorers consider ghosts of
> pioneer trekkers like Robert Scott.
>
> Ice Diary 2
> Great Scott, A Ghost
>
> 29 November, 2002
>
> Hello, my name is Danny Glavin, and I feel
> extremely lucky to be a part of the ANSMET
> team. As part of my thesis research, I studied how
> micrometeorites collected from the Antarctic ice
> could have delivered extraterrestrial organic
> material to the early Earth, potentially seeding the
> planet with the building blocks of life. One
> meteorite found in Antarctica by ANSMET that
> has received an enormous amount of publicity is
> the Martian meteorite ALH84001.
>
> This rock was blasted off of the surface of Mars
> millions of years ago by a large impact, sent flying
> into space, and eventually landed in the Allan Hills
> region of Antarctica about 13,000 years ago. In 1996, a
> team of scientists from the NASA Johnson Space Center and
> Stanford University claimed to have found evidence
> for ancient Martian life in this meteorite. The debate
> over whether this meteorite actually contains evidence
> for life on Mars continues today. My personal opinion is
> that a Martian sample return mission that would give us
> several pristine "uncontaminated" samples will be necessary
> to resolve this "life on Mars" debate.
>
> Over the last week in McMurdo I have been trying to find the
> words to describe Antarctica -- other than simply "cold and white."
> Standing on the ice sheet at our "shakedown" camp about 12 miles
> outside of McMurdo, I had this overwhelming feeling of insignificance,
> with miles and miles of ice in every direction. Although it was a very
> bright and clear day, distances and dimensions were very difficult to
> judge. John Schutt, the reconnaissance team leader, asked me how tall
> I thought the Trans-Antarctic Mountains were in the distance. I guessed
> 5,000 feet, but they were actually 14,000 feet!
>
> One of the most important things to be concerned about in Antarctica
> is drinking LOTS of water. Keeping your body hydrated is the first
> defense against becoming sick.  Because it is so dry here, your body
> loses much more water than normal. Although I was told to drink between
> five to seven liters of water per day, I didn't drink enough when I first
> got to McMurdo. A couple of days ago, I started to get a sore throat,
> cough, and stuffed-up nose. After visiting the local hospital, I was
> told that I had picked up the "McMurdo Crud." The flight surgeon at the
> hospital prescribed me some medication, so I am feeling much better today.
> I really appreciate the extra help from the other team
> members so that I could get some much-needed rest.
>
>
> 30 November, 2002
>
> My body is sore. We have spent the last couple of days loading gear and
> food for our six-week expedition to the ice. So when the opportunity to
> go on a six-hour ride to a cold, windy point came up, my gut reaction
> was to decline. But then Cady Coleman, an astronaut on our reconnaissance
> team, started twisting my arm.
>
> We left at 6:30 p.m. in a couple of
> large transports called "Deltas."
> They are designed to travel over the
> sea ice, but they don't go faster than
> 25 MPH, and they don't have any
> suspension or heat. We got to Cape
> Evans in about 1 1/2 hours.
>
> Cape Evans is where Capt. Robert
> F. Scott launched his final run at the
> pole in 1913. The hut he built there
> has been perfectly frozen in time,
> and we were allowed to walk around
> inside. The table was still set, beds
> made, and a stack of seal blubber in
> the stables off to the side was still
> smelly. All the shelves were
> stocked with cans of cocoa and
> oatmeal. I couldn't help but feel
> there were ghosts present in the building.
> Scott never made it back to Cape Evans,
> but there is a memorial commemorating his
> sacrifice and others in the quest to reach the pole.
>
> Right outside the door was a Weddell Seal and her pup. They didn't
> seem to mind all the visitors and alternated playing and nursing
> while everyone snapped pictures. I was overwhelmed by their
> cuteness, and only took about 30 to 40 pictures.
>
> Fairly close to Cape Evans, a glacier coming off of Mt. Erebus is
> in contact with the sea ice. It forms a sheer wall of blue ice
> that stands over 500 feet tall. It was awesome in the true sense
> of the word. Despite this grandeur, the wind was howling and we were
> able to put our cold weather gear to the test.
>
> We had just left Cape Evans and Cady was well into a story about
> her launch on the Space Shuttle, when I saw a small black figure
> moving quickly across the ice. I yelled, "Penguin!" - cutting Cady
> off in mid-sentence. We piled out the back, and a small
> Adélie penguin made his way right in front of us. He seemed to
> be in a great hurry because he kept slipping on the ice, his flippers
> and feet moving wildly. This penguin really made my day. When we get
> back, we'll be asked if we saw penguins, and now most of us can say
> we did. Plus, he reminded me of my clumsy pet cockatiel at home. He
> was quite a character.
>
>
> 1 December, 2002
>
> It's strange to see this bustling community stop, but that's exactly
> what happened this weekend as McMurdo station observed Thanksgiving.
> It wasn't observed on Thursday or even Friday, when it was Thursday
> in the United States, but on Saturday. Everyone was given the day off
> and most saw it as an occasion to dress up for the dinner.
>
> Having a little time off has given us
> the opportunity to see some of the
> sights. On Friday afternoon, Jamie,
> Scott, Carlton, Nancy, Linda, Danny,
> and I went to Scott Base, the New
> Zealand base here on Ross Island.
> Scott Base is much smaller than
> McMurdo, but serves the same
> purpose. It's composed of
> interconnected modular buildings, so
> it's possible to travel between
> buildings without going outside. It's
> also built up on risers to keep the
> snow from accumulating around it.
>
> Today, Scott Messenger used his
> free time to run in the McMurdo
> Turkey Trot, a 5K race from the chapel
> to the ice runway and back. Dante, Danny,
> and I used the time to climb Ob Hill for
> an unbelievable view of Ross Island.
>
> Tonight is our last dinner together as a team, then the Beardmore
> group will need to take their bags to be weighed at "Bag Drag"
> for tomorrow morning's flight to Beardmore South Camp. We're
> taking two flights to get there in order to unload the palettes
> of gear and food and camp for the night. Then, on Tuesday, we'll
> start our 100-kilometer traverse to the Goodwin Nunataks site
> (A nunatak is a mountain sticking up above the ice of a glacier).
>
>
> 2 December, 2002
>
> This is Diane DiMassa, pinch-hitting for Andy. Andy is somewhat
> depressed today -- no not because the [Denver] Broncos lost, although
> that certainly isn't helping. You see, the main field team was scheduled
> to deploy to Beardmore Glacier today, but the weather has turned against
> us for the first time this season. All flights in and out of
> McMurdo Station have been grounded.
>
> Up until now, the weather here has been pleasant - cold, but actually
> pretty nice days considering what Antarctica can throw at you. Overnight
> and into this morning, a small storm passed through and the station went
> >from nice weather, or Condition 3, to not-so-nice weather, or Condition
2.
> Below is a copy of the McMurdo Station Travel Policy. It explains the
> weather condition categories; it's the visibility that is affecting us
> the most today:
>
> MCMURDO TRAVEL POLICY - SUMMER (October - February)
>
>     CONDITION 3 is defined as having winds less that 48 knots, wind chills
>     warmer than -75 F, and visibility greater than 1/4 mile. This is
>     considered the normal weather condition in McMurdo.
>
>     CONDITION 2 is defined by one or more of the following conditions:
winds
>     speeds 48 to 55 knots, wind chills of -75 to -100 F, or visibility of
>     less than 1/4 mile.
>
>     CONDITION 1 is defined by one or more of the following conditions:
wind
>     speeds greater than 55 knots, wind chills colder than -100 F, or
>     visibility of less than 100 feet.
>
> Andy is depressed because the sea ice runway has been swapping back and
forth
> between Condition 2 and Condition 1 all day. I have mixed feelings about
> today's delay.
>
>
> As much as I would like the team to
> be able to get on with the meteorite
> hunting, I will be sad to see them go.
> I am on the reconnaissance (or
> Rekke) team. So when the main
> team leaves for Beardmore Glacier,
> Dean, Cady, Carl, and I will be left
> behind for a later deployment. It is
> likely that the main field party will
> be back in Christchurch, New
> Zealand before the Rekke team gets
> back to McMurdo, so I won't be
> seeing those folks again until the
> Lunar and Planetary Science
> Conference in March. We've all
> been getting along quite well,
> forming friendships that will last a
> very long time, so I will be sad when
> they leave.
>
> Another reason that I have mixed emotions about the delay is that
> I am secretly happy that the winds have picked up. (Don't tell Andy!)
> You see, I'm not a geologist like the rest of the crowd. I'm a professor
> of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts in
> Dartmouth, and I have set up equipment to get some data on wind
> energy. Since the ANSMET team is a deep field party, we have to be
> creative in ways to supply enough power for the needs of the team --
> for example, powering Andy's computer so he can continue to post to
> this web site. I'm investigating the potential for small wind turbines
> to provide power in the deep field of Antarctica. My turbine system
> is happily collecting data on the sea ice right now (I hope), measuring
> the wind conditions and propensity for power generation.
>
> I am tempted to run out onto the sea ice to check to see if everything is
> OK, but I really don't have to. In the library at the Crary Lab is a
> small telescope. So, I can stand here and look through the telescope to
> see my set-up. Spin, little wind turbine! Spin!
>
>
> In this multi-part Ice Diary series, all commentaries are
> attributable to Andy Caldwell unless otherwise noted, and reprinted
> by permission as part of his participation in the Teachers
> Experiencing Antarctica (TEA) program.
>
> So far, meteorite hunters have found about 26 rocks on Earth that
> have been identified as having come from Mars (some of these
> broke apart upon entering the atmosphere, so the 26 rocks were
> found in about 40 separate pieces). For these rocks to have reached
> Earth successfully, their origin --often beginning billions of years
> ago-- likely blasted from at least a two-mile-wide impact crater on Mars.
> Most remarkably, at any given moment, this interplanetary sample
> transit delivers about one Martian meteorite landing on Earth each month.
>
> Since 1976, the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET), funded
> by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation,
> has recovered more than 10,000 specimens from meteorite stranding
> surfaces along the Transantarctic Mountains. ANSMET continues to be one
> of the few Antarctic research projects that invites graduate students and
> senior researchers from other institutions to participate in field work
> on a volunteer basis--including the Teachers Experiencing Antarctica
> (TEA) program. As a multi-agency collaboration, the NSF supports field
> operations, NASA supports storage curation, distribution and notification
> of recovered samples, and the Smithsonian provides long term curation
> facilities for the collection and assist in sample characterization.
>
>
>
>
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