SCIENCE SUPPORT

Chris was supposed to come into town two days after we did. But the helicopter flights got cancelled because of bad weather, and he ended up not coming in at all. He did send in some laundry later to be washed. (It was about time.)

The laundry was sent back to the valleys by helicopter yesterday. Around 10 PM, a helo radioed us that it was going to stop at the camp to drop off Chris's load. But we had worked late and although we were in transit back to camp on the ATV, we weren't going to make it in time. So the helo just made a quick landing on the ice in the middle of the lake. The helitech handed Chris his bag of clean clothes, and the helo took off. It's definitely the only time I've ever heard of anyone getting his laundry personally delivered to
him by helicopter!

Chris gets his laundry delivered by helicopter.

 

GETTING AROUND TOWN

A little while after arriving at McMurdo Station, I decided to pick up my luggage. It had been off-loaded from the plane on the sea ice runway, driven three miles to town, and placed in building 140. I walked over there, searched through the piles on the floor, and found my stuff. For a moment I considered hand-carrying the unwieldy duffle bags and boxes of scientific equipment back to my dorm room and to the big building known as Crary Lab. But I quickly decided against that and went in search of a taxi instead. It was no yellow cab that pulled up though but a big 4x4 van. I placed my luggage in back, grabbed onto some handle bars, then hoisted myself up about two feet to get in.

4X4 Van

The cars you see in McMurdo aren't like those in other places. In fact, McMurdo doesn't really have any cars. Town vehicles are bigger, badder, and much more crazy looking. They either have huge tires - pickup truck size is the smallest- or tracks.

Larger wheels have more surface area in contact with the ground than smaller wheels, explains mechanic Tony Buchanan of McMurdo's Mechanical Equipment Center (MEC). Since the weight of the vehicle is spread over a greater area, the pressure exerted is lessened. This helps keep the vehicles from sinking full on into the snow. It's the same principle as skis. Tracks do an even better job than big wheels of distributing the weight. They also allow the vehicles to go over large cracks, which is a distinct advantage when tooling around out on crevasse-laden sea ice.

- Karen

Here, listed in no particular order, are some Mac Town vehicles.

PISTEN BULLY "The McMurdo Pickup Truck". The Pisten Bully, explains Tony, is the Antarctic equivalent of a pickup truck for snow and ice. It has longer tracks, is more reliable, and is more expensive than the other Mac Town "truck," the Mat Track.	MAT TRACK "The other McMurdo Pickup Truck" The Mat Track is a cheap Pisten Bully. You can buy three mat tracks for the price of one Pisten Bully. But it has shorter tracks and thus cannot be driven in as deep snow. The shorter tracks also make it less able to cross crevasses. In general, says Tony, you don't want to cross a crevasse that is over 1/3 the length of your track.
THE CHALLENGER "The Antarctic Tractor" The Challenger is the tractor around town and is used to pull all kinds of things, from sleds to the equipment needed to groom the airplane runways.	THE GATOR "The Antarctic Golf Cart" The U.S. Air National Guard uses the Gator to move cargo to and from aircraft on the sea ice runway. Tony and others agree, it looks uncannily like a golf cart.
IVAN THE TERRABUS "The Mac Town School Bus" Terrabuses were originally designed with the observation of polar bears in the Arctic in mind, and Ivan is one of only seven such vehicles in the world. At McMurdo Station though, the buses move larger numbers of passengers from aircraft to town, which is why Tony likens it to a Mac Town school bus. The price tag for one of these bad boys - $600,000.	THE DELTA "The Ross Island Bus" The Delta is a big-wheeled vehicle (the tires are almost as tall as me!) and weighs over five tons. It's can be used to transport around 20 passengers to places outside of town. So, it's kind of like a Ross Island (where McMurdo is located) bus.