|
More crazy weather / troubleshooting a CPU problem
We had some very strange weather out at
Williams Field today. It really wasn't all that cold, but there
was an extremely strong wind. In fact, when I walked outside, it
seemed like it was raining. My beard didn't freeze instantly as
it normally does, but instead I was covered in a sort of misty
rain. Strange. It almost felt like the wind temperature was
higher than the ambient outdoor temperature. Oh well, it's a
harsh continent. Here's a movie (wmv,
635 kB)!
We had a small problem today with our flight
computer, so that makes our relatively uninteresting situation somewhat
exciting. In other news, we finally received a dewar of liquid
nitrogen that we requested. Since aerogel is such a fragile
substance that reacts somewhat strongly to moisture in the air, it is
important to flush it continuously with dry nitrogen in order to keep
it dry. Down here it isn't as much of a problem, thanks to the
severe lack of humidity.
But I can guarantee that that is the only good thing about the lack of
moisture in the air. Having grown up in rather humid places, it
takes quite a while to get used to the lack of humidity in the air down
here. Your mouth is always dry, and you wake up continually
during the night more thirsty than you've ever been in your life!
They encourage you to drink plenty of water to keep from getting
dehydrated, but there's only one problem with that. Out here at
Willy, going to the bathroom is such an ordeal, that you try to go as
infrequently as possible. But of course, the more water you
drink...
As the day went on, the wind got colder and
stronger, and we were urged to start heading back to town. Since
our van was being used in town to secure our liquid nitrogen supply, we
were stuck until about 6:00 PM. The ride back was, needless to
say, pretty intense. Dana drove back and the cross winds on Willy
Road made the van fishtail constantly. We slowly made it back to
town to catch dinner.
After dinner, Ted Detmer, a mountaineer-type
involved in search and rescue missions down here gave one of his famous
lectures in the dining hall. Every Monday night, Ted tells
stories about the history of Antarctic exploration. The stories
are filled with interesting facts about Robert Falcon Scott's and
Ernest Shackleton's experiences exploring in this region during the
turn of the century. Last night's talk was about Captain James
Cook's voyages to this area in the late 1700s.
|
