Junket Unknown: Experience of a lifetime...

I was fortunate enough to be offered a chance to go on what we call a "Boondoggle." A Boondoggle is more or less a chance to get out of McMurdo and see something or work somewhere else! I was offered the trip to go way out to AGO3. It is located about 1100 miles from McMurdo and is a an elevation of roughly 10000ft. Here is a little information about the AGOs--

       Research Objectives: PENGUIn (polar experimental network for geophysical upper-atmospheric investigations) is a consortium of U.S. and Japanese scientists working with a network of automatic geophysical observatories (AGOs). Six AGOs have been established at remote sites on the east antarctic polar plateau. Each observatory is equipped with a suite of instruments to measure magnetic, auroral, and radio wave phenomena. Designed to operate year-round and without human intervention, the AGOs only require annual service visits during the austral summer.
       Data obtained from the AGOs help researchers understand the sun's influence on the structure and dynamics of the earth's upper atmosphere and how the solar wind couples with the earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere. The ultimate objective of this research is to be able to predict solar/terrestrial interactions that can interfere with long distance phone lines, power grids, and satellite communications.
        When combined with measurements made at other non-autonomous stations, the AGO arrays facilitate studies on the energetics and dynamics of the high-latitude magnetosphere, on both large and small scales. The research will be carried out with in situ observations of the geospace environment by spacecraft in close cooperation with other nations working in Antarctica and in conjunction with conjugate studies at northern hemisphere sites. PENGUIn AGO data is sent to Augsburg College in Minnesota where it is processed and distributed to PENGUIn investigators.

Our mission when we got there was to pull out as much cargo as we can, as fast as we can. The majority of the cargo was empty fuel drums, empty propane tanks, and the left overs from an air-drop. There are no people at this camp. We had a team of six people including myself, three of which were good friends that I work with.

After being delayed several times over the course of the day, we finally blasted off at 3pm. We rode in a LC-130 Hercules. The flight there was NOISY and a bit over 4 hours long. When we landed the crew proceeded to set up for a "combat offload." That involves kicking pallets out of the back of the plane while it is in motion, this was pretty cool to experience from the inside of the plane. Stepping out of the plane was so surreal, something I would have to imagine is like stepping onto the Moon. We hit the ground running since we were only alotted 2 hours of ground time to get the job done. The whole time we are working, the plane is running full bore, blowing us around, and dumping it's exhaust all over us. The reason for doing this is partially because it is too cold to turn the plane off and partially because if it were not to start back up, we would be s.o.l. What a rush the whole experience was. The two hours flew by in no time. I am not sure what the exact temperature was, but I know it was COLD. I was worried that I had gotten a bit of frost nip on my nose, but I think I made it out frozen skin free. We were able to get out more cargo than they originally planned. The plane was a bit of a cluster when we got everything onto it. It was really interesting was the crew will let fly in situations like these. Usually we have to adhere to strick guidelines while building pallets and preparing anything for flight. I think it is safe to say we knocked this one out of the park. I was also lucky enough to experience JATO on the take off from the site. "JATO" stands for "jet assisted take off." There are rockets attached to the side of the plane to help get the plane off of the ground when the plane has a heavy load or in this case, when the runway or lack there of, makes it difficult to get up to speed. I will post a little video for and example of it!

About an hour into our journey back home, one of the Loadmasters informed me of some seriously exciting and unexpected news. We were going to be making a pit stop at the South Pole. This was the greatest news I could have gotten. I had asked him jokingly on the way to AGO3 what it would take for us to stop at the Pole and he assured me that would not happen. We had apparently been on the ground a bit longer than planned for and we needed to stop for fuel. Perfect! Being a first year, FNG, whatever you want to call it, I am so foturnate to have been able to stop and see the South Pole. To top off the whole experience, I got to ride in the jump seat from take off to landing back in McMurdo. Being in the cockpit was yet another great experience!

Living the dream....