snow gaming

[jay]

This morning, it is clearing and very windy, probably windchills to near zero F. One group has gone ahead to finish assembling the drill and sensors, the rest of us will follow after lunch. If all goes well, we will be drilling and will have met the minimal field test requirements by the end of today.



Here's a typical after-dinner meeting in the dining tent, where each group has a turn to describe how their day went...


Once a year, a contingent from HMP crosses over and pays a courtesy visit to the Mars Society hab, located about a mile away on the other side of the runway. For whatever reason (to show how unafraid we are of bad weather?), Pascal opted to go over after dinner last night, accompanied by the chief Canadian flight surgeon (representing CSA) and myself (NASA). On ATVs, in the snow... not being able to see the trails, and snow hitting us while driving... here I am, en route:


And a view looking up the hill to the MS hab... we approached on foot. And found their crew outside without their spacesuits on (they run simulated missions, so aren't supposed to "break sim" except in emergencies) having a snowball fight. :)


They were friendly, and we went inside for a few minutes, did introductions and offered medical assistance if they needed any.


Later in the evening, the snow stopped and it began clearing... here's a nice contrasting photo taken just after midnight:

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Just after midni... how the heck far north *is* Devon Island?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

That's with lots of cloud cover, I've gotten sunburned after midnight before...
(checks GPS) I'm sitting currently at 75d26m N, 89d52m W ... a thousand miles north of the Arctic Circle, roughly.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I thought it was one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, that group just west of Baffin, correct?

Do you know what the "official" sunrise/sunset times are, or a reasonable facsimilie?

[geekchick]

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/71924.html

"Length of Day: 24h 00m, tomorrow will be 0m 0s shorter " ;)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

The zeroes are amusing. I knew the arctic was that way for a while, but didn't know if the true 24-hour day came that far south or for how long. Thanks for the link. :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

It's a really useful productivity-enhancement tool... you never have to close up shop at night, so there's no excuse for staff to not keep working ;-).

[geekchick]

Until they pass out from lack of suitable nutrition. ;)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Hey, for lunch we just had canned generic seafood chowder... no mushrooms, even.

[geekchick]

Well, it's an improvement.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I originally saw that as "seafood powder", somehow, and thought that things had deteriorated further, rather than improving.

[geekchick]

Thanks for the link. :-)

Hey, us weather nerds gotta stick together. ;)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Funny how I got this comment e-mail while sitting here watching Twister. Yes, I know it's chock full of bad science, but the tornadoes in the film are still cool IMHO. :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

And while I'm sitting here, it's storming outside. :-)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

It really is a different planet.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

It feels like one, often.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I love the surreality of the arctic midnights!

And it was fun chatting with you last night :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

The best, filtered high-contrast lighting for photographs is when it is sunny and clear at 2-3am :). But the lack of night is a bit surreal, at first. And I enjoyed chatting, too.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Heh. Too bad I didn't bring anything to make a geocache... *that* would challenge most people! I wonder where the furthest-north registered cache is located.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=88f33ce8-fe74-4b6d-b161-0d35825e6636

I looked it up after one of my travel bugs made it to the South Pole. After she meets her original goal of getting to New Zealand, her next goal will be there.

As for creating a cache - if you've got any sort of spare waterproof container and a few bits of paper for a log, that'll do. You don't even need a container - you can do a virtual cache. Which might be easier to get approved, as you'll have to convince the approvers that you can maintain any physical cache that you create.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I have a dented-but-waterproof metal thermos bottle, paper, and a few NASA pins and stickers... how hard is it to get approved?

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good cache, and you'll want to add a pencil too if available - if not, just tell people to bring theirs. If you have a baggie to put the paper in, that's good too, but not a necessity.

As for approval - basically they will want to know that the cache is going to be maintained - i.e. looked in on if someone reports it missing. If you can tell them that you travel up there periodically, or that someone else does who can look in on it for you, that should do it. There may also be some issue with the fact that you're placing a faraway cache before you've found any - that's not an automatic strike, but it's something they may note.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

As for hiding spots - under a small pile of liftable rocks would be one option, with just a little bit of the cache container visible through the rocks. Or any semi-concealed nook in the landscape. You don't want someone to see it who's not looking for it, but you don't want it to be impossible to find either. Also, they shouldn't have to dig underground for it. Check out the geocaching.com rules for more info.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I like the fact that you thought of that. So cool!

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Nifty!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday. :)