Here's the latest word from McMurdo Station, as I enter my final days here. I got to hear a little bit about the GPS, or Global Positioning System, project they are working on here. It is impressive that they can do navigation via satellite with impressive accuracy. The fellow down here did a demonstration for a local news reporter: He buried a dime in the snow, and noted the exact place the dime was buried out front of the station, via the GPS. 24 hours later, he had this local reporter, with the coordinates recorded before, and using the GPS system, try to go find that dime. Now, the reporter didn't see where the dime was buried, and it was snowy and windy over night, so there was no tracks leading out to where the dime was buried. One the reporter thought he was at the right spot, he dug for the dime with a teaspoon and after the 3rd scoop, came up with the dime! GPS can get you within a few centimeters of a position. Not bad eh?
Today was the last day they landed folks at the Ice runway, on the annual ice field in front of the station. They have moved everything over to Willy Field, which is the runway on the permanent ice nearby. I'll be flying out there on skied aircraft for sure. Before we had skis, but used the wheels on the aircraft anyway, as you can do that on the ice.
Weather has been rather warm here, in the 20s or so, sunny skies. Not quite like the snow and cold in Wisconsin, so I understand. We have nearly completed our project work here and hopefully it all will be fairly successful.
That's the scoop from here!
Matthew
