The IceCube Upgrade project’s progress report for last week has earned the name, as “progress” smoothly continues. The drill camp now has two tower operations sites. One will serve as the installation practice site. The image above is a view looking down from one of the towers, with the wrapped-up drill supply hose reel centered in the frame. Below is a group photo taken in front of that hose reel.
The enhanced hot water drill—the main drill used to make the 1.5 mile deep boreholes—has also been put in place, commissioning pumps and generators as well as testing and installing water tanks. The area set up to test optical modules was completed last week, and most of the modules were tested, with good results. Almost all of the cargo has arrived or is on track to be delivered on time. Current population has been steady (at 32), but a dozen or more arrivals are expected soon from McMurdo.
Last week’s excitement for the IceCube Upgrade project centered around moving the drill tower and operations structures into place. The location is over hole 87, which will be the first Upgrade hole (the IceCube detector has 86 holes). The installation team is also making progress on setting up the area for acceptance …
As the season progresses, the IceCube Upgrade team continues to grow. Eight more arrivals last week brought the South Pole IceCube population up to 29. As newcomers acclimated, the “old-timers” kept up with the snow grooming around drill camp—things are looking good there. They continue to shovel out other structures and have …
After the first group of IceCubers spent a couple of days acclimating and reviewing the work needed to get the drill camp up and running, the crew went straight to work. The first order of business? Shoveling. And lots of it. They managed to shovel out most of the buildings in the drill …
