They’re getting close to drilling at the South Pole. Last week saw a continued influx of IceCube personnel, including some drillers and integration experts. The week’s primary focus was taking stock and working on final tasks in each work area. Crews tested the brakes on the large reel for the main drill cable, which is the orange cable seen above in a view from the drill tower. Others worked on hanging the drill head in the operations tower, connecting water hoses to two large tanks, and practicing module installation at the test hole. At the end of the week, they held a readiness review to compile a “punch list” of final items to complete before drilling begins.
Last week, the IceCube crew completed the drilling and installation for the first of the IceCube Upgrade strings. Above is a group of drillers on the day shift after deploying more than half of the modules into the hole. By the end of the week, they had begun drilling for the next …
Over the past two months, a team of IceCube drill engineers have completed an impressive amount of work during the first of three consecutive field seasons for the IceCube Upgrade. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and international collaborators.
The goal of the project is to drill seven holes in 2025/2026 and deploy …
Steady progress continues on the IceCube Upgrade construction effort. Drilling and installation operations have continued to stabilize, and four of the seven holes have been completed so far. It takes a lot of energy to accomplish tasks at each stage of the process, from heavy lifting by equipment to position the tower operations …
