Ian and I were supposed to be the first ones from the BLAST-TNG team to get down to the ice, on Nov 7. The Air Force plane we were taking down had some mechanical issues which required a part to be shipped down to New Zealand from Washington. After two days delay we got the call to head down to the International Antarctic Center and get prepped for our flight. 

Things finally started to feel real! We checked all our luggage, got our “boarding passes,” and sat through a couple videos about the Antarctic program (wear your warm clothes, don’t touch the penguins). 

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Before getting on the plane we had to get all geared up again. Besides your warm clothes, you’re allowed to bring on a backpack with your normal carry-on type things. You also pack a “boomerang bag” with a few days clothes, which is the only other bag you get back if your flight doesn’t leave, or even worse, flies all the way down to Antarctica, hits bad weather, and comes back (“boomerangs”). 

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The plane itself is MASSIVE. We’re flying in a US Air Force C17, the biggest and fastest plane that they fly down to Antarctica. For our flight all the seats are along the side, and the middle section of the plane is full of other scientific cargo and food going down to the base.

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We’re also sharing the flight with a bunch of people going down to the New Zealand base. It’s easy to spot who’s who: the Americans are all in red and the NZ people are all in bright orange:

The plane however, is not as excited to fly to Antarctica as we are, and the navigation system keeps acting up. After a nice 2 hour sit in the plane, the flight team cancels the attempt for the day. The weather for the next few days looks bad in McMurdo, so it’s likely we’re scrubbed for another few days.

The preparations for heading to Antarctica begin at Christchurch, New Zealand at the International Antarctic Center. The center serves as the headquarters for operations at McMurdo (the US base), Scott Base (the NZ base), as well as the Italian base. Here is where we get all of the Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear needed to keep you warm on the ice.

There are ton of different clothes options depending on what your job is, but essentially everybody gets: a giant big red coat (“Big Red”), warm overalls, gloves, mittens, a hat, a neck gaiter, ski goggles, and comically enormous boots:

Wearing it all together feels pretty silly inside (and is insanely hot), but you need to make sure everything fits. Once you fly down you’re stuck with what ya got!

The jackets come with sweet name tags to help you identify your jacket in a huge rack of identical Big Reds, and to help identify who people are out in the field when their faces are all covered up!

After 6 years of building our telescope BLAST-TNG, we’re finally gearing up to launch it from Antarctica! I’ll post updates about life on the ice as we assemble the instrument and prepare for launch!