Airfield tour - sea ice runway

NASA's plane (smart people included)

NASA's plane

Jeff and I walked the two miles along the sea ice "road" out to the airfield Sunday for the open plane viewing.  NASA had a plane there that they bought from someone second hand in the 70s and have been tearing apart and rebuilding ever since.  The plane has some amazing equipment that uses radar and GPS to measure the thickness of the ice on the continent.  I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have been allowed so close to so much expensive stuff in  my giant coat.  Plus, when else am I going to get to talk one-on-one to NASA scientists about the research they are doing?


C-17



Cockpit of a C-17

We also checked out a few other planes.  The C-17 is the one they use to bring most of the cargo here and to take stuff to the pole too.  It's like a movie set in there.  The pilots were telling us about opening the back cargo door and pushing things out for air drops - apparently when they push something large out (there are rollers in the floor of the belly of the plane to ease with moving things), the entire plane lurches before it regains balance.  I would panic.  Pretty cool all around though and it was a nice day for a walk (or ski, which is what lots of other folks did).


Cargo area of a C-17

Jeff contemplates the cool part
at the back of the plane where
they shove things out....

The craziest bit of all this to me is that they are on ice and not far under the ice is some pretty cold and deep ocean.  There are surveyors who check the deflection of the ice when planes land and make sure that they are not in danger of breaking through.  The runway is starting to melt now (the sea ice melts out eventually over the summer) and next week it will be moved onto shelf ice, which is much thicker and more stable.