Week 21 at the Pole

Close-up of moon, black sky background.
Connor Duffy, IceCube/NSF

The moon returned to the Pole last week, and bright enough so that they could temporarily remove some window covers (something to get excited about in the dark winter months). The “moon” theme continued with a special video call last week featuring Fred Haise, NASA astronaut. He described his career both before and after the Apollo 13 flight, for which he was the lunar module pilot. It was an early hours call, but well worth it.

Last week, IceCube winterovers’ work at the IceCube Lab (ICL) continued, but at least the weather was quieter for their travels to and fro. Progress on the verification of the new IceACT instrument culminated in finally establishing communications with it. Soon the telescope will be transferred to its new home out on the surface array. The winterovers also had to do some inventory out at the ICL—those are Connor’s legs kicking up as he hoisted himself onto a stack of computers to read serial numbers.

View from back corner of conference room, with group gathered facing a screen at far end.
Kalvin Moschkau, IceCube/NSF
Backside of person, with legs kicking, as they’ve hoisted themselves up onto stack of computers to read a serial number.
Kalvin Moschkau, IceCube/NSF