Wednesday
23rd January
From
John Storey.....
 Up
bright and early this morning to log onto the UNSW computer
via satellite, just to check if anything really bad was happening
to the School of Physics while I was away. I'd set up an automatic
vacation response that says, in effect, "I'm at the South
Pole - go away", but it doesn't seem to have deterred
people. It took me a few hours to go through the 520 emails
that have accumulated.
We
had two big successes today. The first was that, with the
arrival of the magnesium perchlorate, we were finally able
to assemble the sub-millimetre instrument, SUMMIT, and put
it on the roof of the AASTO. SUMMIT is unreasonably heavy,
mainly because it has a huge heatsink under it that enables
it to be warmed entirely by AASTO interior air. Thermodynamics
being what it is, no matter how we burn JP-8, we end up with
a lot of a heat and only a little electricity. So, all our
instruments are designed to be heated only by heat (if that
makes sense), leaving all of the precious electricity available
to run the electronics.
Just
before lunch we sledded SUMMIT across to the AASTO, towing
it behind a Skidoo. With the help of the brothers Pernic and
some ropes we hauled it to the roof, where it is now sitting
in the end port. It looks remarkably like a US mailbox - Paolo
has even put a sticker on it that says "No junk mail
please". This evening we will leave SUMMIT hooked up
to the Internet, enabling our colleagues back at UNSW to run
it and see if we've forgotten to hook anything up.
The
second major success was to get the Stirling engine running
under its own steam, as it were. It is now controlling its
coolant temperature (with admirable success, I might add),
and trickle charging the batteries in a most appropriate manner.
Best of all we have the monitor computer hooked up to the
Internet, so that we can keep an eye on it from anywhere on
the planet. I think everyone in the computer room here is
now thoroughly sick of me showing them the little screen.
Today's
entertainment was to test out the little tilt meter and shock
indicator stickers that were attached to the crate the Stirling
engine came in. It's childish, I know, but yes the indicators
do turn red when you turn the box upside down and drop it
on the floor. At South Pole you have to
invent your own amusements...
I
have decided not to reward the Supervisor computer any more
for its attention-seeking behaviour. It is sitting in the
corner and it is not allowed to talk to any of the other computers.
Tomorrow, if its behaviour has not improved, I will attack
it with a soldering iron.
John
 
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