Tuesday, January 23, 2024

In Antarctica a traverse crew is transporting 275,000 gallons of fuel from McMurdo Station to Amundsen Scott South Pole Station. The fuel is in bladders tied to urethane sheets which are fixed to a drawbar assembly and slide over the snow surface.


Running 10-12 hours a day, it takes 25-30 days outbound and 10-14 returning. A good day loaded is 40-50 miles. The route is 900 miles of mostly flat with a 7000 foot climb up a glacier from basically sea level to the Polar Plateau . The climb requires 2 tractors for each load and shuttling the loads to the top.



Thank you Marc! 

4 comments:

  1. You're welcome. Can you imagine how boring that would be, driving across snow for a month and a half?

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    1. I actually can imagine it, I've had a worse, more boring job, driving a submarine. All instruments, no view. Nothing to look at, months at sea.

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    2. Yeah, that would be worse.

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  2. Interesting! Antartica,where the hole in the ozone was "discovered". And all these scientists guzzling up hydrocarbons at that level down there,what,20yrs. later! Time for other fairy tales.

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