Sunday, May 17, 2015

Operation Deepfreeze 1961 demonstrates capabilites at that time

Fuel  drops weighing one tone each are parachuted out to Byrd Station from McMurdo in 1961.  I have nothing specific to learn from this film other than a general overview and familiarization with the situation faced by trying to travel from station to station in Antarctica-- in this case McMurdo to an interior Byrd station.

The concept of an intra-continental "airbus" that would run between all stations was proposed as early as 1968 and again in 1971 but it was never fulfilled. This non-fulfillment is an indication that perhaps it was not possible.

We see Husky dogs in this film which have since been banned (?!). Why would they ban dogs that helped explore Antarctica in the early years?

The size of the Operation Deepfreeze is actually astonishing-- given that no development or mining is taking place. Why are so many resources being devoted to this without economic return?








More to be added to this particular post in coming days. Add your comments and questions below as you're inclined. 

6 comments:

  1. 73 SORTIES to the Byrd station??? Why so many? What's really going on there?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did you see this suspicious story, Rick - the evacuation of "Soviet exchange scientist" Leonid Kuperov from Byrd station on 9 April 1961?
    http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/medevac/kuperov.html
    Hoaxing in its finest pre-Berlin wall style.
    An alleged mercy flight for Kuperov who made a miraculous recovery and walked straight out into the Soviet Embassy in New Zealand is described:
    Arriving at McMurdo, it refueled and waited while weather conditions were studied for the 917 statute mile flight to Byrd. At 1722, with the station still in darkness, it was airborne. In three hours and 25 minutes it landed at Byrd Station.

    It remained at the station only 45 minutes, and at 2130 was airborne with the Soviet scientist aboard. Arriving at McMurdo in about three hours (10 April (0040))


    There's 3 pages of good images of Byrd in 1960/1 from Deepfreeze here:
    http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/corps/anttrav1.html
    including a map
    http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/corp2077.htm

    wonder why the map doesn't show the traverse from Byrd to the Pole? It's here
    http://nsidc.org/data/thermap/antarctic_10m_temps/traverses/notes/notes_byrd-pole.html
    Ref: Brecher, H., 1964. Glaciological Observations on the Byrd Station-South Pole Traverse, 1960-1961. J. of Glaciol., 5(39), 339-343.

    Yeah, surely they could pick up doggy poop with coldweather pooper scoopers and bring it back, along with the human poop or burn it on site. Or is it the "yellow snow" made famous by Frank Zappa?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I forgot to highlight the plane used in the 1961 mercy dash - a C130

      Delete
  3. Felix, can you say specifically what is the anomalous part of the story about Kuberov? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't use the word anomalous, Rick. In light of what we of learned in recent years of media back up stories Kuberov's illness and mercy dash sounds fishy. Can I prove it? No.

      Delete
  4. If you look up the shape of the human womb in the internet it is very similar the shape of the map you drew; I don`t think it`s a mere coincidence

    ReplyDelete

Hi, I'm Captain Rick of the Virtual Circumference Voyage of Antarctica. I intend to prove definitively if Earth is flat or a sphere by paying careful attention to how many miles we cover as we travel "around" Antarctica. Flat earth theory says it's 50-60,000 miles. Spherical Earth theory says it 14,000 miles. Join me and ask any questions that you think would help our mission.