Today a major milestone was hit for the solar panel team, as calm and sunny conditions permitted, Charlotte, Jonathan and Rahul to mount the final 7 panels on the dome! Hence all 78 panels planned for the dome are now in position and connected in 14 panel groups – just fantastic! In the coming week it is the plan that the panels will be connected to a substantial battery pack by two specialists, who are scheduled to arrive the day after tomorrow, so having the panels mounted beforehand is exactly what we had hoped and planned for. The beautiful weather also permitted progress to be made on other outdoor tasks, such as the power cable duct to the food weatherport and the big trench for storage. The skiway centerline also got a grooming session until fog rolled in decreasing the visibility and surface contrast. The drillers were also busy all day, now that the cargo and spare parts they had been waiting for had been delivered to camp by Skier 13 (see report below).
What we did this Tuesday:
- Mounted the final 7 solar panels on the dome, all 78 panels are now in place.
- Groomed central part of skiway to remove tracks from Skier 13.
- Broke down cargo from Skier 13.
- Further tests of cutting a mix of glass fiber and ice.
- Work on technical installations for winch.
- Further bashing of glass fiber plug with broaching hammer,
- Work on repairing the bore hole logger.
- Work on drillers control cabin.
- Continued work on storage trench.
- Continued work on cable duct to food Weatherport.
- Continued luminescence measurements.
Re 4-8: Drillers’ report:
We tested different cutting tools (hole saw, hand auger, concrete corer) on the glassfiber/ice mix (Grant, James, Chantal, Julien). Installed the winch controller (all). Distributed and managed cables through the drill tent (Grant, James, Chantal, Julien). Dug a cable trench to the winch motor (Julien). Terminated winch motor cables (Grant, Chantal). Bashed the glassfiber plug approx 1m above the ice bridge using the broaching hammer (James, Chantal, Julien). Kevin systematically tested and replaced components on the logger, preparing it for our first glances downhole. James hung the sliding door on the control cabin and completed the internal ventilation system. Grant designed and built a centering bit so the drill begins cutting the ice bridge in the correct location
Weather: Mainly sunny, with som ground fog forming in the evening. Temp. from -20C to -8C. Wind 0-10kts, mainly from NW.
FL, Bo Vinther
