Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine

Away Team Update: DLR TRIPLE-IceCraft Expedition To Antarctica Part 2

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
DLR
March 4, 2023
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Away Team Update: DLR TRIPLE-IceCraft Expedition To Antarctica Part 2
We have moved into the front orange cabin Credit: DLR/RWTH Aachen/Dirk Heinen

At the time of our arrival at Neumayer Station III. Technically it is morning, but the long journey has messed up my internal clock.

It will take a few days for my sense of time to return to normal. In the meantime, we are settling in and recovering a bit from the journey. To prevent any COVID-19 infections in the station, all 10 new arrivals are isolating: we are wearing masks inside the station, using different lounges, bedrooms and bathrooms, and eating at different times in the mess hall.

First, I received a short presentation from the station manager and later a guided tour of the different areas and floors. Afterwards, Jan Audehm, Simon Zierke and I moved into our cabin, a mobile living container that stands on a sled right next to the station.

Our cabin is not the newest, but it offers a quiet place to sleep and enough space. We each have our own bunk bed. One bed surface is used for sleeping and one for storage. Fabian Schöttler has been assigned a place in a sleeping room inside the station. However, we only use the cabin and room for sleeping, as the rest of the time we are either inside the station or outside with the melting probe and our container. More about that soon.

Technical drawing of TRIPLE-IceCraft

Full blog entry at DLR

Astrobiology

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻