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Farewell To the South Pole Dome
Julie188 writes "After more than three decades of service to researchers and staff stationed at the bottom of the world, the dome at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was deconstructed this austral summer. Designed and constructed by the Seabees — the construction battalions of the US Navy — in the early 1970s, the dome's geodesic design provided a unique solution to the challenges posed to engineers trying to build structures at the South Pole. The dome is being returned to southern California where it will be held in storage. It could possibly be trotted out as an exhibit in a new US Navy Seabees museum."
For anyone interested here is the link on the NSF page showing the old site and the new facility. Pretty cool (pardon the pun).
It would be awfully nice if submitters would include links to sites with pictures where you don't have enable 50 scripts just to see a jpeg. For example, linking to wikipedia is a no brainer that would save a million keystrokes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scott_South_Pole_Station
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Hey, this administration dismantled LORAN-C, the backup system in case of GPS satellite spoofing or jamming.....
President Obama is influential, but he isn't capable of time travel. President Bush scheduled the dismantling, President Obama continued that recommendation. Both the Coast Guard and the DHS said they didn't need LORAN-C, so why maintain it? It smells like pork.
This dismantling was already scheduled by the previous administration, according to the FA.
The Department of Homeland Security last year started a painful upgrade to LORAN-C, adding modern electronics and solid-state transmitters, despite the fact that in 2008 President George W. Bush signed a law that scheduled the system's dissolution.
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/Loran/default.htm
The DHS and Coast Guard both said they didn't need LORAN-C. From http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/Loran/default.htm :
The Homeland Security Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 allowed for termination of the LORAN-C signal on January 4, 2010, after certification from the Commandant of the Coast Guard that it was not needed for maritime navigation and from the Secretary of DHS that it is not needed as a backup for GPS.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
They have a large, new building and don't need this one. It's too small and requires a lot of maintenance. The international treaty governing Antarctica requires that unused buildings be removed and the site returned to as close to the original state as possible. No danger of it turning into a penguin slum this far from the coast, but if the Shoggoths move in, it will really mess up the neighborhood.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Because TFS couldn't be bothered to give a hint as to why I will...
"The dome could no longer accommodate the demands of research activities taking place there, however, and each year the structure sunk deeper into the ice it was built on. Blowing snow that collected on top of it had to be removed and hauled away, burning up precious fuel and crew time during the short austral summer. The international treaty that governs human activities in Antarctica requires that buildings and equipment no longer in use be removed and the site remediated whenever possible, necessitating the dome's deconstruction and removal."
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"