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Farewell To the South Pole Dome

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-wanna-live-in-a-dome dept.

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."

12 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Bad idea. by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Great, how do they know that in the past 28 years The Thing hasn't managed to figure out how to assimilate non-living matter and is now the dome? Just sitting there, waiting in the cold.
    I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

    How's that for tying two classics together?

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. Dang Air Force cutbacks. by GiveBenADollar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guess they are also getting rid of the F-302s at McMurdo. Homeworld security must not be important to the current administration.

    1. Re:Dang Air Force cutbacks. by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 5, Informative

      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."
  3. Pictures and more info by Critical+Facilities · · Score: 4, Informative

    For anyone interested here is the link on the NSF page showing the old site and the new facility. Pretty cool (pardon the pun).

    1. Re:Pictures and more info by atomic-penguin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here are deconstruction photos of the former dome station.

      --
      /^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
  4. Deconstructed? by wcrowe · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't think that word means what you think it means.

    "Dismantled" would be a better choice.

    Of course I may be wrong. Perhaps the Seabees really have been standing around considering the the dome's true meaning and searching for inconsistencies in its design.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
    1. Re:Deconstructed? by grahamsz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Was it mantled in the 70s?

    2. Re:Deconstructed? by gclef · · Score: 4, Funny

      Today's lesson: don't let philosophers dictate meaning.

    3. Re:Deconstructed? by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 3, Informative

      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.
  5. nopics with noscript by anagama · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

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    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  6. And Here is Why by Lifyre · · Score: 5, Informative

    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"
  7. South Pole Crew by ArtificialPulse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm one of the 47 down here for the 2010 Winter season, the crew is missing the Dome. It was an icon in Antarctica, and this place feels like it's missing something without it. Someone pointed earlier to Spindler's website http://www.southpolesation.com/ where there is much more on the deconstruction from the unofficial South Pole historian. -- http://www.artificialpulse.com/