December 2, 2001

Hi Class,

My email today is in several parts.

Well we arrived at McMurdo, the main U.S. Base in Antarctica but it was quite a journey.

Getting to Christchurch, New Zealand:

Last Monday we left Salisbury at 07:30 AM and flew to Philadelphia, then to Chicago, then to Los Angles. We then flew 11 and one-half hours across the Pacific Ocean to Auckland, New Zealand where we boarded yet another aircraft for our final flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. All in all, we were airborne 19 hours and the trip took about 30 hours counting the time spent waiting to board the different aircraft and covered about 7,700 miles. Just before our arrival we crossed the International Date Line where we lost a day which I'll explain at the end of this message for those who are interested. So our arrival at Christchurch was at about 09:30 in the morning on Wednesday at which time it was 03:30 in the afternoon on Tuesday in your time zone.

Christchurch:

We spent two days in Christchurch. On the first day we got to tour the center of the city. It was spring and all of the spring flowers were in bloom. Christchurch is a beautiful and well kept city. I am sending you some photos from Christchurch. One is of the old church in Cathedral Square in the center of the city. Near the square we ran into a wizard (just like in the Harry Potter books). We listened to him for a while and then continued on. We also saw some people playing chess on a huge board with life-size chess pieces. One strange thing I did notice was that cars drive on the opposite side of the street from what we do in the U.S. The cars drive on the left side of the highway and the drivers sit on the right hand side of the cars. As a result, we found that we had to be careful which way that we looked before crossing the street. You will see what I mean from the photo that I sent. Driving on the left side of the highway is not unique to New Zealand. Great Britain (England) adopted this convention (method that everyone in a country agrees to) many years ago. Many (but not all) of Great Britain's former colonies adopted this same driving convention.

Getting Ready:

On the second day (Thursday) we were issued our cold weather gear and received instructions for the flight and got some introduction on what to expect in Antarctica. We also toured the Antarctic museum. I wish that you could have seen it with me. You would have learned a lot from the experience.

Our flight:

On Friday we assembled for our flight to Antarctica. I have included several photos. One shows several of us outside of the terminal prior to the flight dressed in our flannel clothing to be worn under our parkas. The white boots are referred to as "bunny boots". They are very large (like ski boots) and are filled with air to insulate your feet against extreme cold. Then we were packed in a New Zealand C-130 aircraft for our flight to McMurdo. You can see from the photo that we were really "packed" very tightly for the 7-hour trip. The brown bags on our laps contained our lunches (two sandwiches, orange drink, water, cookies, a candy bar, and an apple). You can see our first glimpse of Antarctica as we passed over a mountain range near the edge of the continent.

Our arrival:

The C-130 landed on a "blue ice" runway on a permanently frozen section of the Antarctic Ocean known as the Ross Ice Shelf. The C-130 landed on tires since skies are not required for landing on ice. The C-130 does not need to use brakes to stop after landing. Instead, the aircraft reverses the pitch of the propellers causing the aircraft to rapidly decelerate. (The ice under the runway is 150 feet thick and overlies water that is 1,500 feet deep.) You can see us disembarking (leaving) the aircraft dressed in our cold weather gear. We were then transported to the base at McMurdo in a Terra Bus . You can see us disembarking from the bus when we arrived at the base.

At the base:

Upon our arrival we were given an orientation talk about how things worked and are organized at the base. I'll provide some information on this in a future message. We were also told that the base was completely full and that that our group would not be staying together. Instead, we were assigned to rooms where people had just left to return to the U.S. All rooms are shared. As it turned out all of our science and engineer of 8 persons got roommates that are quite different in terms of their function (jobs) at McMurdo. My roommate, known as "Bald Beaver", is a cook from the cafeteria located at the "blue ice" runway. Roommates of others in my group do a variety of other jobs including transportation, delivery, and electrical work. As it turns out, it takes a large staff of people doing very common jobs that you would find anywhere just to enable the smaller staff of scientists and engineers to live here in this very remote base.

Looking ahead:

Over the next couple of days, we will be planning our missions. I also must go to "snow school" for two days where I will receive survival training including the overnight stay on the ice. I'll be sure to let you know how may two days in "snow school" goes.

Regards,

Robert Swift
Scientist

International Date Line:

In order to find various locations on the earth, man has devised a convention (method that everyone agrees to). You already know that the earth rotates on an axis referred to as the north and south poles and that half way between the poles is an imaginary line that extends around the earth called the equator. The equator divides the earth into two halves, the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere. Between the equator and poles are sets of parallel lines that can be use to tell how far north and south of the equator that a spot on the earth is located. Similarly, there is another set of imaginary lines that extend from the north pole to the south pole these lines are called meridians and are used to measure distance east and west. One particular meridian passes through the Greenwich Observatory in London, England. This meridian is referred to as the Primary Meridian or Greenwich Meridian. The meridian on the opposite side of the earth from the Greenwich Meridian is referred to as the International Date Line (also the 180 degree meridian). When it is noon in London, it would be midnight at the Primary Meridian, but of which day? If you face the globe with the north pole at the top and look at the International Date Line the islands to the right of the International Date Line are considered to be one day earlier than the islands to the left of the International Date Line. Thus, if it were 09:00 AM Tuesday in Hawaii, it would be 07:00 AM Wednesday in New Zealand and yet the two islands are only two time zones apart.