Due to terrible weather in McMurdo, our flight was delayed 24 hours. To pass the time, we took the bus towards Lyttleton, and walked over the Bridle Path. This is where early settlers crossed from the port towards Christchurch. […]
Anne, Ed, and I have deployed as SPIDER’s first wave. Yesterday was our regularly-scheduled full day in Christchurch. This starts with a trip to the clothing distribution center (CDC) to get our extreme cold weather (ECW) clothing. Afterwards, we wandered around, explored Christchurch, and had some great food and drinks. Christchurch was devastated by an earthquake in early 2011, but repair and reconstruction has progressed remarkably. […]
The Toronto Spider team made a trip to Princeton at the beginning of April to put the gondola back together. While Theo had been a-salt-ed by the ocean during its pointless trip to New Zealand (not to Antarctica…thanks, US congress) the gondola survived the trip just fine. Most of the rust accumulation seems to have been in our heads, as there were more hiccups that usual getting everything together successfully. We were very lucky to arrive during the very brief magical time while the Princeton highbay transitions from freezing cold to hot and humid. For this trip, I was armed (photographically) with just my Nikon FM, a 50mm lens, and a roll of Superia 400. […]
Some of my favourite photos from the BLAST-Pol launch campaign. November 2012 to January 2013 in McMurdo Station, Antarctica. This is just a collection of previously-uploaded photos. Titles and captions may not all make sense without their original context. […]
Some of my favourite photos from the Spider integration campaign. June to August 2013 in Palestine, TX. This is just a collection of previously-uploaded photos. Titles and captions may not all make sense without their original context. […]
With Theo warmed up, there was nothing left to do in the campaign but take everything apart and pack. There was a lot to disassemble, and even more to pack, but we had a large group of people who were all pretty motivated to finish. There were still a couple long days, not to mention exhausting hours inside the sauna of a sea container in the Texas sun. But that was no match for lightening hearts, and the simple pleasure of well-packed boxes. We even managed to relax a little in the last few days. Now, we’ve all gone our separate ways. But it won’t be long before we’re together again in Antarctica doing this all again—and more! […]
More animals! A little while ago, Becky found a tiny kitten around CSBF. After gaining his trust with a few days of food, she nabbed him. She has since decided that she will bring him home with her. In another case of finding things in Texas to bring home, Sean got a compound bow. This gives us another, more tactile, way to shoot things. I also decided, this being a cat on the internet, that it had to be memed. […]
One week ago we passed our Compatibility test. This involves fully assembling Spider and CSBF electronics and making sure that everything works together, while sitting outside. It also involves Tiny Tim, everyone’s favourite ridiculously-sized launch vehicle. Compatibility is the primary reason the Palestine campaign happens, so this is a big milestone. Aside from a few more detector tests before shutting down our own systems, this also marks the beginning of the end of the campaign. […]
There was a ton of work to do in the week leading up to compatibility. (Sadly, this means not so many pictures.) We had failed to adequately consider solar panel frames until a little late in the campaign, so there was a rush to get this together. Anne did most of the work, and because I’d dumped the job on her, I felt compelled to help when I could. Many others helped as well. Or did other jobs. Everyone was busy. […]
A couple weeks ago we began our final push to get Spider finished in time to pack up and leave. The primary target was the Compatibility test with CSBF’s telemetry electronics. But we also wanted to finish characterizing detectors and cryogenics, and to generally make everything more flight-like. Meanwhile, because hair products had been obtained for styling mohawks, Bill decided to construct a potato cannon. After some very "meh" initial tests, the intertubes taught us that static guard is far more flammable than hairspray. The potatoes didn’t know what hit them. […]
Due to terrible weather in McMurdo, our flight was delayed 24 hours. To pass the time, we took the bus towards Lyttleton, and walked over the Bridle Path. This is where early settlers crossed from the port towards Christchurch. […]
Anne, Ed, and I have deployed as SPIDER’s first wave. Yesterday was our regularly-scheduled full day in Christchurch. This starts with a trip to the clothing distribution center (CDC) to get our extreme cold weather (ECW) clothing. Afterwards, we wandered around, explored Christchurch, and had some great food and drinks. Christchurch was devastated by an earthquake in early 2011, but repair and reconstruction has progressed remarkably. […]
The Toronto Spider team made a trip to Princeton at the beginning of April to put the gondola back together. While Theo had been a-salt-ed by the ocean during its pointless trip to New Zealand (not to Antarctica…thanks, US congress) the gondola survived the trip just fine. Most of the rust accumulation seems to have been in our heads, as there were more hiccups that usual getting everything together successfully. We were very lucky to arrive during the very brief magical time while the Princeton highbay transitions from freezing cold to hot and humid. For this trip, I was armed (photographically) with just my Nikon FM, a 50mm lens, and a roll of Superia 400. […]
Some of my favourite photos from the BLAST-Pol launch campaign. November 2012 to January 2013 in McMurdo Station, Antarctica. This is just a collection of previously-uploaded photos. Titles and captions may not all make sense without their original context. […]
Some of my favourite photos from the Spider integration campaign. June to August 2013 in Palestine, TX. This is just a collection of previously-uploaded photos. Titles and captions may not all make sense without their original context. […]
With Theo warmed up, there was nothing left to do in the campaign but take everything apart and pack. There was a lot to disassemble, and even more to pack, but we had a large group of people who were all pretty motivated to finish. There were still a couple long days, not to mention exhausting hours inside the sauna of a sea container in the Texas sun. But that was no match for lightening hearts, and the simple pleasure of well-packed boxes. We even managed to relax a little in the last few days. Now, we’ve all gone our separate ways. But it won’t be long before we’re together again in Antarctica doing this all again—and more! […]
More animals! A little while ago, Becky found a tiny kitten around CSBF. After gaining his trust with a few days of food, she nabbed him. She has since decided that she will bring him home with her. In another case of finding things in Texas to bring home, Sean got a compound bow. This gives us another, more tactile, way to shoot things. I also decided, this being a cat on the internet, 
One week ago we passed our Compatibility test. This involves fully assembling Spider and CSBF electronics and making sure that everything works together, while sitting outside. It also involves Tiny Tim, everyone’s favourite ridiculously-sized launch vehicle. Compatibility is the primary reason the Palestine campaign happens, so this is a big milestone. Aside from a few more detector tests before shutting down our own systems, this also marks the beginning of the end of the campaign. […]
There was a ton of work to do in the week leading up to compatibility. (Sadly, this means not so many pictures.) We had failed to adequately consider solar panel frames until a little late in the campaign, so there was a rush to get this together. Anne did most of the work, and because I’d dumped the job on her, I felt compelled to help when I could. Many others helped as well. Or did other jobs. Everyone was busy. […]
A couple weeks ago we began our final push to get Spider finished in time to pack up and leave. The primary target was the Compatibility test with CSBF’s telemetry electronics. But we also wanted to finish characterizing detectors and cryogenics, and to generally make everything more flight-like. Meanwhile, because hair products had been obtained for