2/14/2002, CWRU
Valentine's day is a horrible time to say goodbye, but the time has come, almost 3 months after we started this journal, to close the books on the 2001-2002 ANSMET season. The last few of CWRU's antarctic children have found their way home; Nancy Chabot arrived a few days ago, Cari Corrigan today. It's always an interesting transition from life in the field to life in the civilized world, and yet another difficult transition looms- we have to change focus from the wonderful season just finished to the next, starting the 10 month planning process all over again. Every year it's a new love, a new springtime to look forward to.
But before we completely forget the season we just finished, I'd like to recount a few memorable things. The Meteorite Hills trip was our 25th field season, our silver anniversary. We're very proud to have made consistent contributions to science consistently for a quarter century, providing the larger planetary science community with opportunities to make fundamental new discoveries year in and year out. While only time (and some serious laboratory characterization) will tell us if any truly unusual specimens were recovered, there's no doubt that the samples we collected add to science's collective understanding of the solar system. Our final tally of specimens was 336, and we all hope there are some truly unique things to be learned from them. For those of you who wish to follow the meteorite specimens as they are described and made available to the research community, please check the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter site http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/antmet/amn/amn.htm periodically. The 2001-2002 Meteorite Hills specimens will start showing up in late summer, with names beginning with MET 01xxx.
On the human side, the season definitely added a few new items to the ANSMET book of experiences. New provisions like a work tent, a poop tent and a satellite phone increased our level of camp comfort, lowering the level of isolation and daily exposure. At the same time, unprecedented winds reminded us that no matter how much gear and preparation is in hand, we are still vulnerable, warm-blooded, and relatively hairless mammals who need courage to persevere.
Not the least of these new additions was this website, which gave us a forum to express the delight and excitement of scientific discovery on a daily basis. I hope all of you enjoyed this website as much as we enjoyed contributing to it- and I hope you'll all tune in next year as we do it again.
Some thanks are in order. Neither the satellite phone nor the website would have existed without the amazing efforts of Tim Harincar, creator of WebExpeditions. His interest in what we do, and his belief it should be shared with the public, helped turn speculative ideas into a serious outreach mission. Tim in turn had help from the Minnesota Astronomy Society and the Minnesota Space Frontier Society that helped cover some truly "astronomical" phone bills. Our program managers at NSF (Scott Borg) and NASA (Joe Boyce) worked hard to help this season reach its final shape in spite of some difficult bureaucratic wrangling, and the folks at Raytheon (Steve Dunbar, Alana Jones, Robbie Score) seamlessly turned our chaotic plans into solid logistical support. All of us (but perhaps me most of all) are extremely grateful for the help and support we have received, this year and in the past.
Finally, our thanks to all of you that sent us comments and stayed tuned. Every person in the field party hangs on tightly to the thin strands that tie us back to the family and friends back home; it's our lifeline against loneliness. By reading this website and communicating with us, each of you added a strand or two, creating a nice strong braid that kept us secure. Thank you!
1/30/2002, New Zealand
Here is an image showing the locations of this year's finds - the red dots are the meteorites found this season, the blue dots are meteorites found in previous season, mostly last year, and the pink triangles are GPS stations. The eastern most traingle was our camp this year.
The final count of meteorites found was 336.
1/24/2002, Room 250,Bldg 155 - MCMURDO STATION!!!!!!!!
We stayed up late last night for mid-rats (midnight rations) and laundry and got up early this morning for chores. We emptied stoves, washed dishes, rinsed recyclables, sorted trash, turned in stinky sleep kits, and bleached pee bottles. Jamie and John get to finish these tasks with the rest of the gear and equipment when it comes in from the field later this weekend. They are staying here a few more days than the rest of us.
The next LC-130 flight to Christchurch is scheduled for tomorrow morning. We are through bag drag (see picture) which is aptly named, as it means dragging bags up a steep hill to get them weighed and carted off to the runway. They take everything we have to the runway early except our one carry-on. We got weighed too. Not fun.
Next step is to show up at 7:30 tomorrow morning to be dragged ourselves on a one hour giant (literally) bus ride to Pegasus Field, the summertime ice runway. We will have flown into or out of every runway here by the time we leave!
We are now just hoping that the fog clears for an on-time departure! Although that means ending our great adventure and journal entries... thank you all for your comments, warm wishes, and for staying tuned all these weeks!
1/24/2002, A quiet, dark corner of McMurdo
Okay, sssssh. Its nearly the end of the expedition and I've sneaked away from all the others. There's something I really had to do.
Its about time that someone had the guts to dish the real dirt, don't you think?
Have you read the posts in this journal? Are we nice people or what? Don't we all just love each other? Course we do. We're all angels arent we. Not a nasty habit amongst us.
What a load of balloney (I know I sound American, its been a long two months of indoctorination).
I've had enough so here's the truth about all your favorite ANSMET Team Members. Good and bad.
RALPH HARVEY - Team leader
Good - Should be on the stage, could make a tax demand seem hilariously funny if he wanted to. Enormously generous with it.
Bad - Hurts people's ribs through malicious application of humour.
JOHN SCHUTT - Mountaineer
Good - A legend. The man that will pull you out of a crevasse with his bare teeth.
Bad - Gives instructions using completely incomprehensible hand gestures ("You want me to do what with my skidoo?").
JAMIE PIERCE - Mountaineer
Good - Very good replacement for Ralph as expedition entertainer. Like John could pull you out of crevasse with bare teeth. Patience (he tented with me).
Bad - Britney Spears. Need I say more. Taste man, taste.
NANCY CHABOT - ANSMET First Officer
Good - Enthusiastic, energetic and fun.
Bad - Chabot weather. Duck was right (see below), I just know it was her.
MAGGIE TAYLOR - Team Member
Good - Big hearted, kind and then all of a sudden surprisingly mischievious.
Bad - hmmmm, hmmmm, hmmmmm nope can't think of anything at all.
CARI CORRIGAN - Team Member
Good - hmmmm, hmmmm.....oh alright I'll be honest. Funny, mischievious, gregarious, great sense of humour and a good sport.
Bad - Well apart from being a bit quick with the camera everytime my back was turned, nothing. Oh yes, sticks her tongue out at people when prevoked. Shocking behaviour.
LINDA MARTEL - Team Member
Good - Sweet to everyone, all the time. Quite remarkable.
Bad - Sweet to everyone, all the time. She even means it. Well I think its bad!
JUANITA RYAN - Team Member
Good - Generous, witty, smiled a alot even when the going got bad.
Bad - Reminded me of my infants (kindergarden) teacher. I had difficulty reading and she used to keep me in at play time to help me. That was really, really bad. Just know that Juanita resembled my teacher on purpose.
DUCK - Team Mascot
Good - Its like living in a Monty Python movie sometimes. Talk about humour. Not only that but he's as reliable as they come. Could pull you out of a crevasse (not with bare teeth though - probably whilst balancing a fish on his head).
Bad - Right more often than me.
BFC, MAC OPS, AIR OPS (and crews) and everyone in McMurdo - Team Members
Good - They go the extra mile in doing their jobs and ensuring that science can be done on this continent.
Bad - They haven't done a thing about keeping Nancy Chabot and her weather systems away from Antarctica.
NICOLE KIDMAN - Fantasy Team Member
Good - C'mon.
Bad - Has never even considered going out with me.
MATT GENGE - Team Member
Good - Made the ANSMET Team an even number.
Bad - Irrational fear of soap products, caused irritable bowel syndrome in all expedition members by consistently forgetting to take down the pooh tent flag, apparently suffers from blue-black colour blindness (ice - blue, meteorites - black), smug when accidentally tripping over meteorites destined for other members of the team, nicotine withdrawl went critical after 25 minutes in the field, reckless treatment of expedition equipment resulting in one member of team having a fat lump on the back of her skidoo, no dress sense, not concious before 11 am even if mobile, couldn't cook a TV dinner in a microwave, and .... was to camp organisation and efficiency what hampsters are to nuclear physics. A cute distraction.
Okay scratch cute.
So there you have it. ANSMET, nine great people and me.
