Saturday, May 24, 2008

South Pole Station


I was channel surfing and I came across a National Geographic show about the South Pole Station. They are building some big buildings there, ten's of thousand's of square feet, and they have a ten meter telescope that was just finished earlier this year. All this was a big surprise to me. I didn't know there was anything at all at the South Pole. I knew people had been there, and I knew there was a base at McMurdo sound, which is in Antartica, but it is not at the pole. So the TV show gives some information, and then gets side tracked into a drama about whether the building is going to be ready for occupency before winter shuts down their air transport link for the winter (summer for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere). Well, that sort of manufactured drama gets old pretty fast, so I got on the net to see what I could find. Turns out we have had a base at the South Pole since 1956! Sure are a lot of telescopes being built.

I found McMurdo Station using Google Maps, but I don't think they go all the way to the South Pole.

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