Cori's World
This year, as many of you know, Cori signed on as an 'iron-worker' here at the Pole. The iron workers typically erect the steel backbone of any given structure. As you can probably imagine, working with cold metal when it's already 50 below out, is very challenging, tiring, freezing work. -Cori was very excited about it though.
This year's iron project happened to be the South Pole Telescope. This telescope, which I mentioned in 'expanding minds' blog, is on the very cutting edge of science. It uses microwaves to enable scientists to see further than ever into the universe. They're actually pretty sure it will take us to the very edge of our universe, and essentially see into the beginnings of it.
The main skeleton of the telescope was actually pre-built in Texas over the summer, so the Foremen could see how it would go together, and see what potential problems they would need to work out, before shipping it all to Antarctica. This did make the job easier, but of course, there were still minor set-backs, from things like delays in shipping and such.
The main frame of the telescope was put together by the iron crew, on schedule. The giant 'dish', that sits on top, had to be carefully calibrated by the scientists "beakers", before it could be mounted, which took awhile.
Once it came time to mount the dish, two cranes were used to pick it up, then the iron workers mounted it on, much to the anxious eyes of the beakers!
Now all that is left is the fine tuning that the scientists do. The telescope is scheduled to be up and running all Winter down here. Thanks to those tough iron workers, we may soon be re-writing our science books.
Through it all, Cori got to learn the finer points of rigging, cutting torches, and bolt torqueing. She also got to work with a great bunch of guys and gals, and had a lot of fun parties!
