JACEE-14 email message log **last update: 10 Jan 1996, -rjw** Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 1:51:05 -0600 (CST) From CHRISTL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: Arrived in Antarctica This message is just to inform you that I have arrived in antarctica and will begin to send some messages on the status of the work here. I have not yet contacted the NSBF people as I arrived after the normal work hours and am unable to locate where they are staying. The weather here is pretty mild with the temp ~29 degrees F and not much wind. The field where the majority of the work to be done is still closed to the general public, but will be opened in a few more days. Tomorrow I will try to contact Steve Peterzen with the NSBF and find out where our chambers and equipment are located. Nothingelse for now, Mark from McMurdo Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 19:33:03 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: We have arrived in Christchurch! Please forward this message to all appropriate persons! I met up with J. Gregory in Los Angeles and we had little trouble with the flights. It seems that the New Zealand air traffic controllers decided to strike for about one week, this week! We made it in though after about a 2 hour delay and were whisked off to the CDC for clothing issue. We just finished and are slated for 5:30 am checkin and a 10 am flight to the ice. (Wednesday, December 6th) All looks good so far. P.S. Tom, call Judy! MOre when we hit the ice! Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 0:31:17 -0600 (CST) From: CHRISTL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: News From McMurdo Today was a relatively easy day for me with mild weather and some free time on my hands to become acquainted with many of the facilities here at McMurdo. I talked with Steven Peterzen and a couple of the NSBF riggers and they gave me most of the infomation about the status down here. The JACEE chambers and equipment arrived in good conditon and have already been transported out to the work site at Willies field. The new building they are erecting to relpace the wind damaged sprung structure is nearing completion. The important parts ( roof, floor, and walls ) are pretty much finished, but a connecting hallway that will join this new work area with the existing metal building still must be completed. There probably is also some finishing work to be done, but I do not know how much. Enough of the the building is completed to work in, so I will start work tomorrow on the gondola. The shuttle service is limited at this time to one trip out to the work site after breakfast and a returning ride that evening. Steven has arranged for lunch and dinner to be served at Willies field. Mark from McMurdo Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 3:05:47 -0600 (CST) From: CHRISTL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: McMurdo News I have just finished hearing a lecture about the antifreeze that is used by the fish in this area to keep from freezing. These lectures are given weekly and cover the many different areas of research going on in the Antarctic. I will keep this note short as it is late here. I made it out to Williams Field and was able to collect all the crates and pieces to the gondola in the building where we are to assemble the detector. Everything appears to be in good shape, and I think that the facility steven has provided us with will be more than sufficient to do our work. I have started putting in the plywood support for the bottom layer of insulation and tomorrow I will finish that layer and try to get the chambers in the gondola and sensor cables routed. The NSBF people will put their equipment package(SIP) in tomorrow late in the afternoon. The airplane that was to bring both John Gregory and Camron Hastings out to the ice has been delayed because of the possibility of bad weather here which never showed up this evening. There will be two NZ C-130 planes leaving tomorrow, or at least prepared to leave, and they are listed on the flight list. Mark from McMurdo Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 12:39:51 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: Lack of Progress! Well, it is now 9:30 am, Thursday, Dec 7th here in New Zealand. It seems that the forces of nature have aligned against us! We arrived at the CDC (Clothing Dist. Center) this morning at 6am, after the required amount of insulation and protective wind gear was in place on our bodies, we checked our luggage in, and prepared to board the plane. We have been slotted to fly out on a "Kiwi Herc". That is a New Zealand operated C-130 Hercules. I have been told that is good, because the Kiwi's are a bit friendlier than the U.S. Navy and the planes are supposed to be a bit nicer. We also don't have skis attatched to the landing gear which speeds the flight up by about 10%! Well, at the last minute, the weather down on the ice forced a 4 hour delay, and here I sit, at the NSF computer terminal in about enough polar fleece and polypropalene to effectively make me a wlking sauna. If things go right though, we will get off the ground at 2pm NZ, and then hope to make it past the "point of safe return". At this point we either commit to flying to the ice or return to Christchurch. For now, that is all I have to report. It appears that Mark Christl has arrived in McMurdo and is starting the Gondola prep. Hopefully it won't take John Gregory and me long to catch up to him. Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 10:57:27 -0600 (CST) From: CHRISTL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: Friday Morning Antarctica Yesterday I made good progress in getting the detector ready. The bottom of the gondola is finished with both the insulation and tedlar in place. The exposed legs and lower crossbeams of the gondola were painted white to repair the scratched areas. One chamber was lifted into position to check the fit inside the gondola. The weather again turned windy in the afternoon and so the NSBF peopla delayed taking the instrument package (SIP) down to the assembly area, but the plan is to place the SIP in the gondola this morning. I expect to get the rest of the chambers installed and temperature sensor cables routed today. The weather also caused another day's delay in the arrival of JG and CH to the ice. They are scheduled to depart agian today. Steven had planned on releasing the first pathfinder balloon today, but i do not know if he still intends to do so. The change over to WIlliams field for aircraft operations is almost rady to begin. Mark from McMurdo Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 00:34:27 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: Brrrrrr...... Well, who would have guessed? John Gregory and I have arrived at McMurdo station in Antarctica, and it is every bit as spectacular as I thought it would be! We boarded the Kiwi Herc flight this morning and got off the ground at 9:45am NZ, the flight went well and we passed the PSR (Point of Safe Return) at 2pm. The weather held and we landed on the ice runway at 5:10pm. John and I quickly met up with Mark Christl, and after a quick bite of food at the galley, we went over the current situation and what is left. All seems good so far. Mark mentioned that there was a little alignment problem with the gondola after the emulsion chambers were in, but it was easily corrected. Mark also mentioned that there was 1/8 inch of space left around the perimeter of the emulsion chambers which he shimmed, all seems good. The plywood is in place underneath, along with the ethafoam, and the temperature sensors are in place. The sensors still need to be routed, the battery box to be installed, the computers to be attatched, and the insulation to be put in place. This is a rough listing of the situation, and I am sure that details still remain. By the way, the SIP is in place and is ready to be tested! The pathfinder balloon was launched late today, around 5pm, and we will watch it for the next few days to see how the winds look. If all goes well, we are shooting for a possible Tuesday launch! For now, that is all I have to report. It is nearly 10pm and brighter than most winter days in Seattle! I best get some rest. I am slated for an outdoor safety seminar tomorrow at 8:30am, then out to Willy Field to work on the Gondola! Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 01:08:50 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: McMurdo Station, 10pm 12.12.95 Well, the last day has seen little work. The weather out at Willy field was condition 2, and that stopped the work on the canvas door on the new barn. That really slowed us down a day, because we needed to move the gondola into the front half of the new barn because it is constructed of wood. Surendra needs only to test the SIP, but it could not transmit out of the metal building we were in, and without the door, the new tower on the barn was effectively outside! Today the weather improved greatly, the door was 95% finished. We moved JACEE14 into the tower and moved Flare Genesis into the metal building. Mark and John finished the insulation, and I finished the ground station and electronic packages this morning. We now are waiting only on the final SIP testing. Tmomorrow we should get data downlink from the SIP, and test our computer under battery power with the SIP. If all goes well, as I think it will, we will allow the SIP to run under solar power for about a day, and make sure everthing is talking with everything else O.K. In short, the weather caused a small delay, but we are flight ready. The first pathfinder is telling us that the winds are not yet ready, but today the pathfinder turned back to the west, where it should be going. That is a good sign. We are all hoping for a weekend launch. Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 22:24:26 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: McMurdo Station, 7:10pm, Wed, 12.13.95 Well, today the weather was beautiful, about 5 degrees C I would believe. Work on the SIP continues. Today we hooked the JACEE-14 flight computer up to the SIP and watched the ground computer with great anticipation. The SIP was not fully operatiopnal yet, but we were able to receive the science data from our flight computer. The only snag is that it seems that the SIP is not throwing in its 2 cents worth. I mean that the SIP is not contributing its baratron info or GPS time info, though we are receiving GPS position info. Surendra is still looking into iyt, and by tomorrow we should be fine. When i plugged the laptop into our flihght computer it did look as if all the transfers were happening alright, so I am not worried, it may just be an antenna problem or something right now. If things continue to go right, we should be "cold soaking" the gondola tomorrow. I don't really understand where that term, "cold soak," came from, but in this case it means that we are going to hang th gondola outside with the solar cells to run for half a day or so under its own power. If everything works well there, we are 100% ready! Now we wait on the pathfinder... Last data showed it to be nearthe south end (pole area) of the Transantarctic Mountain Range. It had been heading east. then made a turn to the west and looped back upon itself. We hope that the winds will cooperate by this weekend for the launch. Wait and see..... Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 21:48:11 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: McMcurdo Station, 6:50pm, 12.16.95 This is a quick note since I have not been out to Willy field in 2 days. As far as I know, we are still 100% flight ready. Yesterday the gondola was supposed to hang outside on the crane and under it's own power. Assuming that went well, we are still go. Another pathfinder was launched today, I believe, more on that later in the message! My reason for not being at Willy field is that I have been on the Field Survival Training Course. Yes, we slept in snow holes and Scott tents. We covered radio operations, shelter building, survival gear operation, cold weather injuries, cold weather medical procedures, and basic snow and ice climbing and safety procedures. It was while being lowered into an 80ft crevass that I noticed the balloon leaving Willy field. I knew that a pathfinder was being readied for launch, so I suppose that was it. I have not talked to John or Mark since my return, so I may be mistaken. When I know more, I will let everyone else know also! Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 11:35:33 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: McMurdo Station, 9:10am, 12.19.95 Today show a great improve,ment over the weather of yesterday, which reached condition 1 out at Willy field. The shuttle ride back was quite an experience, and there are a few less flags to mark the road as we ran over several due to the nearly zero visibilty. As far as JACEE goes, we are still flight ready, and waiting for the weather. The second pathfinder is showing much more favorable conditions, though not yet perfect. We hope to have a launch any day this week. Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 02:35:20 -0800 (PST) From: "N. Camron Hastings" Subject: McMurdo Station, 11:00pm 12.19.95 Good weather and good news from McMurdo, Antarctica. The condition 1 weather last night gave way to beautiful blue sky and wind under 5 knots. Based on the weather reports and the pathfinder's position, Steven Peterzen mad ethe decision to launch. The balloon left the pad today at 7:41 pm without a hitch. It was a beautiful liftoff and the ballon seems to be ascending fine. As of this writing, it is at approximately 75,000 ft, and rising with an average ascension rate of 500ft/min. It is too early to tell how the path looks, but we feel it will be fine. The temperature inside the gondola is holding a steady 21 degrees C. It seem sthat this years insulation was quite good, and it was installed inside a very warm structure, so I can imagine it is taking quite a while to cool down. The only minor problem we had was, suprise suprise, the Inmarsat feed. It was working properly right until we started to move the gondola out of the building, and then the downlink data seems to be a bit scrambled. We are still assessing the problem, and possibly it can be fixed, but it is not a flight critical component, and should we be unable to restore the data from the downlink, it will not be much of a loss. As you may know, all data is logged onboard the computer, and the continuing accurate feed from the Argos downlink reassures us that all is well onboard. All else looks good. I have a telescope here at the Crary Center fixed on it and am trying to keep an eye on it as long as possible. It looks like Tom Parnell will be arriving in McMurdo tomorrow. Too bad he missed the launch, but Flare Genesis is slated to launch soon, and I hope that they will have as beautiful a day as we. Mark is on the manifest for a flight out of here on the 22nd, assuming he doesn't get bumped. I believe that I will be here until the end of December, and John will most likely be here till after Christmas as well. Thats news for now...... -- N. Camron Hastings camron@u.washington.edu -- -- University of Washington 206.543.0993 -- -- Visit me in Antarctica! http://marge.phys.washington.edu/~camron -- From gregory@marge.phys.washington.eduTue Dec 19 09:14:15 1995 Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 03:24:05 -0800 (PST) Subject: Jacee-14 in the air JACEE-14 was launched in near perfect conditions from Williams field, McMurdo Station at 8:41pm local time 19th dec (07:41 Greenwich MT).There was and is a beautiful blue sky and the balloon is still very visible 3 hours later at 100,000ft and about 20 miles East of here.The great volcanoes of Ross Island ,Mt Terror and Mt Erebus are glistening with ice in the brilliant sunshine. A plume of smoke pours from the crater of Erebus almost continuously.We were absolutely not expecting a launch today as there was a full scale blizzard in progress at 6pm last night.All indications are that the balloon and payload are in good condition. Its midnight here so we're going to turn in. John From CHRISTL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOVTue Dec 19 14:06:22 1995 Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 13:41:05 -0600 (CST) Subject: Launched We had a very beautiful launch last night at 8:50 pm. The balloon is hanging around McMurdo pretty much, but right now it is inline with the sun so it is very difficult to see. I will give more details after I return from Willey field this afternoon. Camron will be taking care of map coordinates of the balloon, I think he will add that information to the JACEE 14 home page and keep it updated. Mark From gregory@marge.phys.washington.eduTue Dec 19 14:13:36 1995 Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 12:26:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: JACEE-14,day 1 The balloon is at 124000ft and heading due west.An early assessment is that its going at a good clip, or as the kiwis say,"doing a runner".We should be thinking qite soon about the possibility of an 8 or 9 day circuit.8 days is half of our desired 360hrs but more than our min acceptable of 5 days.If we want a second circuit it will need some persuasion I think. Tom is our most experienced balloonist, so we shall be well represented. From gregory@marge.phys.washington.eduThu Dec 21 10:05:23 1995 Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 20:15:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: Status;21 dec,4:15pm local The balloon is at acceptable altitude and proceeding along a good path at moderate speed.My early estimates of speed were not sustained and the circumnavigation time now looks close to our requested exposure of 15 days. That will change I'm sure.Our altitude over the 12 morning hours was down around 117-119,000ft.After heating,the balloon rose to 121.6kft.At this time last year the balloon was 3 or 4000ft higher. I believe this is consistent with our being given a slighly smaller balloon than last year. Our other problem you will have heard, is that we never received a single data package after flight.So we have no idea of our flight temperatures, nor any of the nice plots of progress and altitude that were on the Web last year..It appears that our computer is not communicating with the SIP.That could be because our computer is off( which is most unlikely) or that the interrogation function is not operating.A cable between the two systems could have been yanked during prelaunch ops.You will recall that transmission of data electronically is not one of our hard requirements of NSBF. John From CHRISTL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOVThu Dec 21 10:07:52 1995 Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 22:29:02 -0600 (CST) Subject: update >From Mark This is all for me as I am booked on the flight out tomorrow and will end up in Baton Rouge on Christmas Eve hopefully. Tom is scheduled to arrive tonight again! Camron will continue to update the Web Page with the latest information Mark From camron@marge.phys.washington.eduThu Dec 21 10:08:34 1995 Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 02:25:41 -0800 (PST) Subject: McMurdo Station, 11:00pm, 12.21.95 Good and bad news from Antarctica. The balloon which was launched on Tuesday is continuing on a circumpolar trajectory. It is flying at 124,000 feet as of this writing. The bad news is that our flight data logger seem to be isolated from the SIP. Speculation as to what the cause of the problem is continues, but until the computer is retreived we will not have any definitive answers. We are assuming that the computer is internally loggint the data, and simply not transmitting this info to us. That seems to be the rundown for now. Now that the balloon is up, the progress reports will look pretty simimlar, so unless things change, I will not take up any more band width with this subject. It looks like the plane that Tom Parnell was scheduled to fly in on tonight at 10pm has been delayed until 5 am. Poor Tom has not had the best luck when it comes to getting here. We hope to see him in the morning. Mark leaves tomorrow at 7am back to Christchurch, then the states. He should be home for Christmas. I am scheduled to fly out of McMurdo on Tuesday, Dec. 26th, and arrive back in Seattle around th 29th or 30th. Starting Jan.1 there will be another air traffic controllers strike in New Zealand, so I need to fly out before then if possible. [Comment from Yoshi Takahashi who was part of previous years' field teams:] Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 10:49:32 -0600 (CST) From: TAKAHASHI@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: copy fwd (mail to JCG, 12/22/95 10:00 am CST) John, The same altitude profile happened for JACEE-12 which got a perfect launch. I checked at the time, the flight profile of JACEE-10. Later, last year, too. The balloon heads to the magnetic north pole region in a few days, where it always remain lower elevation. NSBF guys I asked over there said to me <"It is the cold region'> The past few days of altitude profile you reported reminded me on this concern and tentative empirical conclusion I had. If my memory is not wrong, the balloon would go slightly higher than the first 2 days. Wishing nice holidays soon on Ice, yoshi Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 12:19:56 -0800 (PST) From: "John C. Gregory" Mark has left for home this morning.When he arrives in Huntsville he will become immediately "non-essential".Non-essential but happy as he says.Tom was supposed to have arrived at 5 this morning, but I suspect was turned around for the ?th time. That may have been the last flight until Tuesday. The balloon is behaving predictably, at 18:12 Z its positionwas 81.63S,107 E at 117,000ft.Steven will drop 200lbs shortly and we'll see what that does. Thanks for the recollections Yoshi.Angular speed (check me) is therefore 60deg in 56 hrs or 1 circuit in 14 days.No downlinked data from our sensors. We hope that the loogger is running, but have no way of telling.We still have the 3 Tempmentors ticking along. John Date: Sat, 23 Dec 1995 14:56:01 -0800 (PST) From: "John C. Gregory" Subject: JACEE-14 progress report,Dec 24 MCM The balloon continues to travel at a rate equivalent to a 14 to 15 day circuit. Its position at day 357,20:14Z(local 9:14am Dec 24) was; 82.11 S(same as yesterday),54.27E at 116,600ft.A good trajectory but on the low side for us.Apparently no commands are going through to the ballast system, and my understanding is that they believe a fuse has gone and there can be no recovery from this. Today ,Sunday, they hold the Christmas dinner in three shifts beginning at 3pm.None of us signed up (Idont know about Camron) so we will go to the 6 o'clock bash and hope there's still some grub left.The other balloon group and the NSBF crew are working as they hope to launch at the end of the week.Not too jolly really as the ASA employees are an in-group and the scientists (known here officially as grantees, but also otherwise as "beakers") tend not to know much about the science groups other than their own. Everyone is off working in their own areas in several senses.On the other hand , both the NSBF crew and the Rust group are very pleasant to work with and all have been accommodating and helpful to us. John Date: Sun, 24 Dec 1995 14:11:26 -0800 (PST) From: "John C. Gregory" Subject: JACEE-14 on Christmas Day,1995 Position at 20:25Z on day 358 was: 80.42 S, 29.37 E alt 118,500ft. This is a gps altitude.The NSBF MKS Baratron is however reading 6.1 mb.I dont know if this is calibration error, or a GPS effect.Jeff, did you or Eric look into this last year?We have some GPS experts here and will chack with them.6mb is normally taken to be 113,X00 ft. This will be my last message. Tom please add me to your mailing list.Over and out. John Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 20:02:00 -0800 (PST) From: "John C. Gregory" Subject: JACEE-14, Dec 26,1995 Balloon position at 2:52 Z on day360 ( about 4pm local, Dec 26) was: 78.93 (moving a bit N), and 5.64E ( still hasnt crossed the Greewich meridian after almost 7 days), nor half way round, and at altitude 118,200ft. According to Steven it has not dipped below 118 and has been up to 123kft during the past day. From PARNELL@ssl.msfc.nasa.govWed Dec 27 09:24:52 1995 Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 2:13:13 -0600 (CST) To: wilkes%marge.phys.washington.edu@marge.phys.washington.edu Subject: Mac News Gregory and Hastings left today. The balloon was at -78 deg, -25 deg, 124.7 K feet, 5.3 mb at 4:30 PM local time today, Wed 3rd. It will probably be in the vicinity of Mac on the 1st of Jan. Correction, today is the 27th. Steven assures me that he can get an aircraft on New Years Day, and that ourcutdown takes priority over Rust's launch. That says nothing about the recovery. Another beautiful day in Mac. I walked to Scott base-and back. Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 23:15:40 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: Mac News The balloon was at 77.75 S and 53.30 W at 118k feet at 4:50 local today. It has about 140 deg to go to get back to Mac. The present estiamte is arrival on 1 Jan. What happens will depend on the latitude. Wegot an unofficial estimate from one of Rust's crew that thier earliest readiness date will be 2 Jan. That might interfere with the recovery, but no conflict will occ;ur with the cutdown. My present plan is to wait here till 9 Jan anyway, and try to communicate with the Huntsville fo;lks about work there after the furlough. From PARNELL@ssl.msfc.nasa.govFri Dec 29 14:22:40 1995 Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 22:02:08 -0600 (CST) Subject: Mac News The balloon is still coming around slowly. At 4:10PM local it was at 77.6 S , 74.1 W , 118.5 k feet. The estimate to get to this vicinity is still late Monday local (late Sunday in the US). Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 23:05:08 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: Mac Report 30 Dec, 5:00 local time The balloon is at 77.5 S, 105.5 W, at 118.5 k feet GPS. It has about 90 deg to go before getting on our meridian. Steve is sure that willpower will pull it south in a good position for cut down south west of here on the ice shelf. However it,s current latitude would take it slightly to the north of here. Due to the shuttle service shutdown for the next two days I may try to find a place to sleep at Willy. Ican email from there. Barb Perin went out with me to discuss the GPS on the SIP. After shooting the SIP with Steven and Robert Salter, she declared our GPS altitude good to better than 1000 feet. Steven then invited her to the next party at Willy (probably new years). There are some atmospheric science types here in Crary lab. I will see if they have a standard Antarctic summer atmosphere. Date: Sat, 30 Dec 1995 19:48:28 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV The balloon was at 78.3 S, 129.3 W, at 120.6 k feet at 1:30 PM local today 31st. It will be in telemetry line of sight late tomorrow . The recent latitude trend is encouraging. Another beautiful day in Mac. Sunny but a little breezy, making it cool. I'll take a walk and then get "spruced up" ( clean jeans and shirt) for the New Years parties. Since the baalloon is behaving and no shuttles are running I will hang aroun Mac until tomorow. I'll check email occasionally. Date: Sun, 31 Dec 1995 21:43:40 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: Mac Report At 4:15 PM local time the balloon was at 78.8 S , 161.8 W at 121.6 k feet GPS The latitude has been stable for the past 6 hours, and would be favourable for good cut down locations south oof MacMurdo. It has just come in local line of site. I am heading out to Willy in an hour. The cutdown is now estimated to be Tomorrow evening ( 2nd local date ). Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 18:17:44 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm Mac News 1:00 PM local time 2 Jan The balloon was at 79.5 S, 172.6 W , 120.3 k feet GPS half hour ago. It is now in a good cutdown position, and will be so for the next 6 to 12 hours. Unfortunately all aircraft are grounded due to snow and blowing snow, restricting visibility to less than 1/4 mile at times. The Chief weather guesser was here and predicted it woul last into "tonight". Since the balloon is too far away for LOS parachute cutaway, there is nothing to do but wait. The forecaster did not predict this weather, so maybe it will clear sooner than expected. Steven has already indicated that he believes he may be faced with another plateau recovery. On the other hand the balloon is now taking a south- westerly track at only 5m/s. We'll wait and see. More news in about six hours. Tom Parnell PS The balloons longitude is E not W Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 4:53:16 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@ssl.msfc.nasa.gov Subject: RE: latest from mcm Jeff, after a day of waiting for the weather to clear Steven left on a Herc enroute to Shackleton camp, and cut the balloon down at the foot of the maountains at the extreme westerm edge of the ice shelf. Half an hour later, and it would wait for the plateau. Terminate was fired at 8:25 PM local an the 2nd. The instrument and attached parachute is on the ice at 79.44 S , 163.05 E at GPS indicated of -245.6 feet? The relayed report indicated the chute was ok although there is a good bit of wind out there. The position is about 100 miles SSE of here in near a feature known as Mulock Inlet. The instrument is about of a marked feature on the map 2,169 feet high. If the visibility is at all decent tomorrow I think Steven will be out ther in a twin Otter. He had to go to Shackleton with the Herc to pick up field campeople , and he isn't back yet. Amore complete report tomorrow. Tom Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 15:37:37 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm (fwd) It is about 10:30 AM on the the 3rd in Mac. Steven got in this morning at 5 , so I woke him up with my 9 o'clock phone call. He said he had a visual of JACEE14 on the ice. Even though the parachute cutaway did not work, it collapsed, and he said the instrment appears in good shape. The weather this morning is similar to yesterday, with light snow, 10 mph wind , whiteout conditions on the shelf, and no flight ops. I'm headed out to Willy soon to wait it out. To repeat the position: 163.05 E , 79.44 S , -245.6 feet GPS . It is close to a "cove " in the mountains called Mulock Inlet, and about 5 Mi south of a feature (probably volcanic cone) labeled 2,196 '. Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 13:54:01 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm (fwd) TO JACEE: Thursday mornining in Mac. The helos are awaiting a recco flight to learn if the visibility south of Black Island is suitable for a recovery. Although the sun is shining "in town" there are clouds to the south and predictions of a possible white-out over the ice shelf. Furthermore another front is working it's way here, so today could be the last chance for a while. Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 3:18:53 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm (fwd) Mac 10:00 PM. No recovery yet. The same drill scheduled for tomorrow morning.To influence the weather, JACEE is hosting a recovery party in the pig barn on Saturday night. Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 19:26:24 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm (fwd) Sturday afternoon in MacMurdo: The satellite weather looks better over the western part of the ice shelf, so the helos are considering another sortie. At any rate , the party is firmly set for 9:00 PM tonight. That would give us a chance to warm up Steven when he returns. More later. Tom Date: Sat, 6 Jan 1996 16:57:12 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm (fwd) JACEE-14 RECOVERY: In three helicopter sorties Steven Peterzen and a required "mountaineer" recovered the totally disassembled instrument. Everything in excellent condition . Took off at 2 PM and finished at 10, including chambers in shipping crates. Flare Genesis may be declared ready today. I leave on the 11th. Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 1:41:15 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm (fwd) TO JACEE: I have almost finished packing and have a bagdrag tomorrow at 2m Pm. I have sent Walt the TCN,s for the four boxes going com air to Port Hueneme. Steven decided today that he wants to ship the gondola box back to UW surface to PH. So I will stencil in the morning and send the TCN from ChCh. The fourth box contains the flight electronics and power supply and the laptop and some cables (that is the fourth box going to Huntsville.) With the gondola disassembled , I packed the test of the UW stuff in the gondola box. Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 1:59:46 -0600 (CST) From: PARNELL@SSLLES.MSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: latest from mcm (fwd) r To JACEE: I finished packing everything and completed labeling all commercial air ship boxes to Walt in Huntsville. I have transmiited to him the TCN"s and asked that he arrange the Port Hueneme to Huntsville leg with MSFC shipping and coordinate that wih Lee Degalyn. The Gondala box with all UW gear is not yet labeled because the stencil didn't show up in time. Steven assured me that he will take care of that for shipment by ship. The j flare genesis team is out on an underfly, tryng to tweak up the optics by looking at sinngle CCD line readouts with the housekeeping data. They say they have enough recording space for the entire flight if they can focuss and point. I leave ( am scheduled ) at 9 AM Tomorrow. I'll chec mail at ChCh on the 12th. Tom