Thursday 11th May 2023

Steering the drill

Left: The spring mounted on the outer barrel near the bottom of the drill. This device permits us to steer the drill if we know it’s orientation. Center: Nicholas in the drillers cabin observing screens for the drilling itself and for the new drill orientation software. Right: Emma working on getting the core-throughs aligned in the logger’s cabin permitting both a gentle push-out and a nice core cut with the circular saw.

Today Romain installed the spring which facilitates directional drilling on the ice core drill, while Nicholas continues to work on the software that allows us to identify which direction this spring is pointing towards while the drill is at the bottom of the bore hole. When we can control in which direction the spring is pushing the drill head, then we are able to steer the drill in whatever direction is more opportune in order to counter any shear we may encounter deeper in the ice.
In the logger’s cabin Emma further re-aligned all the core throughs, as to make the push-out and cutting of the ice core as seamless and gentle as possible, and sure enough after this installation of the spring was completed a single drill run was made, bringing another beautiful ice core gently to the logging table in one piece.
On the surface, Sverrir tried to groom with the new Pistenbully, but a hydraulic leak interrupted his work, and he had to bring it to the mechanics garage and change to another Pistenbully in order to continue. Sepp assisted with this change-over, while he also continued gathering retro-cargo for next week’s flight. Nico, Anna-Maria and Bo managed to break down 3 sections of the core-buffer, and bring all the parts to the ramp of the drill trench with some welcome assistance from Romain. Bruno continues the enormous task of organizing cables and upgrading radios in the Cupola of the dome.

What we did today:

1. Drilled one ice core, drillers length: 3.26m.
2. Logged yesterday’s last core, logged length 3.10m, loggers’ depth 2428.34m
3. Installed spring for directional drilling on drill.
4. Worked on software for determining orientation of drill in bore hole.
5. Broke down 3 sections of the core-buffer (2 sections remaining for this seasons cores).
6. Worked on organizing cables and radios in the Cupola.
7. Continued identifying and gathering retro-cargo for next week’s flight.
8. Identified leak in the new Pistenbully.
9. Started grooming skiway.

Weather today: Starting sunny, but getting more cloudy during the day, with the slightest precipitation in the air towards evening. Temperatures rising throughout the day -33°C to -14°C. Wind: Between 6kt and 19 kt culminating early in the day and turning from SSW towards WSW and back to SSW during the day. Visibility: Unrestricted, except during slight precip.

FL, Bo M. Vinther