LC-130 flight cancelled and Basler flight cancelled
Tyler is blowing snow down onto the balloon now partly buried in trench. A still exposed part of the almost buried white balloon can be seen to the right.
Today weather turned bad. It has been cloudy with snow most of the time. Al surface definition disappeared and people had to be very careful to avoid driving or walking into holes and bumps. And it has become hot and sticky. Water formed on all non white surfaces making work difficult.
These high temperatures also turn the snow into soft powder. People sink in when walking and it makes walking long distances quite an undertaking.
No planes flew to and from NEEM today due to weather. Since the forecast tomorrow is almost as bad as weather today, we have already decided to cancel the LC-130 flight tomorrow. Now we hope for Thursday…
What we have done today:
1. Gathering cargo for shipping out.
2. Test balloon trench almost complete.
3. LC-130 and Basler missions cancelled.
4. Work in science trench. Processing shallow cores.
5. In the drill trench, the drillers made a new mount for the slip ring.
6. Maintenance on main generator.
Ad.2: After a glycol filled u-tube was mounted as pressure gauge, the balloon was inflated to 0.075 bar overpressure. After this test, the pressure was decreased to 0.025 bar overpressure, and the backfilling with snow blowers began. Backfilling lasted the whole day and is almost complete. The balloon holds pressure in a fine way.
Weather: Thick overcast. Temp. – 2.5°C to – 8°C, 13 knots from S to calm.
Visibility: 500m to 5 km, snow most of the day in variable intensity.
FL, J.P. Steffensen