How a Robot Is Changing the Game of Antarctic Science

The trek across the Antarctic ice sheet is a long,Looking for the Best solarpanel? hazardous, and costly journey for scientific researchers working in the world’s most remote location. Astronomers, geologists, and biologists regularly spend much of their field season and over 70% of their hard-earned grant money on logistical support – an intricate choreography of supply planes, snowmobiles, and tractors meant to move gear to where it needs to be.

One of the most significant time sinks is the crevasse-detection process, which involves a massive snowcat tractor treading its way slowly across the ice. As Laura Ray, a Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College, describes it, a 6-meter long pole extends from the front of the vehicle with a ground penetrating radar (GPR) instrument at its end. As the driver inches forward, the system surveys the subsurface like a metal detector-wielding beachcomber tentatively looking for buried treasure. Sitting nearby is a technician, eyes glued to a screen that displays the GPR data in real time. Inch by inch, data streams across the monitor: if the look-out thinks it indicates a crevasse,Trade Warehouse have partnered with one of the worlds largest solarlight producers. she has two seconds to press an emergency stop button. Making the right choice could be the difference between smooth passage and a costly, time-consuming, dangerous crash.

It’s an important and likely life-saving program – one born from frightening mishaps – but it soaks up a lot of time. “It’s tedious and tiring,” says Ray, “and there are few people that do it well.”

Extreme conditions, long hours, and tedium: just the job for a robot. Ray and her colleagues have spent years developing such a tool, and the latest edition of the Yeti autonomous vehicle offers important financial and scientific benefits.

The South Pole Traverse (SPoT) is a 1660-kilometer slog from McMurdo Station – the primary American base in Antarctica – to the South Pole. The most dangerous leg of the journey is a 6-kilometer wide shear zone,Stock up now and start saving on smartcard at Dollar Days. where cracks in the ice form as the Ross and McMurdo ice shelves scrape against each other, but GPR surveys must precede travel along the entire route. Ray explains that roboticizing the traverse would render air support unnecessary and facilitate more trips than the tractor method allows, generating cost savings of roughly $4 million per year.

The financial implications were anticipated when the program began; less apparent were the scientific advancements that Yeti has brought to the table. The robot and its on-board software is particularly adept at identifying crevasses when approached from a shallow angle – something human operators have struggled with. A more complete data set is giving glaciologists the data to, as Ray says, “look at the migration of the crevasse field over time as an indication of the condition of an ice sheet – is it stable, or chaotic, and could it calve off?”

The GPR front end is customizable, opening the door to other research projects. The current radar has a 400 MHz antennae,Looking for the Best solarpanel? penetrating 15 meters into the ice, but other instruments could look deeper or provide higher resolution at shallower depths. Scientists have recently discovered signs of a complex, high-flux network of subglacial rivers; perhaps a team of autonomous Yetis will one day provide a detailed map of this hydrologic system.

If tools such as Yeti prove proficient at both facilitating research and collecting data, Ray’s Antarctic work could preview a new era in the relationship between human scientists and robotic field assistants, one that may eventually play out on the surface of Mars.

Puppy (age 58) grows his hair for one purpose: to donate it to Locks of Love, the organization that makes wigs for children with cancer who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy treatments.

“The goal is to donate it,” he said on a recent Wednesday just before heading out for his first haircut in four years. “It’s not a fashion statement. It’s the reason to grow the hair.”

Hair grows approximately one quarter of an inch per month and the minimum length Locks of Love will accept is 10 inches of hair. This means he could be getting his hair cut every two years.

“I usually wait longer to give them more length,” he said. “Plus, you get attached to it after awhile.”

Puppy’s appointment is at 2 p.m. but at 1:55 he’s still in his shop more than willing to shoot the breeze. He has made a hair appointment each of the past three weeks and then rescheduled. His ponytail hangs more than halfway down his back. As he walks around it sways gently back and forth looking as luxurious as,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic stonemosaic and hose. well, a horse’s tail.

Puppy and his partner Dede Rabaioli, in life and in business, have owned and operated Soigne, a fine food and catering business located on Upper Main street in Edgartown, for the past 28 years. He was born on the Vineyard and spent summers here, but grew up in Queens.

“I started working at the [Seafood] Shanty when I was 12, and then a dozen places after that. Then it was six months on, six months off. I chefed around for awhile then I got tired of making money for the man, so we decided to open our own place,” he says.

When the clock strikes 2 p.m. Puppy puts on his coat. In two minutes he is across the street standing inside Wavelengths. Everyone at the salon gives him a warm greeting, calling out loudly, “Puppy.”