****************************************************** EXPLORATION ****************************************************** ************ CAMP-OUTS ************ __________ QUESTION: How do you start an Antarctic camp out? ANSWER from Rio on December 26, 1994 There are three major requirements for the science teams to start their "Antarctic Camp-Out." First a SHELTER which, for the most part, is usually a tent. While a few of the team members are busy erecting the tent, another member should start a stove providing a HEAT SOURCE. That is the second requirement. The final major requirement provides a way for the team to communicate with McMurdo station for regular check-ins or for emergency help, this would be the HIGH FREQUENCY COMMUNICATIONS RADIO. There is another requirement that the air crew actually provides to the field team. The team needs to be able to point the radio antenna toward a large station like McMurdo or the South Pole. We provide information such as the direction and distance to these stations, the exact location of the camp they are setting up, and the directions of true north, along with a drawing of the camp and ski-drag headings. The biggest advantage that our LC-130s have over any other large airplane is its ability to land just about anywhere there is snow! We have also landed on the ancient "blue ice" of glaciers using our wheels, or just on annual sea ice if it's thick enough. We are very careful not to land the airplanes anywhere that would put the plane or crew in any real danger. Of course it's dangerous just landing a plane on the snow, but we train very hard all the time to minimize any risk. *************************** 89-YEAR-OLD MT. CLIMBER *************************** __________ QUESTION: Do you know whether a man named Norman Vaughn (89 years old!) who was going to attempt to climb Mt. Vaughn on December 19th has been successful? Please send us any information you may have about his whereabouts! ANSWER from Jan Wee on Jan. 5 1995: You asked about Col. Vaughn's expedition this past December through the "Live From Antarctica" question and answer forum. Your question was forwarded to me because my good friend, Jerry Christy, is the education director of this project. Jerry told me that Col. Vaughn was successful and reached the summit of Mt. Vaughn on December 17th, two days before his 89th birthday--pretty neat for a man of his age! The Vaughn expedition team has now returned to the states and has been in Washington, D.C., for interviews with National Geographic, CBS, Letterman Show (yes, it is true) and will be heading west again soon. Norm Vaughn and his wife live in Alaska. If you would like to write a personal note to Norm Vaughn I will give you his address. Just let me know. If you have access to a Prodigy online account, the Vaughn expedition updates can be found by using the JUMP command and putting in the word "VAUGHN." ************************* BECOMING AN EXPLORER ************************* __________ QUESTION: How did you become an explorer? ANSWER from Jack Dibb on January 2, 1995 I really do not think of myself as an explorer, in the league of the famous adventurers racing to reach the Poles back at the turn of the century. The size of the infrastructure already in place at the bases in Antarctica, as well as Summit, Greenland, also make one think more of military bases than wilderness. Of course, if you are in a small camp and the weather closes in, it certainly makes you realize how far away help is! I have found myself in these remote areas because I am curious about how the atmosphere and climate system work. Some of the detailed questions about these large issue can be best answered in places like Antarctica or Greenland, so we end up there making measurements and doing experiments. So, in a sense, we are exploring, but each new discovery leads to more questions, rather than the need to find some new inaccessible place one can strive to be the first to reach. __________ QUESTION: What advice would you give a fourth grader who wants to become an explorer? ANSWER from Elizabeth Felton on February 17, 1995 If you would like to become an explorer, I suggest that you participate and get involved in programs having to do with what you enjoy doing. For example, I love science and space, so I have participated in many science programs. I also was involved in science fairs and I read a lot about space. If you follow your dreams, anything is possible! ******************* EARLY EXPLORERS ******************* __________ QUESTION: How were the early explorers able to find harbors if the land was surrounded by ice, glaciers, and icebergs? ANSWER from Deane Rink on January 14, 1995 The earliest Antarctic explorers were not able to find harbors, as you correctly imply in your question. Captain James Cook was first to penetrate the Antarctic Circle in a 100-foot wooden ship, and was eventually turned back by the big floating icebergs before he ever set foot on or saw the actual continent. Cook wrote in his journals that surely no one would ever venture to this difficult place. Cook's second voyage, in which he did this, was roughly 1760. It wasn't until decades later that the first explorers actually set foot on a part of the continent, and they did it in austral summer when much of the sea ice recedes affording limited landing sites.