
Risky South Pole mission: retrieve sick scientists from research station - molecule
http://www.smh.com.au/world/risky-south-pole-mission-retrieve-sick-scientists-from-amundsenscott-research-station-20160616-gpl3hg.html
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knz
This reminds me of Leonid Rogozov performing a self appendectomy in Antarctica
in 1961. If I recall correctly there are requirements now that any doctor who
winters over must have had theirs removed. More information, including photos
-
[http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/appendix.html](http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/appendix.html)

~~~
chrissnell
That's unreal. I had appendicitis when I was 35. You know how doctors ask you
to rate your pain level from 1-10? That experience reset the scale entirely
for me. I suffered on the floor of an Army hospital ER waiting room for 8
hours before they brought me back. They quickly realized what was wrong with
me and gave me morphine and I've never felt anything so blissful. Looking at
that doc's pics from your link just blows my mind. I can't even imagine what
that must have been like. Maybe he had lots of morphine on hand.

~~~
ajitk
The article states, "The operation was carried out under local anesthesia."
Without one, pain will make any hand movement near to impossible!

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nprecup
One of my friends is down at Amundsen-Scott, currently for his second
overwinter. He works on the BICEP2 project. When I saw this I was worried it
might be him. I was able to reach him over the internet and he let me know he
was doing well. They are understandably keeping quiet about what is going on,
so I can't offer any details, but it sounds like the patient is doing OK for
now. That's all I know.

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sandworm101
One of the heroes involved:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Otter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Otter)

These planes are special things. If you want to go somewhere dangerous, or
just weird, this is what you want carrying you.

~~~
goldenkey
I go from reading about that plane to that a Panamian president died in a
crash of that plane, to Noriega's payments by the CIA to the US invasion of
Panama:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Pa...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama)

At 3am when I should be sleeping. The internet is the invention of our
lifetimes..its just amazing how just on the notion of sheer information - and
education of us regular citizens, has totally been shaken. I recently read
that libraries were first created with the purpose of letting even poor folk
self-educate.

~~~
digi_owl
And still there are likely numerous stories that are not on Wikipedia, because
of their rule against "original research".

Makes one wonder if there should be an attempt at setting up a wiki for
personal stories and such, as i doubt blog services have any dedication to
preservation.

~~~
goldenkey
There definitely should. If you are up for it, maybe we can do it together. My
email is in my profile.

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voltagex_
From the article, here's the flight path -
[https://flightaware.com/live/flight/CGKBO](https://flightaware.com/live/flight/CGKBO)

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jakeogh
Amundsen-Scott Tour:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5lQ9DCXIbs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5lQ9DCXIbs)

~~~
Bromskloss
I was amazed that they had brought all those musical instruments with them,
and an entire gym! Then it just got worse. No weight spared. A huge building
with seemingly no effort made to keep it lightweight. What a difference from
Amundsen's and Scott's time!

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js2
Seems like this article could have mentioned the self-appendectomy:

[http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/appendix.html](http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/appendix.html)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Rogozov](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Rogozov)

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Bromskloss
I would love to get the opportunity to overwinter at the Amundsen-Scott base.
Being cut off is what makes it an attractive adventure in my eyes.

~~~
radicality
That does sound attractive and a good opportunity to reflect. Anyone here (or
do you know any good stories) spent any long periods either in complete
isolation, or in a small group like this far away from society? How was it?

~~~
seszett
> _Anyone here (or do you know any good stories) spent any long periods either
> in complete isolation, or in a small group like this far away from society?
> How was it?_

I overwintered on Kerguelen island. The environment is not as extreme as on
Amundsen-Scott, but from what I can see the isolation is almost exactly the
same: same amount of personel in summer and winter, just a slightly shorter
isolation in winter. On the other hand there's no runway and it's too far from
inhabitated land for helicopters, so in case of a real emergency the best that
can happen is that a ship can come to the base and get you to Réunion in ten
days or so. Also, communications are much worse it seems, with a few tens of
kB/s at most, shared with two other smaller French bases in the Indian ocean.

It was great, the best experience in my life so far. It felt like real
_adventure_ that doesn't really happen anymore in the civilised world. You
have to be very patient, understanding and open though, because at least a few
of your companions won't be. There was a sense of companionship I haven't felt
elsewhere, as well as the possibility for people with vastly different
backgrounds to meet, when they would probably never had met in "real life".

~~~
fleetingmoments
I spent a year on Marion Island, it sounds pretty similar. It's quite a
strange feeling adapting back to civilisation afterwards. Going 60km/h in a
car feels terrifying. Having to remember to take money everywhere with you in
order to get everyday things like food.

~~~
seszett
Oh nice, what were you doing there?

Honestly cars were not a problem for me since I had one of the few cars on
Kerguelen: there is just one road, to go to the IT/electronics/geophysics lab.

What was strangest for me once back to civilisation was being able to just go
wherever I want without asking or even notifying anyone, and even go there
_alone_ , after a year of strictly controlled movements and the obligation to
go everywhere in groups of three :)

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rrmm
How does this sort of experience bode for long term space missions and
exploration. Will contingencies be better planned in environments with even
less access to equipment?

I guess most of it would go into crew selection and health screenings, but
stuff still happens.

~~~
cmdkeen
Nations that conduct deterrence patrols on SSBNs have built up many decades of
experience in terms of sealing up individuals for months at a time, operating
in an unforgiving environment and being self reliant for that period. There's
a surprisingly large pool of information potentially available to learn from.

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JoeAltmaier
I often wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to have sufficient medical resources
ad Amundsen-Scott, than to repeatedly mount risky and expensive rescue
efforts. Is it just human nature to expect the best outcomes, and not plan for
disaster?

~~~
evanb
They always have at least one doctor at the pole over the winter. They have
two hospital beds, an operating table, and a relatively extensive pharmacy. If
someone's coming home, it's because it's extremely serious.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
...and that seems to happen every couple of years. Again, they're not
prepared.

~~~
sokoloff
Article says twice in 60 years.

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xer0x
Isn't this the plot of for a horror-thriller movie?

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labrador
Free: [http://www.smh.com.au/world/risky-south-pole-mission-
retriev...](http://www.smh.com.au/world/risky-south-pole-mission-retrieve-
sick-scientists-from-amundsenscott-research-station-20160616-gpl3hg.html)

~~~
dang
Ok, we changed to that from [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
science/wp/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
science/wp/2016/06/16/a-rare-risky-mission-is-underway-to-rescue-sick-
scientists-from-the-south-pole/).

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laretluval
I tried like 30 different mailinator e-mail address as a way of getting
through to this article without giving my real e-mail address.

Kudos to the Washington Post tech team!

~~~
tbirdz
I just put in an @washingtonpost.com address. If they start sending spam, no
reason anyone else should have to deal with that.

~~~
laretluval
Hm, that didn't work for me either!

A random gmail worked.

~~~
seanp2k2
I've been postmaster@aol.com for years on many sites with mandatory
registration.

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thisrod
Am I the only one who got a laugh out of the caption, "The last sunset of the
summer at the South Pole"?

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ekimekim
Paywall. Web link didn't work for me, but trying to print the page produced a
readable version.

