Very good progress was made in drilling this week. Hole number 39 was completed on 1700h on January 3 and hole 39 was completed 1700h on January 8, exactly 5 days after the previous hole. The start of drilling for the second hole of this season, #39, was delayed due to longer than expected commissioning of tower two. The thorough commissioning paid off in that the drilling of that hole went very smoothly. Drilling took about 31 hours and reaming about 10 hours.
Firn drilling of hole 30 has started 18:30h on Jan 10 and should be completed in 4 hours. The pump motors are believed to overheat when run at full capacity. If modifications to improve cooling are successful it will be helpful for the drilling of the next hole.
All surface cables are in the trenches. The newly deployed strings show no indication of water leakage.
String 39 (Icecube's second string of the season and third string overall) was deployed on January 4 and the DOMs were leak-checked on January 5. There was no sign of water. By "dusk" on January 5, data was being taken with 52 of the DOMs.
A lot of progress has been made with IceTop construction. All surface cables are now trenched and connected to the surface junction boxes and to the tanks. Tank filling has advanced with only few tanks left for this week. All DOMs in tanks have passed communication tests. The DOMs have been leak-checked several times a day, and all readings have been consistent. Interesting data has been obtained from string 39 (while in water) showing a triboluminescence wave as it progresses down the string.
The temporary counting house is fully operational and is maintained by Karthik. An overload condition of one power circuit was resolved with support by RPSC.
A congressional delegation visited the South Pole. The high profile delegation included U.S. senators John McCain, John Sununu, Susan Collins and ten House Representatives. Eric Chiang, Section Head, Polar Research Support Service and Dr. Katherine Olson, Deputy Director of the NSF and others escorted the delegation. The delegation toured the IceCube site and had the opportunity to witness drilling operation in progress. There was opportunity to ask questions about drilling and science. The visit to IceCube, as well as the station and the other sites were very well received and a success.