A South Pole Experimental Deployment is a highly detailed operation requiring the efforts of many groups at the NSF and the Support Contractor as well as detailed planning of the experimental group. This planning starts with the Operational Research Worksheet (ORW) which describes the full long-term requirements of the experiment. It is supplemented each year with the Support Information Package (SIP), and later with direct meetings between the experimenters, the NSF, and the Support Contractors so that all can agree on the exact level of field-support the experimenters can plan on being delivered by the NSF and the Contractor.
The ORW is submitted along with the experimental proposal to the NSF, and it is reviewed by the contractor to assess whether the experimental proposal can be adequately supported to meet the needs of the experimenters. This document serves to outline the annual support an experiment will require during the entire lifetime of the experiment.
The type of information required for both the ORW and SIP is listed below.
Experience with AMANDA has shown us that the best way to keep the NSF and Contractor up to date concerning South Pole population levels and personnel medical/dental and travel status is to maintain a Deployment WWW-page. Both personnel and cargo movement information is presented in spreadsheet formats (presently using EXCEL). These formatted personnel and cargo spread-sheets are also forwarded electronically to the contractor.
South Pole population levels are highly restricted, mainly due to station size limitations. In the past AMANDA has been forced to cap its population to about 12-15 people at any time. The field-season generally runs from November 1st to about February 15th each year. This 15 week period is generally divided into 3-4 project periods of 4-5 weeks duration. This generally matches with the period of time that people spend on the pole so that in any season we may have as many as 35-45 people working at the pole during some period. Generally a task will involve 3-4 people and we generally schedule in 3-4 parallel tasks at any one period. This generally means that anywhere from 12-15 specific tasks invoving 3-4 people for 3-5 weeks will get done during a field-season
The labor hours required for the deployment of a single string and the associated IceTop detector is given in table 17. The total population required to perform these tasks follows from the labor required per string. Almost 40% of the deployment time is required for the actual string deployment operation.
The basic string deployment operation requires 7 people during the core deployment operation. 24 hours are allocated for the deployment operation. This is almost 5 hours more than the nominal deployment time to ensure the readiness of the team at the time of the hand-over from drilling. Including the IceTop deployment, we plan on a total population of 16 people during times of full capacity string deployments. Three people are allocated for the IceTop deployment. The IceTop deployment personnel requirements are the most difficult to estimate due to lack of experience.
As shown in table 18, the projected population reaches a maximum of 44 in all years. The drilling population is higher in the first year, due to the drill construction. The AMANDA and SPASE population is higher in the first 4 weeks of FY04. The "Science" population is the personnel required for the installations of the electronics and software in the counting house and in the B2 science lab. This group will commission and operate the detector during the summer. As soon as the deployment operation is phased down by the end of January, the science population is increased to accelerate the commissioning of the last strings and to increase the efforts on data handling operations.
| Operation | Time allocated (h) |
|---|---|
| Cable drag | 52 |
| Deployment (24*7) | 168 |
| Site. Preparation | 16 |
| Cable unpack and prep | 20 |
| OM Testing | 24 |
| Documentation | 10 |
| PTS prep | 15 |
| Logistical and other support | 20 |
| IceTop | 84 |
| General assitance | 20 |
| Total: String | 429 |
| Total: Week | 858 |
| Number of 54 hour shifts/week | 15.9 |
Table 17: Labor hours required for a single string.
| Person days: Total/season | Population during deployment periods: (Maximum/day) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | FY 04 | FY 05 | FY 06-09 | FY 04 | FY 05 | FY 06-09 |
| Drilling | 1509 | 1308 | 1307 | 18 | 15 | 15 |
| Deployment | 796 | 1334 | 1316 | 15 | 16 | 16 |
| Science | 676 | 905 | 1032 | 8 | 10 | 11 |
| A-II/S-2 | 611 | 392 | 238 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Sum | 3592 | 3939 | 3893 | 44 | 44 | 44 |
Table 18: Population required for the fiscal years FY04 to FY09. The population is broken down in drilling personnel, deployment personnel, science personnel for IceCube and science personnel for the subsystems AMANDA-II and SPASE-2. The total number of person days during a South Pole summer is given on the left. On the right the number of people is given during the periods of highest population.
All personnel deploying to the South Pole have to pass a medical and dental examination. This can be complicated and time consuming so the process is started in the May-June time period. The contractor sends out the medical/dental packets and they also view the results of the tests and make the decision if a South Pole candidate is medically qualified. Differences in European and American dental standards have caused problems in the past. Medical qualification is a precondition to Antarctic travel.
All U.S. experimenters have their airline tickets purchased by the contractor. These tickets provide travel between their university location and Christchurch, New Zealand. Foreign participants have to provide transportation at their own costs to Christchurch. At that point all participants are provided transportation at no cost to them, from Christchurch to Antarctica.
The experimenters are expected to pay for their lodging and food from their research contracts. Once in Antarctica there are no costs, since both food and lodging is provided.
The main elements of a string are the cable and the OMs. Smaller mechanical components are needed for the installation of the sensors. Weights are used at the bottom to keep the string under tension. The weights and cubes for each string are listed in table 19. We group the cargo in three categories: Cables, OMs, and miscellaneous, where miscellaneous stands for mechanical components, the weights and for the IceTop tank for each string. The following cargo movements are required:
Estimates of total mass and volume of material ("weights and cubes") required by IceCube over its lifetime are given in the tables below. There are three ways that cargo can get to the South Pole site, by "vessel," "Comm-Air" and "Kilo-Air."
The vessel is the cheapest means of transport, but requires the most advance planning. Cargo leaves Port Hueneme, CA by vessel on about December 15 and arrives in McMurdo, Antarctica about 6 weeks later on January 25. The cargo is then flown in C-130 Hercules aircraft to the pole or it winters in McMurdo and is flown at the beginning of the next season. Either way the cargo is only available for use at the pole the following season. The vessel requires that equipment be ready one year before it will be needed at the pole.
Kilo-Air is the most common way to ship items. Under this plan, items are shipped from Port Hueneme to Christchurch NZ by vessel about September 15. From Christchurch they are flown down to McMurdo, and then from McMurdo to the pole. This means that cargo usually has to be ready about 60-70 days before it is needed at South Pole.
Comm-Air is the fastest and most expensive way to ship cargo to the pole and it requires NSF approval. Items travel from Port Hueneme to Christchurch by commercial air-cargo. From Christchurch to Antarctica they travel the same way as Kilo-Air.
All Antarctic cargo orginating in the U.S. is shipped from the NSF facility in Port Hueneme, CA. Cargo originating in Europe is generally shipped to the NSF facility in Christchurch, NZ. During the course of the IceCube deployment it is expected that about 1300K lbs of detector components and 650K lbs of drilling equipment will be shipped to the South Pole via vessel. We also plan to ship about 100K lbs of detector components and 100K lbs of drilling equipment via Kilo-Air.
The tables 20 10.3.7 10.3.7 10.3.7 10.3.7 list the cargo to be shipped by the various means listed above. In these tables, "ROS" stands for "Required On Site" and "N" is the current year's string count minus one. The cargo is given in two categories that describe the mode of transportation: Kilo-Air and Vessel. The cargo is broken down further in 3 categories of string equipment: Optical Modules (OM), Cables, Miscellaneous.
| FY | Strings | Weight (lbs) | Cubes (ft3) | ROS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 6+1 | 23100 | 1890 | 12-13-03+N×5 days |
| 05 | 6 | 19800 | 1620 | 11-20-04+N×3 days |
| 06 | 4 | 13200 | 1080 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 07 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 09 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Table 20: Optical Modules to be shipped by "Kilo Air."
| FY | Weight (lbs) | Cubes (ft3) | ROS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 4000 | 1890 | 12-15-03 |
| 05 | 6000 | 1620 | 12-15-04 |
| 06 | 4000 | 1080 | 12-15-05 |
| 07 | 4000 | 0 | 12-15-06 |
| 08 | 1000 | 0 | 12-15-07 |
| 09 | 1000 | 0 | 12-15-08 |
Table 21: Miscellaneous hardware to be shipped by "Kilo Air."
| FY | Strings | Weight (lbs) | Cubes (ft3) | ROS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12-13-03+N×5 days |
| 05 | 6+2 | 26,400 | 2160 | 11-20-04+N×3 days |
| 06 | 12+2 | 46,200 | 3780 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 07 | 16+1 | 56,100 | 4590 | 11-16-06+N×3 days |
| 08 | 16+1 | 56,100 | 4590 | 11-16-07+N×3 days |
| 09 | 14 | 46,200 | 3780 | 11-16-08+N×3 days |
Table 22: Optical modules to be shipped by vessel.
| FY | Strings | Weight (lbs) | Cubes (ft3) | ROS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 6 | 13200 | 720 | 12-13-03+N×5 days |
| 05 | 12+2 | 30800 | 1680 | 11-20-04+N×3 days |
| 06 | 16+2 | 39600 | 2160 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 07 | 16+1 | 37400 | 2040 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 08 | 16+1 | 37400 | 2040 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 09 | 14 | 30800 | 1680 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
Table 23: Miscellaneous hardware to be shipped by vessel.
| FY | Strings | Weight (lbs) | Cubes (ft3) | ROS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 6 | 63,350 | 1842 | 12-13-03 |
| 05 | 12 | 126,700 | 3685 | 11-20-04+N×3 days |
| 06 | 16 | 168,900 | 4913 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 07 | 16 | 168,900 | 4913 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 08 | 16 | 168,900 | 4913 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
| 09 | 14 | 147,800 | 4299 | 11-16-05+N×3 days |
Table 24: Cables to be shipped by vessel.
