The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt

Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by DannyB2 on Thursday July 12, 2018 @04:51PM (#17518486)

I would have thought that for the time and cost of doing that, they could just ship the CD with a booklet of photographic instructions. An instruction manual SO SIMPLE that even a scientist at the South Pole could understand it. Or they could make a video chat call and it could be explained.

(I don't mean scientists are so dumb, but that they might have Antarctic Stare...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_T3_syndrome

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Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by bacon_waffle on Thursday July 12, 2018 @06:05PM (#17519007)

Former IceCube winterover here. Things at Pole often don't go smoothly, and detector uptime is very valuable considering the cost of building and operating it.

Video chat isn't a realistic option - not the greatest connectivity down there...

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Re:The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt by dekhn on Thursday July 12, 2018 @05:01PM (#17518571)

The satellite connections provided only limited communication windows and not enough for video chats.

They have some technical support at the SP but it's not great. In fact, one of my ex-coworkers, a well-respected research scientist, volunteered as a technical support person there (https://davidpablocohn.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBaQtsft2bM). But I think he mostly helped people fix laptops.

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