Sunday, February 7, 2016

The Station

If you could imagine a space station, almost completely self sufficient in the most inhospitable place on earth, this would be it. The station is elevated and can be further raised as needed to allow for snow and ice accumulation that eventually crushes and consumes everything left out.



It is hard to see in the above image but to the left of the flag sits a pole with a cardinal point indicator. All point north. No mater which way you look, you are looking north. Pretty wild.

There are various support buildings that are adjacent the station. The Vehicle Maintenance Facility (VMF) and the Logistics Arch (LO) among others. These arches provide the storage and work space for everything needed to maintain the station and it's inhabitants. 


There are various outlying small structures that are used on a seasonal basis for overflow housing and work areas. These exterior buildings for the most part will see no use during the dark, cold winter and will be shut down.



Next Post? Station Interior








8 comments:

  1. well you answered my incoming question of how they deal with snow accumulation at building.

    Why do they call them Arches ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you look at the picture showing the entrances into those facilities you can see that they are shaped like arches. A shape that provides a lot of strength over others such as flat surfaces. In my next post "Station Interior" I will include a few pictures of the inside of the arches. There are other structures within these arches as well. Very cool (yes, pun intended).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Forgot to add. There is still a lot of mechanical snow removal that has to be done around the station. The stuff is relentless and could care less who we are.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Envious.... I'm sure it will be a bit strange not seeing the sun for a few months. When does it set for good? Be safe and stay warm!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sun sets sometime in March. I'll be sure to post some pics when it does. Being in 24 hr daylight is weird as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What's the square footage of the place?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Not sure, but I'll find out and get back to you on it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The elevated station has a total of 66,000 SQFT of space. Pretty big!

    ReplyDelete