New (US) South Pole Station Nearly Complete

[jpak]

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11840

AMUNDSEN-SCOTT SOUTH POLE STATION, Antarctica -- The snow squealed and crunched as the U.S. Air Force ski-plane slid to a stop at the bottom of the world.

The spring sky was deep blue and the temperature was minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 29 degrees Celsius), cold enough to make frost form almost instantly around mouths and noses. At an altitude of about 9,500 feet, the air is rarefied enough to make most visitors gasp, and keep gasping.

There are still people who live in tents -- heated ones -- at the South Pole, but inside the brand new science station, cutting-edge research designed for the harsh Antarctic environment has found a home.

The new $153 million station, named like its predecessors for South Pole explorers Roald Amundsen of Norway and Robert Falcon Scott of Britain, looks nothing like the geodesic dome that housed U.S. science operations at the pole for 30 years beginning in 1975.

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