Right now I’m deep in administration to prepare to go down to the Pole. I had several meetings to get all the paperwork approved for my fellowship leave (both from the NSF and from Caltech), my health insurance on hold, and attempts to put my cell phone plan on hold (which resulted in the following amusing exchange):
I haven’t had time to follow that one up, I was told they might be more flexible and understanding via phone.
I’ve also been setting up accounts with the SPT collaboration to get ready to train with the software I’ll need to be using. I’ll have some time down at the South Pole before most people leave (about 45 people, including myself winter over) to get training from the people who have held my job in the past. I’m also flying to San Francisco next week to visit Berkeley, where part of the SPT collaboration is based, to get a running start on my training for the job.
I’m working on my packing list, what would you bring for a year in Mars-on-Earth? They’ll issue me 15lbs of winter gear, meaning I have an additional 105lbs spread over two bags to work with.
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