11 Jan
Today started with the Inflatable Hab fully inflated on the site. Most of the morning was spent making sure the anchors were in place properly and outfitting the interior. Work continued on the preparation of the sensors and the “weather station” was installed. This will help folks back at JSC monitor the actually conditions at the structure’s site after we leave and during it’s one year deployment. The floor was also installed. We ran a “deflate, then reinflate” demonstration for a few key McM Station facility management folks at 12:30 pm. It took approximately 6 minutes to deflate, and 6 minutes to reinflate. The response from people who have visited it has been extremely positive – (we have even had feedback from experinced people with South Pole Station). Tomorrow, Saturday, we are demonstrating again at 9 am, 1 pm, and 7 pm. This will give personnel working the various shifts here an opportunity to see it. We also worked in a terrific hike after the demo today and saw a seal and the ice breaker working (it will reach McMudo on Monday). I have included a few photos from that hike in the next blog.