The 3D-printer in action, another 18 hours and the booster enhancing chips transport in the drill will be ready.

Printing drill parts

The 3D-printer is now producing its second part for the deep drilling operation: A booster assisting in the chips transport inside the drill. In fact the drill has been operating well with another 3D-printed booster for a few days, and based on that experience the design was tweaked a little – in 18 hours the updated version will be printed and ready for use!

The drilling operation itself proceeded at a steady pace, still keeping the main focus on reducing the inclination, but the drillers also succeeded in increasing productivity. Logging of the cores still can still proceed in normal mode, thanks to the great care taken by the loggers to handle the brittle ice gently and with caution.

Surface science continued as planned, and Nora, Basile and Diana proceeded with the hand-augering of firn cores WSW of camp parallel to the skiway for variability studies. In the science trench physical properties measurements continued and Helle did some testing of a portable CFA system, upgrading it with a de-bubbler.

What we did today:

1. Servicing pistenbully.
2. Deep drilling core length at 19.00: 16.70 m.
3. Logging depth at 19.00: 622.83 m.
4. Water vapour, methane, aerosols, snow and boundary layer measurements
5. Physical properties measurements.
6. Drilling Auger core A2-17 650m WSW of drill trench, final depth 14.09 m.
7. Started Auger core A3-17 900m WSW of drill trench, current depth 2.39 m.
8. Testing and upgrading portable CFA system.

Weather: The day started foggy, but turned sunny during the late morning. Wind turned from W to SW during the day, up to 4 m/s. Temperature between -17 C and -9 C.

FL, Bo Vinther