(Left) -  6000 pounds of new batteries for the SPT load leveler.  The SPT has a huge battery bank in DSL, which is designed to supply ~20 minutes of ~50 kW of power (or ~400 Amps of current) to SPT, in case the South Pole station power goes down.  The old batteries never worked as well as advertised, we suspected that they got frozen and lost their charge.  So we're replacing all of them.  There are 100x batteries in total and each weighs 58 lbs.  We had to move all of them ourselves, so this involves taking 100x 58 lbs batteries out of the UPS and putting the 100x new 58 lbs batteries from these crates in.  (Right) - The battery bank in the UPS.  There are 100 batteries, each is equivalent to ~2-3 car batteries.  The cardboard is there just so we dont accidentally short across the rows of batteries while removing them, and potentially electrocute ourselves.

 

(Left) -  John Ruhl and Liz working on the bottom row of batteries.  Note the cardboard for saftety again!  This was on the second day.  John and I moved most of the batteries and were pretty sore by the second day.  Overall it was a pretty good workout though, so it wasnt so bad.  (Right) - John turning back on the UPS after we replaced all the batteries.  We were definitely all nervous about it turning back on ok.  Our real fear was putting in even ~1x of the 100 batteries in backwards, which would have probably been an explosive mistake to make.

(Left) -  John Ruhl left today!  Here is a picture of him putting on his clothes before getting on the plane.  Pictured in the foreground is the Boobah!, the unofficial SPT prank toy.  The joke usually is putting it the unsuspecting victims bed under the sheets, and then when then jump on it, it shreiks "Boobah!".   (Right) - John had just recovered the Boobah! from his room, after Abby had put it in his bed.  Here is John returning it to her. 


The receiver is on the telescope, and pretty much in autopilot as we run tests to verify its performance.  The first few days on the telescope the weather was really bad for observing, it was very overcast and even started to snow at some point, which is actually a rare event for the South Pole!  During that time it even got up to -8 degrees F, a record so far this summer.  The last ~30 hrs or so has been really good weather and we've been able to get alot of quality observations in.  Early returns look really good, so we are very encouraged.  There is already talk of me being able to leave before Xmas.  I think there are a few more tests we need to do the next couple days to know if that is for sure going to happen, but right now everything is looking encouraging!   The satellite will be down soon, and I need to get back to work, I'll keep you posted if the next few days tests go well!