South Pole dome complex

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33128, 19 January 1973, Page 15

South Pole dome complex

Early next year a s3.sni geodesic - dome complex will replace the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, now buried under 30ft of ice and snow.

Built in 1956 and opened on January 23. 1957, the fabricated buildings of the present station have gradually been crushed by the weight of drifting snow. This season. Seabees of the United States Navy’s Mobile Construction Battalion, 71. are continuing work on the geodesic dome complex. They began work on the new station in November. 1971. 50FT HIGH When the new aluminium framework dome is finished and ready for use it will be 164 ft in diameter and 50ft high. It will be covered with a thin aluminium skin over ribbed corrugated steel arches, and will house three two-storey, steel, panel-type buildings. The largest will be a science laboratory and living quarters. Another will hold the galley, post office and meeting hall, and the third will serve as the com-

munications centre, ship’s store, and library. The dome and tunnels connecting to other buildings will not be heated. They will serve as an insulated “balloon” against the extremes of temperature outside. The geodesic dome design, tested with a one-tenth scale model in 1971, was chosen because of its resistance to the drift of snow. It is expected to last 10 to 15 years. REAR-ADMIRAL’S VISIT Last Wednesday, the Chief of Naval Information (Rear-: Admiral W. Thompson) visited the Pole Station as part of a five-day indoctrination tour of the Antarctic. He spent three hours at the South Pole, inspected the feodesic dome, visited the eabees’ construction base camp, and walked through the present Pole station. Rear-Admiral Thompson was accompanied on his tour by Rear-Admiral G. Cassell, commander, Fleet Air, Quonset Point. Rhode Island, who was making a tour of naval air facilities in the Antarctic, and Captain A. N. Fowler, the support force commander. The photograph shows: Rear-Admiral Thompson in' front of the partly-completed geodesic dome.