SRON_Spectrum_2016

2 November 2015, Los Angeles:
How it started
A
Actually my mission to the South Pole started
a long time ago. Snow, ice, and cold have
fascinated me since I was very young. As a
small boy I read about the polar explorations
of Willem Barentsz, Roald Amundsen, and
Ernest Shackleton, with glowing cheeks and
I devour ed the books of Jack London (White
Fang). Later series such as Game of Thrones
were added to this list. As an engineer at
SRON I therefore sometimes dreamed about
scientific trips to the polar regions. To places
where almost nobody comes, with endless
snow and ice, and an all-powerful nature. If
only I could get the chance. Wow.
STO2 on time. We offered to develop a
backup for it here in the Netherlands to
ensure that the mission could go ahead. In
just four weeks we managed to develop a
detector block for four pixels, to coat lenses
for the right frequencies, and select detectors
for the four positions. Our developmental
sprint resulted in us having a working backup
for the detectors that we could show at an
interim project review of NASA. This proved
to be crucial: ultimately the SRON detectors
were selected for STO2.
5 November 2015, Christchurch:
package one delivered!
On the way to Antarctica my favorite guessing
game became: Who else is going to Antarctica?
That’s not easy, however, because how
I need you to be the 2nd person
to be in the Antarctic.
Are you willing?
can you tell? Clothes? Fitness? After all, we
have all completed the same approval program.
Meanwhile I am reading The Martian
21
SRON Spectrum
So when SRON project leader Jian-Rong Gao
asked me whether I could help as a systems
engineer with STO2 it was a dream come
true. On 15 April 2015 the redeeming email
eventually came from Gao. It was a bit James
Bond-like and consisted of three short sen -
tences: I need you to be the 2nd person to be
in the Antarctic. Are you willing? If yes, I need
to check with Pieter - Gao. My wife and son
were both excited (“We are coming with you
to America.”) whereas my daughter was in
tears (“Papa is going away for a very long
time.”).
At LA International Airport the inevitable farewell
came. You cuddle your wife and children
once more, and a tiny bit of doubt creeps into
by Andy Weir, which has now been filmed
with Matt Damon in the leading role.
To places where almost nobody
comes, with endless snow and
ice and an all-powerful nature.
Wow
Meanwhile on the other side of the pond the
process was encountering problems. In the
spring it became clear that the American Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was having difficulty
in delivering the infrared detectors for
your mind. So far away and for such a long
time. What if something happens? And of
course tears flow. And then all of a sudden
they have passed through security and are on
their way to the next step of their own small
adventure. Back home without a husband
and father. I return to the hotel to write my
first blog in the lobby and to wait for my own
flight to Sydney.
An inspiring book if you need to write a blog
on Antarctica. I had already planned to start
one of my blogs with the words: “Captain’s
log, star date 41153.7, our destination is
McMurdo...” Now I just need to add an intro:
“Log entry: Sol 7. Okay, I had a good night’s
sleep and things don’t seem as hopeless as
they did yesterday...” My plane to Sydney
turns out to be an enormous Airbus A380.
The video channel is playing Interstellar.