Situation Report #29, 17. January 2020

Little Dome C - Beyond EPICA Drilling Site (75.29917 degS, 122.44516 degE)

Personnel: Saverio Panichi (ENEA), Michele Scalet (ENEA), Jakob Schwander (unibe), Thomas Stocker (unibe), Remo Walther (unibe), Massimo Frezzotti (U Roma 3)

Weather: sunny, moderate winds

Today sledges have been moved into position for camp closedown. House keeping and preparation for the wintering over of the modules at Concordia Station continues.

The Radix Team has started to disassemble the drilling system and packed some of the boxes. At the same time we have continued to recover drilling fluid. By dinner time we collected about 50 litres of drilling fluid from the bore hole, filtered it and pumped it back to the barrels. This liquid will be used in possible future Radix missions. Our attention is now on the 107 meters of casing that we plan pull to the surface. So far, the packer of the casing is firmly holding to the bore hole and some constant pull overnight might be necessary to liberate it. 

LDC, 17.1.2020