Upgrade Update #4

View from front right of drilling tower structures next to the IceCube Lab.
Kurt Studt, IceCube/NSF

Last week’s excitement for the IceCube Upgrade project centered around moving the drill tower and operations structures into place. The location is over hole 87, which will be the first Upgrade hole (the IceCube detector has 86 holes). The installation team is also making progress on setting up the area for acceptance testing of the optical modules. Some of the modules were delivered to the South Pole last year and are stored in a cryogenics building near the station. The team is taking inventory and tagging modules to start the testing soon.
 

Steam emanating from snowplows working around the Upgrade drill camp.
Jennifer Wang, IceCube/NSF
A long line of stacked cargo on sleds out on the snow.
Emmett Krupczak, IceCube/NSF
Two people holding laptops in front of tall stacks of boxes.
Colton Hill, IceCube/NSF