Rico has now now been at Neumayer Station for a year. He has seen a lot and helped out a lot. Today he is giving a tour of the station.
In the morning, Rico has breakfast in the mess hall.
He checks the emergency cases at the hospital….
… and tests the telemedicine connection to Bremerhaven in the operating room.
Then Rico goes up to the Geolab to help the Geos with the so-called “picking”. It means, that he marks the earthquakes in the seismic data.
At just before eleven, he prepares the radiosonde for the weather balloon in the Metlab.
Rico is not allowed to launch the balloon himself. He is too light and could accidentally fly along. But he is allowed to be there when the meteorologist releases the balloon.
At lunchtime, Rico is hungry and stops by the kitchen.
In the combined heat and power plant (german: Blockheizkraftwerk, BHKW), electricity is generated for the station. Here Rico maintains an engine. (There is also a wind turbine and photovoltaics are being tested).
The BHKW is not only important for electricity, but also for heat. At the exhaust gas heat exchanger directly above the engine, the remaining energy from the engines is converted into heating energy.
In the storage in the basement of the station, Rico takes inventory of the hydraulic hoses for the snow groomers.
Outside the storage, Rico adjusts the skirt pressures. With the skirts, the station anchors itself laterally in the ice.
On the landing in the garage, Rico presses and shreds the rubbish so that it is as space-saving as possible for the return transport.
After work, Rico does some sport in the gym.
After sport, he goes to the bathroom to take a shower.
In the evening he plays billiards in the lounge with Björn, the station’s bear.
After this long day, Rico falls tired into bed.
Many greetings from the radio office,
Rico and Theresa