This Newfoundland scientist is studying the big bang with balloons in Antarctica | 24CA News
A Newfoundland-born scientist is a part of an thrilling analysis staff working in Antarctica sending balloons into area to check cosmic radiation and the evolution of the universe.
Susan Redmond, a fifth-year graduate scholar in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton initially from Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, was not too long ago stationed at McMurdo Station in Antarctica as a part of an interdisciplinary staff of 15 researchers.
Redmond is a part of the staff engaged on the Spider-II telescope, a unit housing six telescopes designed to examine cosmic microwave background radiation.
“It studies kind of the afterglow of the big bang. And so we put that on a balloon to get above the majority of the atmosphere,” Redmond informed 24CA News from Antarctica in December.
“We basically just fly around the continent, so over land the entire time, because we have to physically recover the hard drives in order to get our data afterwards.”
Long length analysis utilizing balloons has been achieved in Antarctica for many years, mentioned Redmond, who could possibly be stationed on the continent for months at a time relying on climate and the staff’s launch window.
“Ballooning is definitely a bit of a chaotic career type,” she mentioned with amusing. “There’s a lot of uncertainty with it, mainly because we’re dependent on the weather.”
After months of preparation throughout a number of continents, Redmond and the analysis staff launched the Spider telescope 35 kilometres into area in late December. She has since relocated to New Zealand to start work on one other balloon-borne area telescope.
Redmond, an alumnus of Memorial University in co-op engineering, additionally labored with the European Space Agency and NASA earlier than making the transition to a grasp’s of utilized science and starting work in Antarctica.
Working in a male-dominated discipline, she mentioned, it is vital that work continues to get extra ladies like her into the sciences.
“We had a pretty good crew of women in my undergrad class, but it was like 15 per cent, 20 per cent max,” she mentioned.
“It’s obviously better than it was, but there are instances where either you kind of get written off as a diversity hire. I’ve had that happen in internships, which is frustrating. But for the most part everyone’s supportive and, like, I think there’s been a new kind of culture around accountability.”
54:53Space Balloon + Valentine’s Cooking
First up we discuss balloons! Not the one’s being shot down, however the area balloon in Antarctica. We chat with Susan Redmond on the McMurdo station. Following this we discuss cooking for love, with culinarian Andrea Maunder
