Remember me? The adorable little teddy bear that sent you e-mails from Antarctica back in December? Well I've been invited by a friend of Allan Miller's (Dan Wray from Indiana) from the NASA Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers to join the Spacebound Mojave expedition that will be taking place beginning next week in Zzyyxx, California. We'll be teaming up with NASA astrobiology scientists looking at understanding similar questions to some of those that we explored in Antarctica - specifically how life can survive in extreme environments. If you'd like to follow along with us, I will be maintaining another website

It's true - this weekend Mrs. Chippy - the polar teddy bear that joined me on the Oden - is joining a fellow NASA Network of Educator Astronaut Teacher Dan Wray and heading off to study astrobiology in the Mojave Desert.  You can check out their expedition blogs at:

www.mojavechippy.blogspot.com  be sure to check out how Mrs. Chippy has traded in the parka for some more appropriate desert attire! 

 If you or your class enjoyed tracking our expedition and would like a "test" of your latitude and longitude skills - Mrs. Chippy will be doing some extensive traveling across the US and her expected coordinates are in the blog.  See if you can predict where this crazy little polar bear will be migrating to this time.

If you'd like to read about the overall expedition - it's called SpaceBound Mojave and the website is 

http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/mojave2007/info.html

 It may not be polar science - but the study of how life can adapt to extreme environments is sure critical to much that we're hoping to learn from the International Polar Year - and it is a theme all over the globe.

 Allan Miller

This is a great story giving some background about Dave Carey, who I wrote about in one of my journals. I thought many of you would enjoy some more information about his family in this well written article from our local Alaskan paper. Allan

Story of Lt. David M. Carey put to rest in Antarctica
Cold case

This was my last view of the Oden - looking out from the Our Lady of the Snows memorial at the ship with 12 miles of fast ice up to 15 feet thick separating it from McMurdo Station.

Here's a map of what the crew has been trying to accomplish for the past two weeks.

I've traveled through lots of airports in my life - but NZIR, or the McMurdo Station Icerunway is now definitely one of my favorites. Orlando may have it's monorails and Dulles has those cool transports with the killer whale dorsal fins - but check out the transport system in Antarctica.

In 8th grade, my favorite teacher of all time, Mr. Slusarski - the crazy Pole, introduced us to the incredible story of the Endurance expedition. For 30 years since, Ernest Shackleton has been my hero, the leader who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds –never giving up in his quest to bring back every man alive.

We reached McMurdo Station at about 10 AM and only had four hours until we had to gather ourselves at the transport center to catch a ride out to Willy Field - the ice runway.  As I look back it might be the richest four hours of the entire trip - full of sights and sounds that I'll never forget.  This was the first face to greet me at McMurdo -

I received this note from First Mate Ola Andersson - letting us know that they have completed the ice channel all the way to McMurdo and are actually enjoying some down time at the station. Here is the ice pier that he is talking about - and as soon as I receive a copy from him of the Oden here I'll post that as well. This pier is just ice with layers of dirt mixed in, made over the past two months by hauling material onto the ice, compacting it and adding layers of water until it was actually several feet above the level of the fastice around it. Then they've hauled in the moorings and gangplanks to turn it into a pier. This is where the cargo ships and the fuel tanker will dock to unload.

Just thought that I'd let you know that I also have arrived back home in good shape after my Antarctic adventure - and am making up for any lack of time with children by being spoiled rotten by the Mr. Miller's three children!

On Christmas Day we finished crossing the pack ice that surrounds the openwater portion of the Ross Sea. It was an incredible evening - with fog settling over the ice pack and only high cirrus clouds above. These shots were all taken at 1 or 2 in the morning and are some of my favorites from the entire trip.