to impress the chicks. All that I have to do is memorize the equivalent of three telephone numbers and string them together.”
Dr. Timken now proceeded to wrap up the lecture. “We’re not here to improve the accuracy of big G. We’re here to prove that the constant is not constant. We’re going to blow Newtonian physics out of the water. As a matter of fact, this has implications in both relativistic and quantum physics as well.”
Colonel Snyder jumped in, “Whoa, slow down a bit. You’re getting in over my head now. What are you talking about?”
Sheridan spoke up now. It was time to put his $50,000 engineering degree out on the table. “From what I understand, Colonel, if the constant is not a constant, then there is a delta possible. This difference, or delta as it is known mathematically, allows for some interesting recalculations. If you acknowledge that G is not constant, then you can throw things like negative numbers in for mass and time into Einstein’s relativity equations and quantum physics equations. It then becomes possible to exceed the speed of light which would no longer be constant. Theoretically, time travel would even be possible both forward and backward.”
Colonel Snyder looked at Dave and said, “Holy shit, Captain. I thought you were up here because there was some targeting glitch with our ICBMs and our satellites keep taking a left hook worse than my tee shot. Now you’re talking about H.G. Wells’ time machine crap. Hell, even I can figure out that the constant is accurate to within plus or minus a few hundredth of a percent. That’s not enough to account for antimatter and time warps.”
Before Dave could recover from the frontal assault, both professors came to his defense. Dr. Rapp simply held up his hands and said, “Eureka! You’ve got it Colonel, the Captain is essentially correct. You’d be surprised what the supercomputers show is possible over galactic distances and eons with this small inconsistency. This is going to revolutionize science and physics. Humanity is at the dawn of an earth-shattering revelation that the Universal Gravitational Constant is not a constant and thus not universal. The implications are just now being understood! Welcome to the threshold of the brave new world.”
“Okay, Professors, you’ve definitely piqued my interest. Now please tell me how drilling a few holes into the world’s largest ice cube is going to prove your case?”
Dr. Rapp spoke up, “Well, I’m glad you have an open mind and haven’t thrown us out on our asses in the snow. It’s damn cold out there. What we plan to do out at DYE-3 is drill five holes about four miles apart. These holes will be about eight inches in diameter and two kilometers deep. We’ll then drop a LaCoste & Romberg borehole gravity meter down the holes and measure the gravity about every eight hundred feet or so.”
Colonel Snyder asked. “What the heck is a gravity meter?”
Dr. Rapp explained patiently, “A gravity meter consists of a weight on the end of a horizontal beam supported by a zero-length spring. A zero-length spring is defined as one in which the tension is proportiona1 to the actual length of the spring, that is, if all external forces were removed the spring would collapse to zero length. The gravity meter can detect very small changes in gravity by measuring the restoring force necessary to bring the horizontal beam to a reference position. It is important to note that the instrument does not measure the total force of gravity, only changes in gravity.”
Dave asked, “What’s the status of the drilling at DYE-3?” Dr. Timken answered, “We have two drills delivered at the site and have started drilling with one. We have enough pipe to drill about halfway down. This is our biggest logistics tail. We need about 350 lengths of 20 foot long pipe. Also, once we reach bedrock under the icecap we are going to take some core samples with a diamond core drill bit. Nobody really knows what’s down there.”
Colonel Snyder picked up a folder off his desk, “I have the manifest here for the two support flights out to the DYE-3 site in the morning. I see a bunch of pipe, some instrumentation, core hole lubricant,…..that sounds kinky,….and other instruments and equipment on the two planes. Captain, you’ll be on Raven One that leaves at 0730. Professors, you’ll leave about an hour later on Raven Two.”
Dr. Timken concluded the meeting by saying, “Thank you for your help and interest in this project. Dr. Rapp and I need to go over to the Logistic warehouse to make sure everything is prepared for the morning’s flight.”
Snyder stood up and shook their hands. Dave gave the colonel a crisp salute and shook his hand as well. Snyder punched the intercom, “Sergeant, please run these gentlemen over to the Raytheon Warehouse and run our good Captain back over to the VOQ. Before you go Captain, take this back with you.” Snyder handed him a three ring binder, “That’s a little home work for you to get familiar with where you are going in the morning.”
After returning to his room and changing into his sweats, he laid across the bed. He opened up the orientation notebook and began reading about the DYE sites.
There were four DYE sites located in southern Greenland close to the Arctic Circle. DYE-1 was located on the west coast on a two thousand foot peak overlooking the Baffin Sea. DYE-4 was on the east coast on another mountain peak on the Island of Kulusuk, an extinct volcano.
The USAF also had two radar and communications stations out on the icecap. DYE-2 was built approximately one hundred miles east of Sondrestrom AB and ninety miles south of the Arctic Circle at an altitude of 7,600 feet. DYE-3 was located approximately one hundred miles east of DYE-2 and slightly south at a higher elevation of 8,600 feet.
The locations for the icecap sites were found to receive from three to four feet of snow fall each year. Since the winds were constantly blowing, at times over one hundred mph, this snow accumulation constantly formed large drifts. To overcome this potential problem, it was decided that DYE-2 and DYE-3 should be elevated approximately twenty feet above the surface of the icecap.
Eight huge I-beam columns, along with two 350 ton hydraulic jacks per column were used to lift the site above the snow. These jacks were designed to level the building whenever it became necessary due to different rates of settlement between the beams. The “big eyes” were forty feet long by four feet wide by five feet high and weighed fifteen tons each.
The icecap sites were built like offshore oil platforms, similar to the Texas Towers. They were 125 feet tall with five stories of support equipment, storage, and crew accommodations. The radome was fifty feet tall. The sites encompassed 45,000 square feet and weighed over five million pounds each.
Each site was manned by a twelve to eighteen man crew. Dave thought to himself, “This is the real Ice Station Zebra. Just like Dreamland at Area 51, it did exist.” He read on with fascination.
Each site was built by flying in the components one piece at a time on specially equipped C-130 Hercules cargo planes. Thousands of flights were required to haul all the pieces to the top of the icecap. Over 127,000 tons of steel and equipment were landed on the icecap.
Dave closed the book and pondered a thought of how many billions must have been spent up here. “Wow, your tax dollars at work.” He flipped off the light and tucked in for the night. He felt like a kid waiting for Christmas morning.
CHAPTER 4
The Ice Station DYE-3
The next morning Dave had breakfast at the Air Base dining hall with Brad Johnson, the Chief Engineer for the contractor running the DYE sites. He drove them over to Base Operations hangar. It was a balmy 28°F this morning. On the ramp were two C-130 Hercules cargo