Q1. Why are you going to the South Pole?
=) To set up our telescope there to find out about
how our Universe started, because it's the best
place on earth to observe the radiation left over from the Big Bang.
Q2(Sarah). How many people are on your telescope team?
=) Our team has ~17 members (though less than half of us work full time
on this project), including 3 cosmology professors, 7 physicists, 4
graduate students, 2 electrical engineers, and a software engineer.
Q3(Purva). How long will it take you to build your telescope?
=) We've been working for the past 2~3 years designing and building
the telescope back in the US; now we'll work hard to set it up here by
the time I leave in mid-January.
Q4(Priyanka). Have you seen anything yet in your telescope?
=) Not yet from the South Pole, but back in California we tested it
by looking at things like the Moon, Mars, the Sun, and the Crab Nebula.
Q5(Jessica). Why do you want to go to the Moon?
=) For the same reason I want to go to Antarctica... I want to
explore new places and find new things... experience changes in life.
Q6(AJ). How many miles is the trip from California to Antarctica
and back?
=) My trip to the South Pole is ~10,000 miles (~16,000 km) each way.
Just 5 airplane rides, totalling ~23 hours on air.
Please read on about my 4-day trip, and see the route =>