Back to School

Ben here.

I just wanted to throw in my two cents on my overall experience of the trip.  In my opinion, it couldn't have been a better spring break.  With the experiences I had, the people I was with, and the work I accomplished I really feel that I could not have asked for anything more.

I was there primarily for the IceGoat. After helping design and implement the power and communications systems for the buoy with 1/C Nathan Kren and Kyle, I feel that our hard work has really paid off and the buoy is working better than we ever imagined.  Instead of being starved for power in the cold and harsh weather conditions, we are in great excess of power and are using the rest of our time here to figure out what other fun gadgets we can put on IceGoat2.

I would also like to thank everyone who put together our trip and made it so successful.  Everyone back at the academy who had part in the IceGoat production, all the people who set up our trip, and everyone up in Barrow that made our stay as pleasant and enjoyable as possible.  There really are some great people up there in that part of the world and hopefully one day I'll get to see them again.

I would also like to thank LCDR Woods for keeping us working hard so we could enjoy some fun time near the end of the trip.  When we were getting lazy he was right there keeping us working because he had bigger plans for us. Him setting up our night at Alyeska and our other night at the Captain Cook were just cherries on top of a wonderful trip.

So I hope you all continue to follow the IceGoat online. I know I will be eager to see what happens to it and what wonderful pictures it can send us from its home on the ice!

-Ben Aspholm