Timothy Birdnow

Here is an interesting story; during the '60's the U.S. tried to build a vast nuclear launch base under the Greenlandic ice sheet.

According to the U.K. Daily Mail:

"he original plan was to build 2,500 miles of tunnels which would have covered an area of 52,000 square miles – which is bigger than the size of England
The camp was given the codename Project Iceworm and troops disguised themselves as polar researchers

The camp was given the codename Project Iceworm and troops disguised themselves as polar researchers

Camp Century was built in between 1959 and 60 in northwestern Greenland, officially to test sub-ice construction techniques.

The real plan was top secret - creating a hidden launch site for ballistic missiles that could reach the Soviet Union.

It was given the codename Project Iceworm and troops worked under the disguise of polar researchers under the ice, according to The Sun.

A narrator in the video footage says: 'Camp Century is buried below the surface of this ice cap.

'Beneath it, the ice descends for 6,000 feet.

'In this remote setting, less than 800 miles from the North Pole, Camp Century is a symbol of man’s unceasing goal to conquer his environment, to increase his ability to live and fight if necessary under polar conditions."

End excerpt.

The plan called for the U.S. to ultimately build over 2000 miles of tunnels:

"The original plan was to build 2,500 miles of tunnels which would have covered an area of 52,000 square miles – which is bigger than the size of England.

By the time it was abandoned in 1966 due to the ice cap starting to crush the camp, soldiers had already built two miles of tunnels and a facility that boasted a hospital, theatre, church and a shop for 200 of its inhabitants"

End excerpt.

The project was abandoned in 1966 because the ice - which is not simply static but moves - was crushing the camp.

Ice makes great building material; the Innuit people have often built structures out of ice, and they are quite warm compared to the outside air temperature. An igloo can be in the 40's or 50's when outside temperatures are -60* with just a candle or two to act as a heat source. An ice city would be quite comfortable provided it doesn't crush you.

This reminds me of Project Habakkuk during World War II. At the time the Allies were limited on the distance their aircraft could fly, and limited on the size of aircraft carriers they could deploy to get their aircraft close enough. The state of the art just wasn't adequate for what they needed to do. A rather screwball project was approved by Winston churchill to make aircraft carriers out of icebergs!

Icebergs float fine, and they take a long time to melt. But they do crack and they do melt in warm water, so a research program was started to develop a better class of ice. A gentleman named Geoffrey Pyke headed up a project that develped the material. (Actually Pycrete was invented by a fellow named Max Perutz.) They added sawdust and bark and other fibrous material to water and froze it, creating a very strong, long lasting ice material that they took to calling pycrete. The mixture was 15% pulp and 85% water. Lord Mountbatten, who had promoted the project, illustrated just how good this stuff was by firing a pistol at two blocks of ice. The first shattered like, well, ice. The bullet bounced off the second and nearly hit a young officer in attendance without so much as marking the pycrete block! It also melted far slower than regular ice, and as it melted its melting point increased as the balance between pulp and water changed.

Huge icebergs were now ready to be built. Caves formed in the underside would hold engines which would drive the behemoth, and the interior of the berg would be honeycombed with insulated tunnels and rooms to house men and equipment. Refrigeration units would keep it cold. It would be over two million tons; dwarfing the largest carriers of the day. With a fifty foot thick hull it would be unsinkable. It was a wonderul nutty idea.

A sixty foot long prototype was built and it worked beautifully. The project ran into innumerable cost overruns and the eventual success of the Normandy invasion ended this wondefully eccentric project.

Pyke, who was known for being an unpleasant, arrogant, rude and unkempt man, died in 1948 with his vision of a fleet of icebergs a failure.

I often wonder why they don't make Pycrete structures for Antarctic stations. I suppose since Antarctica is so dry it would be difficult, a waste of valuable resources. But it would make much more secure and warmer structures than we have now. Build it as a giant geodesic dome, like the St. Louis Climatron, and you could have a whole town inside.

I wonder if pycrete wouldn't make a good building material for a Mars settlement. You would have to worry about it sublimating away in warm weather, but that could be minimized. It would be possible to build a structure that would be well shielded from solar storms and cosmic rays with pycrete, and it would be easy to work with - just spray it out of a hose onto a frame and viola! Far easier than cutting stone blocks or scraping up vast quantitites of Martian dust.

The main problem, I suspect, is that people have a natural aversion to living in an ice dome. They think it would be cold. But ice never drops below 32* so it would be easily heated, and far warmer than the Martian air generally speaking. Bear in mind that water is a rock in most parts of the solar system, and lead is a liquid on the inner planets.

It's all a matter of perception.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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