US to retire its only icebreaker, stranding polar research | Hacker News Reader

US to retire its only icebreaker, stranding polar research

colorado.edu

46 pointsgeox13 comments

NSF is.

The Coast Guard has icebreakers and does research. I knew several buddies who did so, though the MST (Marine Science Technician) rating seems to focus more on security these days.

The "old guard" My, how things change.

A new icebreaker was just added.

https://www.mycg.uscg.mil/News/Article/4016098/coast-guard-a...

It doesn't sound like the coast guard icebreakers server a purpose, so this is really a decline to zero.

They serve a purpose, for all those dollars!!

They did research when I served, a mere 50 years ago! These days, as part of DHS, not DOT, I can imagine that research is a dirty word compared to "projecting national interests" and the Commandant was summarily dismissed for predictable reasons. So I can't say what research, if any, is conducted these days. One can ask.

A recent comparison of CG and NSF breakers, the latter of which is now zero, is in this congressional report. Physical page 45.

https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/RL/PDF/RL3439...

Has the research aspect ever been more than a fig leaf and a "might as well"?

Strong parallel to rockets and high-altitude planes used for atmospheric research ...

That, I can't say. I was at the commisioning of the Coast Guard R&D Center in Groton, 50+ years ago, and it moved across the river to a big facility in New London.

Here is the place to look for research. I did look up the R&D center a while back with my impending 50 year anniversary of service. I was in the Physics branch and knew buddies in oceano.

Our guy Dennis got multispectral photos of ice with a Hasselblad UV-Sonnar. Quartz and CaF elements. Who can forget that?

https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Command...

HTH

“the sole U.S. icebreaker dedicated to Antarctic research. ”

For some reason I read the title as the last icebreaker in the USA being retired.

Because that's what the headline says, because that's sensational and the truth is not.

I used to flag stories very sparingly but I've changed my mind. Clickbait titles get flagged. I don't care how interesting the story is.

As the guidelines say:

> ... please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; ...

The article also says it's being "decommissioned" when it's merely not renewing the lease. I wonder who owns it and if anyone knows what they plan to do with it?

Ask and maybe some one will look it up on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_B._Palmer_(icebreake...

From the outside it's horrible to watch the great US nation sink bit by bit into third world status.

In what way?

By having a population who reads a clickbait headline, doesn't read the article, doesn't do any further study, and then propagates the falsehood and moves on to the next one.

In that way.

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