BLAST! Extra – Life in Cambridge Bay

Posted by Paul Devlin:

After the BLAST telescope launched from Arctic Sweden, we knew only that it would land some where in Arctic Canada. But that’s a BIG place. NASA wasn’t sure when the cutdown would happen and reports were conflicting.  I wanted to document the recovery, but where to fly to, on short notice somewhere far above the Arctic Circle?   Eventually, I just went to JFK Airport and waited for news of my destination.

I wound up in Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, Canada.  BLAST had landed more than 200 kilometers north of the Inuit settlement.  The logistics were difficult and I would not be able to join the recovery team in the helicopter to the landing site.  So I gave one of my video cameras to Kevin, the Inuit Polar Bear Spotter so that the team could document the recovery themselves.

Meanwhile, I had time on my hands in Cambridge Bay. So I started exploring the hamlet and documenting what was happening, including practice for the upcoming Inuit Games. The idea was that it might become a colorful digression in BLAST!.  In the end, most of this material did not make the final movie.  But that’s why we love DVD extras!  This is one of my favorites.

BLAST! DVD
BLAST! Trailer  

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