(Henry Fountain/New York Times, 9 November 2009) -- A geodesic dome that sheltered scientists and support workers at the South Pole for three decades is due to be demolished in the next few months, having outlived its usefulness at the bottom of the world.  But a small group of polar veterans is trying to preserve the dome, arguing it is a signature feature of the United States Antarctic program. They want the 55-foot-high aluminum structure taken apart the same way that Navy Seabees assembled it — bolt by bolt and panel by panel — for reassembly stateside.

“If you saw anything about the South Pole, that dome would always be the symbol that you saw,” said Billy-Ace Baker, a former Navy radio operator in Antarctica and a founder of the Old Antarctic Explorers Association, who is involved in the effort. ... The National Science Foundation, or N.S.F., the federal agency that oversees polar programs, has agreed to disassemble the top three rings, or about 45 triangular panels, for eventual installation at a Seabee museum being built in Port Hueneme, Calif. The bulk of the dome, which has 904 panels and 1,448 struts in all, held together by about 60,000 bolts, would be cut apart.

Brian W. Stone, a deputy division director in the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, said the agency had been talking with the Seabees for two years about ways to preserve part of the dome. “The Seabees feel it has historical significance, as do we and others who have worked at the South Pole,” Mr. Stone said. But as part of a long-term modernization plan at the site, the agency had to have the dome removed by next March, he said.

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