Beautiful Morning in Huntsville and another exciting day at Space Camp!

Breakfast was followed by Multi-Axis Trainer (MAT). This is way calmer than any roller coaster, I promise! Your center of gravity is your stomach, and the center of gravity of the MAT is at approximately your stomach (it is engineered that way). You don’t get dizzy because you’re spinning in 3 directions. I yelled for g-forces applied but it didn’t hurt, just pressure.

We did an environmental lab taking the salinity, pH, and air pressure readings of our environment.  Other educators had been taking the same readings all summer, and we were the last data point.  It was very interesting.

The next activity was to work with some artifacts; first they were given to us to try to figure out what they were, then we were told what they were. 

Lunch was followed by the Space Escape Game.  Our team broke out with 21 minutes left.   We found out we are competing with the other team and results will be given at our graduation on Thursday.

Our Mars Mission training was next. I was selected to be on the Space Station Ouranous for the Mars Mission (year 2044).  The Space Station is located on the moon Phobos.   I am the Environmental Specialist I, along with a teacher cohort from Puerto Rico, Angel (Environmental Specialist II).   The Environmental Specialist is required to keep track of the Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide, and Water levels in the Space Station.   We were also required to create a weather report for Mars and do a live report for mission control.   Finally, we were to complete an experiment with the Research Specialist team (Pat & Yuliia).   Training went fast; I hope we know what we are doing during the mission tomorrow.

Outside temperature 96 degrees
Heat Index 116 degrees

Our final activity was the Water Challenge!   We traveled to the Aviation Challenge side of campus and got in our swimsuits.   We had two activities: a zip line and a helicopter crash simulation.  

The zip line was to simulate a problem on the rocket, and the astronaut had to escape the platform.  The main difference from the one at 5 Mile is you rode it backwards into the lake.   No problem at all; weird to go backwards but landing in the water was fun.

Now – the helicopter crash rescue, I don’t even know how to explain it but I will try.   You get in this huge cylinder with windows and one door.  You and eight friends climb in (for some reason Pat & I were chosen to be pilot and commander again).   Then they lower you into the lake (simulate crash) (I was told – it’s no problem; the water will come up over your knees, and you climb out into a raft – no problem).   The cylinder lowers into the lake quickly, and the water rises to my neck; then you have to maneuver out of the helicopter through a window (you can’t go back out the door because it is guarded by sharks per the trainer), swim ½ way across the lake to the raft.   Now, climb into the raft (I was shoved/pushed/thrown in). As we are all catching our breath, we have to now paddle around the lake with the lifeguard standing at the front of the raft (he was Jack from Titanic, some science fiction guy, and someone else – I didn’t get all the jokes, I was exhausted).  Now one of our Endeavour teachers from Poland jumps in and is yelling, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT.   We did make it around that lake in record time.   Finally, we get to the buoy and tie up (still in the middle of the lake), and the lifeguard tells us we have to swim to the basket by the shore.  We can either disembark the ‘cool way’ by rolling off backwards or the ‘wimpy way’ and just slide off the edge going forward.  Monika is now yelling – “Kristy is first” – I don’t want to be first, but here I go.  Our captain tells us we have to yell where we are and if we will be a “cool or a wimp”, so I yell – “Missouri – wimp” and go in (and underwater).   I have to swim across ¼ of the lake to the basket, crawl in, and they raise me to the platform to crawl out.   This part was cool, think of the astronauts landing in ocean, they crawl onto a raft, and then the basket raised them to the helicopter.  I’m tired just reliving that – ugh!

Finally, it was dinner time and I was starving!   And you know what we had – Chinese wings, rice, egg rolls – ugh!   But, I ate it and didn’t care.

I did stick around and watch some of the Endeavour kids do their scuba activity – I really wanted to go with them, it looked like fun.
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💫🚀⭐Ad Astra ⭐🚀💫

Woke up to rain, that ended before camp really started (ok, it ended before I had to hike across the campus in the rain).  Breakfast was followed by Alpha Training for the Space Shuttle mission.   Pat (Australia) was selected as shuttle commander; I was shuttle pilot, Monika (Poland) was ISS scientist, and the others were in mission control (I can’t remember their exact titles, I was a little focused on my job).   First, we learned about our jobs and oriented ourselves to the thousands of buttons and switches I was in charge of (ok, maybe it was only a couple hundred).   Training went fast and I was nervous about not looking like a fool in front of my other team members.

Then a hike across campus to the educator building for a game of “Did you know …” about many of the different space companies in the world.  It was a very interesting lesson, and we thought we knew a lot of things. Yet, we were actually wrong about most of the them.

Then we met the author of Rocket Boys (Homer Hickman) and listened to him tell us stories that were not in the book or movie (October Sky).   Each of the teachers received a signed copy of his book.   It is an excellent read and will be read again very soon by me.

The staff from the U.S. Cyber Camp presented a lesson on cybersecurity and AI.   This camp is one of four different camps offered by the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.   They also have a Space Robotics Camp and an Aviation Challenge camp.   We will get to play with a space robot in the Mars mission and tomorrow we will do the water challenge from the Aviation camp.

My afternoon started with a hike to the test rocket range to launch the rockets we built yesterday.   My rocket launched way high (out of sight for a bit), and the parachute didn’t blow, so it was just a pretty lawn dart.   But it was recoverable – not everyone was able to recover theirs (they landed in trees or on power lines).

Then came – the Space Shuttle mission (EEK).

There was a movie in the 1986 called Space Camp.   It was one of my favorite movies as a teenager.  I watched it enough that I wore the VHS tape out (yes, I just gave away my age, didn’t I).  I promise, I just lived out some of the scenes from that movie!   We were in the same shuttle module and some of those scenes played out in my mind throughout the mission.

Back to the mission.  Mission started out great, I was able to do my part, I got the cargo bay doors opened in time (big accomplishment), and our mission specialists (Justin and Erica) crawled out the airlock to perform their EVA task of fixing the tiles on the shuttle.   But, they may have taken a little too long on their task and well, you know … it was time for next task, I had to follow the tasks in front of me, others were waiting, and well … Pat and I may have closed the Cargo Bay Doors while they were doing the EVA and left them out in deep space … sorry Justin and Erica.   And the Shuttle landed with no hiccups and a smooth landing (sigh). 
Hopefully, nothing like that happens on the Mars mission.

Back to the educator building for a lecture on the Benefits of Space (some neat videos in this one to share later).   Final task of the day was MGS (multi gravity simulation) (ie Moon/Mars bounce).   This was a lot of fun, the video should be good – but there was a girl issue, you will just have to ask me in private.  Boys had issues too, but very different ones.   That is all I am saying on that.   But it was fun and I went a lot higher that I expected.

Tomorrow is Mar Mission training and Water day!   Woohoo!

(Pictures are fewer – I am waiting on the Space Camp account to publish.  They are constantly around taking photos and videos)
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💫🚀⭐Ad Astra ⭐🚀💫

​I was like a kid in a candy store today.   One of my childhood dreams is coming true! Eek!

Today started with breakfast and a welcome to Space Camp, then off to our first orientation about our space missions for the week.   We will do a Space Shuttle & Journey to Mars mission.   Each mission is to give us an idea of what the kids experience during Space Camp (there are 1000 kids here this week ages 9-19).   The shuttle mission is a beginner mission for their youngest campers (9-11 years old), and the Mars mission is for the Space Academy students (age 12-14).   We were shown the different jobs and then allowed to pick our job preferences.   I will find out tomorrow what my shuttle job will be and then later in the week, my job on the Mars mission.

A brief tour of the campus was followed by discussions and the designing of our team patch.   My team is Team Acaba after Astronaut Joe Acaba, who was an educator before becoming an astronaut.   We have 13 members on our team from the USA, Chile, Poland, Australia, Ukraine, the UK, and Puerto Rico.   We have some funny teachers who like to play jokes and they came up with the “Pudding on Mars” patch, they also came up with one that included a Tardis, the shuttle, and Mars.   You will have to wait until after our graduation on Thursday for me to reveal our final design.

After lunch, we did a brief activity involving stars, galaxies, and Artificial Intelligence.   Then a breakout session between “Mercury and magnets” or “the Colors of Space”.  I chose the magnet class; it was very interesting, and I can’t wait to do it with a group of students in a future STEM class.   However, I did decide I didn’t like the sun – but that is another story.   The Colors of Space looked at galaxies and the science of the colors that radiate from them, then they did some watercolor painting to create their own galaxy.

The final project today was ROCKETS.   We built our own rocket that we will launch tomorrow.   You gotta love it when the first instruction of the class is: “open the package, find the directions, and throw them in the trash”.   It was a lot of fun; however, I may not be able to work with Keith again. We may have made a few too many jokes and may or may not have made a mess with the glue.    After the assembly, we stepped outside and painted our rockets with spray paint – mine is a pretty red, silver, and blue.

Then it was time for dinner and to head back to our dorm.   We have a 7 am call time, so I probably need to try to go to sleep.   Tomorrow is rocket launching, shuttle training and mission, and lots more surprises.   
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💫🚀⭐Ad Astra ⭐🚀💫

MOVE INTO SPACE CAMP DAY!!!

Today started with breakfast with the Endeavour Team and I’m going to say about a million other people (it felt like).   Everyone in our hotel decided to eat breakfast at the same time and everyone wanted scrambled eggs – I will say they had the best scrambled eggs.   People were standing over you watching you eat, so they could grab your spot at a table.  Crazy!
The plan was for everyone to parade over to Space Camp (our hotel is in the middle of campus), but God had other plans.   He sent a torrential downpour.   So, Space Camp sent a bus over for us to use.   Now, here is the key – 32 student & 6 teachers with a carryon bag each, a backpack, and whatever else they were carrying had to get on the bus, no undercarriage for luggage, so we had to take everything on the bus – thankfully, one of my students was a football player and he could lug my suitcase over his head (he was proud to show off for the girls, I think) and helped me.    Somehow, we got everyone and everything on the bus.  

Off to Space Camp we go – (took less than 5 minutes)

Then to get signed in – pictures for badges were taken (remember torrential downpour and lugging bags when you see my ID (ugh).   Teachers then had to go back out into the rain with everything but our suitcase and cross a road between two buildings (water over my ankles) to check into our program.   We got another backpack and a bag with our blankets and towels (my bag count is up to 1 suitcase and 4 bags).  Keith decided we weren’t going to Space Camp, we were actually being drafted into the UK Army with this many bags.   Then we loaded a smaller bus (think Hillcrest church van but smaller) to head to our home for the week – new college dorms at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.  

I have my own room and bathroom out of a 4 bedroom / 4 bathroom suite with a common area, kitchen, and washer/dryer (yes, I brought laundry detergent).

Lunch was at the Salt Pub with the Endeavour Staff and the teachers.   Funny thing – the Salt Pub has salt grinders on all the tables that didn’t work.   Keith (the engineer) tried to fix them and told me – that is “nickered” (ie broken).   One of the Endeavour staff wants salt, so she goes to 3 tables and they are all broken – the manager comes and asks if everything is ok and tells us – those are for décor (restaurant is the Salt Pub) and gives us a mini McCormick Salt grinder.   While there, Yulia meets up with her friend from the Peace Corp she worked with 10 years ago, who now lives in the states – he came to Huntsville just to see her.

That night, we went to the Trash Pandas baseball game – it was Christmas in July (July 25).  Sprocket the mascot was in an ugly Christmas shirt, Santa was there, and the baseball cheerleaders were in little Santa costumes (think Mean Girls Santa baby number).   FYI:  I still don’t enjoy baseball even with the Christmas music.

What was fun was watching the students who knew NOTHING about the game, learn it, and by the end of the game – loved the sport, had bought all the mini baseball bats and balls, then ran to the gate to get them signed by a player.   A great memory – I wish I could explain it better.

​SPACE CAMP STARTS TOMORROW – FINALLY!

💫🚀⭐Ad Astra ⭐🚀💫