Mission Day 6

July 28, 2026

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.
​
💫🚀⭐Ad Astra ⭐🚀💫