Day 5: Friday

Mission Training and Atlantis Mission

Today was our final mission. This time I was assigned to the International Space Station as a Mission Specialist. This meant to got to do an EVA (space walk). While in the station, the other specialist and I did experiments as well as flipped lots of switches when the time came. When it came time for us to leave for our EVA, we were informed that the Space Station had been "on fire" for the last 20 minutes but the Station Commander had not realized it. Now - I had baked a mock apple pie for my experiment but I don't think I caused the fire. At least I hope not!

Anyway, we got suited up and made our way into "outer space." We had to be strapped down with ice packs because the suits get so hot - and I was still sweating. Our mission was to break down a structure that the Shuttle built. We were in these chairs that made us neutrally buoyant so we basically floated. I had a blast trying to move around. It was like rock climbing in reverse - you had to pull yourself back down instead on up. I also had to really think about where to put my foot so I could hang on when i needed both hands to complete the job. I can only imagine how hard these jobs are when the astronauts have to do this in their big ol' suits and heavy gloves.

After our mission we could not go back to the Space Station because it was still on fire. We made our way to the Shuttle and they took us safely back to Earth. In the end the Space Station was able to put out the fire and everyone survived!

AVIATION CHALLENGE:

During the Aviation Challenge we were supposed to do Aquatic simulation that show what it is like to crash into the water and be saved. One of the main parts - a helicopter crash simulator -was broken the day so we missed out. We were able to do the zip line that dropped you into the water at the end.

GRADUATION:

After cleaning up a bit we headed back over the the Rocket Center for our Graduation Ceremony. We actually walked across the stage and received our Educator Mission patch. We were also allowed to turn flight suit wings right side up.

Day 4: Thursday

Crystallography:

Most of this class was very much "over my head" in terms of biology and chemistry. That being said, this was one of my favorite parts of Camp because we actually saw the DNA of a strawberry. Not like you see in CSI with all of the little lines and all that, but a little bubbly spiral. Very Cool - my kids will love this when we talk about genetics. Basically we squished up a strawberry, strained out the juice, and added some shampoo and salt. All of a sudden you could see the little DNA spiral rise up from the strawberry juice. I hope Kara doesn't mind I am using her, but her picture came out the best.
Mission Training and Discovery Mission:

Today was our first Shuttle Mission simulation. We had about an hour for training in our positions and then we had a two hour mission. Each person had a specific job in either the Space Shuttle, in Mission Control, or on the International Space Station. I had the job of Payload Specialist. This meant I launched with the shuttle, then crawled over to the Space Station, did a few experiments (like make oobleck), the head back to the shuttle, and the return to Earth.

Each person had a script that was basically timed to the second. Our Commander and Pilot had about 100 switches, buttons, and codes to enter in approx. 45 seconds. It is amazing how fast paced and how intense these missions are - and ours was not real. Now I understand why astronauts train on these things for about 3 years!

Our Mission went well - we all came back safely - even though I was almost left of the Space Station. Mission Control didn't realize I wasn't in the Shuttle - oops!

Story Musgrave:

Our lecture this evening was from 6 time astronaut Story Musgrave. He spoke about the NASA Space Program. Once again he stressed the importance of teaching our kiddos for the technological world in which they will be working.

http://www.spacestory.com/intro.htm

That night we were all still wound up from our successful mission so we blew off some steam by singing karaoke. No pictures :)

Day 3: Wednesday

Space Gardening:

During this class we learned a little bit about Barbara Morgan and her mission into space. Barbara was the back-up teacher for Christa McAuliffe back in the 80's. After the Challenger disaster, Barbara went back to teaching. After a while, she decided to go back to NASA and train to be a full-fledged astronaut. She will taking up basil seeds on the August shuttle mission. When these get back to earth they will be sent to schools around the country for kids to design a growing chamber.

Our activity in this class was just like the kids' mission - to design a chamber that would help support plant life on the moon. There were tons of things to take into consideration. For example, you can't just pour water on the plants, the dirt would have to be contained somehow so it would float around, and how it would get the carbon dioxide and oxygen it needed. Below is a picture of our lovely chamber.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070119_sts118_morganseeds.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/index.html

Ares Briefing:

During this lecture we learned all about the new missions to the moon and to mars. The program is titled the Constellation program and the Ares part relates to the actual rockets. I found this lecture very interesting because these new rockets look just like to old Saturn 5 rockets from the Apollo Missions. We were told this is because the old way worked. NASA did not want to reinvent the wheel if the Apollo missions were successful. We do, however, have a lot of new technology. The computers in the Apollo modules were about as powerful as our cell phones today! Look at the link to see more about this.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/index.html

Museum Time:

We had some time to explore the U.S. Space and Rocket Center museum. There are lots of models of space vehicles as well as the real Apollo 16 capsule. There were lots of simulators to "play" with as well as gift shops. The best part was outside where you could stand next to huge rockets and ride all of the cool rides.

Bottle Rockets:

This was a fun way to end our day. We made bottle rockets using plastic water bottles, paper, and tape. We learned how to make them more stable as well as how to make sure they were balanced enough for flight. Then...we launched them! Our group's did pretty well but the one that exploded on the stand was the most fun!

Day 2: Tuesday

BALLOONS TO THE MOON

Our first class of the day was called "Balloons to the Moon." Here we made a huge hot air balloon that we would later launch. All this project involved was tissue paper and glue. It was a delicate work and we really had to work as a team to make it correctly. By the end we were all starting to get really sticky. Here are some pictures of us working on our balloon and the big launch!

ROCKETS:

During this class we also made rockets using construction paper and tape. We were able to choose the length of the body, the type of cone, and the build of the stabilizers. Each choice depended on whether the rocket would fly high or be more stable. Ours was both -of course! We shot the rockets off using a bunch of PVC pipe and compressed air.

NEW HORIZONS:

New Horizons is the telescope mission that is headed out to study Pluto. It launched in January of 2006 and will not reach Pluto until 2015. It has already passed Jupiter so that might give you a better sense of how far away Pluto is. It only took a year to get to Jupiter but will take 8 more years to get to Pluto. WOW - BIG solar system! During this training we talked about Pluto's status as a planet. We then did an activity where we had to make up the criteria for a planet being a planet. We were given about 25 different planets, comets, moons, and, other celestial objects and had to determine if they fit our definition as a planet. Some groups only ended up with about 6 planets that met their definition. Our group ended up with 10 - we still had Pluto! Here is a link to learn more about the New Horizons mission.

http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Pluto/PlutoNewHorizons.html

ASTRONAUT SIMS:

Here is the cool part. This is where we got to experience a little bit of astronaut life. We rode in the gyroscopes. I would have done that all day - well maybe not ALL day - but definitely more that once. We also sat in a chair that simulated the micro-gravity (while at Space Camp you may not say "zero gravity" because there is SOME gravity) of the moon and did a little moon-walk. I look more like Peter Pan than an astronaut I am afraid!

ED BUCKBEE:

Our guest speaker of the day was Ed Buckbee. He has been with the space program since the beginning of the Mercury Missions. It was incredible to hear about the "Real Space Cowboys" as his book is called. He also worked with the guru of rockets, Von Braun. He was the first director of the Space and Rocket center in Alabama. He also put Space Camp into action - yeah! He is passionate about raising awareness about the space programs and about how important it is for our school age kiddos to get a good technological education. After all - the middle schoolers today will be the generation on the next missions to the moon and Mars!

http://www.air-space.com/EB.htm

Day 1: Monday

Our first order of business was orientation. This is where they indroduced the program and the things we would be studying as well and introducing us to our leaders and teammates. I was on Team Exploration and our fearless leaders were Janice and Nicole. After orientation we headed outside for some team building. We were a fun group - if I do say so myself.

Shuttle Orientation
In this lecture we learned about all of the parts of the Space Shuttles. WOW!! I didn't know something could have so many acronyms and abbreviations. The link below shows all the parts.

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/system/system_STS.html

We also learned about the timeline of the launches and after. It was amazing to see the countdown and how detailed each second is. This link will show you all about prelaunch, launch, and landing.

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/launch/index.html

Mission Overview

During our Mission Overview Training we were taught all the different roles and responsibilites that are involved with the space shuttle launches. Once again, it was amazing to see just how many people it takes to get these missions accomplished. After the overview, we wrote down our position choices for the missions that we would later participate in. I want to walk in space!

Mission Patch:

We learned about the importance and meanings of the mission patches. We then, as a team, designed our own mission patch to represent our group and our goals for the week. Ours was an apple because we were all teachers. The spaceship with the stars leading to the school house represent the knowledge we are gaining at Space Camp that we will bring home to our school. The spyglass represents our group name, Exploration.

How Did I Get Here?

Any child of the 80's knows just how cool Space Camp is. I have wanted to go since I was in the 5th grade - but never happened!

A few years ago I was at a conference and went to a presentation by NASA. They started telling about their Space Camp for Teachers program but at the time I did not have enough experience. By the time I did have enough years of teaching under my belt - the program was being modified.

I had just about given up the idea when I saw an article about Space Camp for Educators on the Steve Spangler website. My district was giving Staff Development grants at that same time so I figured - what the heck! I didn't think I would get the grant (because camp was expensive) but would have hated myself if I didn't at least try. Obviously they said yes - otherwise I would not be writing this :)

Here is a glimpse into my whirlwind week of Space Camp!