Today's location:
Today's Intinerary:
Niels's observations for the day:
First full day of space camp. After breakfast we started with our mission training. D and I where Mission Specialist 7 and 8 and we had the cool job of doing an EVA to 'fix the solar panel' for the lunar base 'Raising Star'. D was a little disappointed he didn't get the 'Flight Director' position but maybe he has a shot at it on the 2nd mission tomorrow.
After training it was off to the 1/6th gravity chair that simulates walking on the moon where you weigh only 1/6th of your weight on Earth. It's basically a big metal chair on a set of strong springs they prime to your weight and then you get to bounce around... Really cool!
When you're at Space Camp you got to build and fire your own rockets, so after the chair we were off to build our rockets. We will be launching them somewhere tomorrow.
While building your own rockets is cool, so is learning from a former NASA Saturn first stage engineer. He was a wealth of knowledge and for a good hour he entertained us with his stories on how we got from the V2 to Saturn V and everything that happened in between.
Now that we know all about the design and background of the rockets it was time to 'fly' one ourselves on our first mission that we trained for earlier in the day. D was still not 100% over his non-flight position but he pushed through for the sake of team and together with me we aced our EVA and saved the lunar station.
After each mission its time for some R&R and we took the time to get a few things out of the car, slightly re-arrange our sleeping positions and made it back in time for the IMAX movie 'A Beautiful Planet' narrated by Jennifer Lawrence and all filmed by the ISS crew on Mission 43/44 (I believe).
Just before dinner we learned about a program that Sally Ride started, called 'EarthCam'. It's free for educators and allows students to submit photo request to a camera on the ISS during certain weeks of the year. That one is going to D's school as a recommendation. How cool would it be to have your photo request fulfilled from the ISS...
After grub time we did another simulator chair, called the 5DF (5 degrees of freedom). It will allow you all movement, except up/down and while strapped in you need to navigate a wall and turn a wrench without being thrusted into space.
The mission patch design was switched with a Night at the Museum where we did a scavenger hunt based on questions that had answers on some of the story board in the Saturn V room. Good idea to let the kids run around before bed.
We wanted to take a few more pictures outside afterwards but a lightning storm forced us into our bunks. Speaking of bunks... Goodnight!!
D's observations for the day:
What did I do:
What was the best part of the day: The bed, it felt really soft when I woke up (seriously, that was his answer!)
Three things to remember are: 1) The 5 degrees of freedom chair, 2) the moon chair, 3) shaking hands with Robonaut
My favorite picture to remember today is: Shaking hands with Robonaut
If you have a question for D about his experience, leave a message for him in the comments!
Read other posts about our trip here:
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