| Later that day we had the orientation, lunch and then broke up into our teams. Our counselor, Andy was very nice. I met part of my team, but not the people I became great friends with. Overall, the first day was very relaxed. The whole week was lots of fun. We were busy for about fourteen hours a day and did everything with our team. We were not even allowed to sit at a different lunch table. Everyone got to know each other very well. I cannot say what we did each day because we had done so much. We had lots of lectures. Some of the topics they covered were space travel history, the shuttle structure, the launch sequence, different systems, orbital mechanics, rocketry, radio astronomy and optics. Activities I got to do included building and launching a rocket and scuba diving to simulate neutral gravity. The scuba diving took place in a large tank in the middle of the museum. I had to build a tetrahedron, launch a water rocket and look through all the windows in the tank. I was underwater for a total of nineteen minutes. When scuba diving, my mouth got extremely dry because the air I was breathing had absolutely no moisture. The reason for this is to keep the air tank from rusting on the inside. Throughout the week we had four missions. There were three, one hour missions called Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. The last mission was our six hour Extended Duration Mission (EDM). This was the hardest mission because that is when you put everything you have learned to the test. In each mission we had a different position except for the EDM. We were allowed to choose what position we were in. Each station has a "space ghost" lurking in the corners. The space ghost is a person who gives you anomalies that must be fixed. They can also make your things "float" away. On the Alpha Mission, I was stationed in the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR). I was the mission scientist. My job was to help the International Space Station (ISS) keep things going orderly. I had a checklist book of things they needed to do if warnings signs went off or there were other problems. I didn't like that position because I couldn't figure out how to find things in the checklist book. For the Bravo Mission, I was placed in the ISS. My role was station officer. I liked this position the best, because I got to preform experiments and did not have much else to do. In this position I had to also play the doctor on board. During this mission I didn't have many problems and enjoyed my time there. During the Charlie Mission, I was stationed on the Orbiter as the PS-2 or second payload specialist. This was another very relaxed mission. I helped the mission specialists get their space suits on and helped them out to their extravehicular activity (EVA). During the EVA they successfully repaired a satellite. Once again I was the onboard doctor but no one got sick. The EDM does not bring back pleasant memories. For the first three hours I was the station officer on the ISS. That part went well except for the fact that we had a meteor shower and I lost my hand. However, before we had the meteor shower, I did a very neat experiment on separating the pigments of a leaf called chromatography. For the last three hours, I was the PS-2 on the orbiter. This stressed me out almost to the point of tears. We started in a power blackout. Our crew tried to function normally and find a way to turn the power back on. After a few minutes we discovered that there was "smoke" in the air and everyone in the crew except for me started to have heat exhaustion. By mistake I left my medical bag out and it "floated" away. Our pilots were all on the ground passed out along with the mission specialists. The PS-1 and I were trying our best to make everyone well. The only problem was we had no light and all of our medical supplies were scattered on the ground. Later the PS-1 got sick and I was the only doctor and well member of our crew left. After an hour in this chaos, I made one of the pilots well enough to extinguish the "fire" and get our power back on. By that time, our three hours were almost up, I had a headache and was very hot and tired. I felt great relief when we were finished. Graduation took place on Friday. Each team came up and every member had their name and hometown read off. We then got a packet with our wings, certificate, group picture, team patch and a coupon to come again. It was an amazing day. We then left and went back home. Over all I had a great week. There was never a dull or boring moment. I made lots of new friends from many different places, and some from different countries. I met Jeff from Switzerland and Hannah from New Zealand. Everyone else was from different states, mostly on the east coast. I still keep in contact with Hannah. I get and send a few emails every week. She even mailed me a birthday card. Going to Space Camp was definitely a major highlight of my life. It is something I will remember forever. In fact, I liked it so much I am going back again next year, this time I will be a mission specialist. I am greatly looking forward to it. |
| Space Camp |
| By Alli |
| Page 2 |