Day 11

Day 11 Blog

We have spent most of the day travelling.
Up at 7.30am, packed our bags, breki, said our final goodbyes and on the bus by 9.15am.
Some of the students emotional; all raving about their Space camp experience.
Delayed flights (heavy rain in Huntsville). Flew via Atlanta to Orlando.
Arrived at the hotel around 5.30pm, checked-in, out to tea (Pizza Hut), back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. Warm and sunny here today and it should be fine for the next few days.

We have 3 or four students trying to fight-off colds- nothing major as yet just soar throats and blocked noses; fingers crossed they don't sink too far and recover quickly .

All looking forward to Disney (EPCOT) tomorrow. Another long day ahead- wont be leaving till after the fireworks at 9.30pm so I can't promise another expansive blog for a few days.

Graeme.

Day 10

Day 10

Today started like any other; we woke up to the gruelling shout of our crew trainers. We then rushed to get ready in our allotted time (which was very short) and prepared for the long day ahead. At breakfast we were again greeted with hash browns, bacon, scrambled eggs and a large variety of sugary cereals (most popular being Lucky Charms and Dippin Dots). We then split into our two separate teams, Holderer and Von Tiesenhausen. Von T then went to the Aviation Challenge where we flew in the flight simulators and experienced 3G’s of force in the Centrifuge. Unfortunately this was too much for some people and made many people sick, however it was still a great experience.

 

At the same time, team Holderer embarked on their EDM (Extended Duration Mission), or as we like to call it, ‘Everybody Dies Mission’. The team was then divided again and moved to their designated positions, either in MOCR (Mission Control), the ISS (International Space Station) or the Orbiter. 11 out of 12 people died during the first half of the mission, and in order to be revived, the recently deceased had to perform ‘I’m A Little Teapot’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ in front of the younger campers. Despite all of the difficulties they faced, team Holderer was still successful and arrived back at Earth safely.

After lunch, team Von T launched their hand-made rockets. All of the rockets launched successfully and made it into ‘space’, and protected the eggstronauts. All of the rockets were found except one, which disappeared into the wilderness, never to be seen again; it was a sad day for all. Von T then went back to Area 51 and challenged themselves with the difficult task of the Pamper Pole. The aim was to climb up a 15 metre telephone pole, stand up on top of it and to then proceed to take a leap of faith into the unknown. Although many people were hesitant, we soon discovered that they were only ‘Australian scared’, meaning that they were terrified but were going to do it anyway; our instructors were very impressed.

 

After dinner, both teams had their next Engineering Challenge, ‘Ablative Shielding’. We were given the task to create a heat-proof shield to again protect our eggstronauts, using a variety of materials provided. Some of the teams received a maximum of 200 points for protecting the egg, whilst others received 0.

All the teams at Space Camp then came together to compete in the Spacebowl Quiz Challenge. The questions were quite difficult and were based on what we had learnt during our time at Space Camp. By the end of the quiz, team Holderer was crowned Spacebowl Quiz Champions for 2013. Immediately after the Spacebowl quiz, the teams prepared for graduation. Everyone stood proud as we received our certificates and name badges. Holderer was awarded a prize for being the Outstanding Team, as they were very energetic and as their crew trainers said, they were the ‘swaggiest of them all’. Von Tiesenhausen was also awarded the Commander’s Cup for accumulating the most points in all of the challenges and activities during the week.

 

 

 Even though our graduation was late at night, many of the crew trainers and instructors attended, and we all said our goodbyes. We are all very thankful for all of the time and effort that all of the instructors and crew trainers put in to make our experience at Space Camp even better; we all had an amazing time.

 

Written by Amy and Daria

Day 10


Sorry late night-didn't get to bed till 11pm after the graduation. We will post two blogs later today!

Day 9

Day 9

Today the people in room 219 woke up at 8.00am, it was great to sleep in without a 6:30 alarm going off by accident (caused by people forgetting to turn off their alarms). Once we were all up, we all got ready for the day ahead and went down to breakfast. We had pretty much the same  choices as we had yesterday.

 

After breakfast, we went and collected our rockets and put the eggs inside the rocket and made some final adjustments. Then we walked to the launch site and launched our rockets. All of the rockets went up straight and high with the parachutes jettisoning from the rockets at the right times and making a successful landing for the eggs to survive. After the launch of the rockets we noticed loads of parachutes from previous launched rockets sitting in the trees around us. I asked the person launching the rockets how many rockets had been launched in the area and she said around a million rockets had been launched.

 

The leader then took us to the Freefall and all but a few of us went on. We all had a great time; it was great because it gave us a sense of weightlessness at the top of the ride because there was a freefall after we reached the top. This made your stomach feel weird but the feelings of fun and excitement helped us overcome any negative sensations. We had many rides on the Freefall before we eventually  had to go. .

We then proceeded to practice our missions. This was our third and fourth rotations, with each team member having rehearsed all aspects of our shuttle mission up to the International Space Station and return.

After lunch we took the bus to the Pamper Pole. We all stood in a circle and told our names to the group and took a picture each. We then made our way to the pole and put our harnesses on in preparation. The harness once again were quite unconformable but we still put them on nice and tight and got a special seatbelt strapped around our arms to our chests. I was the first man to go up the pamper pole and when I got to the top the pole was wobbleing all over the place. It was very hard to stand but I still managed to do so and the started to try to turn around on the pole but was pulled off by one of the leaders.  Almost everyone in our group managed the daunting task of climbing the 15m high pole and to take a leap off the top. We had to place our trust in our team to lower us on a cable safely back to the ground.

Meanwhile the other team had their final 3 hour mission. Despite the challenges set (including on board fires, sick an injured personal, cargo bay doors sticking, etc.etc.) they managed to achieve all their goals.

 

After dinner we had a range of interesting activities including some astronomy presentations and talks on the history of space flights.

With lights-out in 2 minutes we will have to cut our blog short.  We are off to bed-hopefully to sleep till 8am.

By Aaron and Andrew  

Day 8 – Space Camp Day 2

We awoke this morning to our lovely team leader Jillian getting us ready for a new day full of excitement, curiosity and knowledge. Many of us groggily tumbled out of our beds, whereas others were up and ready in a flash (actually this was only an incredibly small amount of people). After everyone was dressed and ready for the day, we all headed to breakfast, where we were served: gloriously crispy hash brown stars, waffles, and some seriously sugary cereals. Next we began our remaining two training missions called Charlie and Delta. Everyone had different positions this time around; we were either being stationed in the Orbiter, the ISS (International Space Station) or MOCR (Mission Control).  All too soon our missions ended, and were greeted with rice, stir-fry, peas, salad, and some meat product (living up to the urban legend of “Mystery Meat”) for lunch, everyone loaded up on the soft drinks and ice cream on offer. With full bellies and curious minds, the group that we were a part of – called Holderer – followed our other team leader Corey, where we waited for our next activity.

Eventually, we were driven off in a bus to Area 51, which is unfortunately not the infamous “alien base”. As the group disembarked into the wilderness, we were met with a 17m tall tower. Our friendly yet cheeky instructors told us that we would be doing the zip line here, striking fear and excitement in our hearts. The tower itself was fairly intimidating, with a huge ladder up one side and a scaling wall up the other. One person would climb up, jump off down the zip line and be retrieved by a ladder. On a side note there were an astounding amount of lady bugs, which we were informed were actually Japanese beetles. When we finished, we gathered in a secret square of slightly damp tables, and discussed our thoughts and feelings regarding the zip line and trust.

While we were having fun on the zip-line Mr Roberts and Mrs Mengler took a bus into down-town Huntsville and found a Laundromat where they had “fun” washing out our smelly clothes.

Next we had our first two serious missions, with our roles being the same as yesterday. The first went fairly well, with a few minor communication mishaps, but thankfully no one died more than a few times. We ran overtime, so the next mission was cut short. This lead to a malfunction when we took off, so we had to abort. Luckily Daria is a great pilot so we landed to the left of the runway in the Ben Guerin Air Base in Morocco, and stayed alive.

 

A trip to the gift shop was next were we all got new flight suits and name badges. Mr Roberts said if we got them we have to wear them at the airport, and on the first full school assembly. In turn he was to wear his flight suit ALL WEEK.

Dinner was Brazilian, therefore no one, not even the instructors knew what it was. There was the usual Mac’n Cheese and chicken nuggets (Krystal is ecstatic over them) so we coped.

Another lecture about medicine and first aid followed. It was very serious, and taught us that one person per group would be selected as a flight surgeon , and would be tasked with the responsibility of administering medicine (skittles), injections, many band aids and possibly restraining a person during the three hour mission.  We were told that we would randomly be given different medical ailments which we have to act out. It will be a very fun and interesting experience!

We have just had our final rocket building session, so they’re now ready for flying tomorrow. Each team of four has done a different design to safely carry our cargo of an egg up a minimum of 3 metres and down again while keeping the egg safe. The more adventurous have gone for a two stage rocket but we have opted for the safer and more reliable (we hope) single stage rocket. 

Our final session for the day was a presentation on the on-board environmental controls for the maintenance of the air, temperature, humidity and water quality. We were  then given the challenge of purifying some dirty water using a range of filtration materials.

Back to the dorm by 10.00pm and lights-out by 10.30pm. We should all sleep well again tonight.

It’s been another long but enjoyable day.

By Emma and Samantha.

Day 7

Day 7

Lights on at 8:00, and ready to go by 8:30 sharp. The teachers had convinced us this was going to be a brutal experience so we all braced ourselves for the worst. Breakfast was the first sign that we had been lied to. ‘It’s extremely processed’ claimed Mr Roberts. ‘Kids were craving salad by the end of the week’ said Mrs Mengler. The buffet was filled with many enjoyable foods such as scrambled eggs, hash browns, cereals of all sorts, cinnamon toast and many other breakfast goods.

After a very fulfilling meal, we were divided into groups of 4 and thrown into our first rotation of mission training in which we started to learn about how everything works. Some of the mission training included: piloting the space shuttle, doing a simulated space walk and controlling the space shuttle from mission control. There were many complicated yet common problems that astronauts faced while up in space, and we were beginning to learn the process in how to fix them. The excessive amount of buttons that seem to spread along every possible wall confused pretty much all of us and most times the solution was laid out in a complicated matter which still continued to confuse us even more. After we had completed one of the tasks our team had been assigned, we continued into our second rotation which gave a chance to experience new things and new scenery. (lunch). Lunch was finished and half of the Leeming group got on a bus to a place called Area 51.

 Here we were assigned 2 team building tasks and as a group we completed each task with much anticipation and eagerness. It was a most enjoyable experience for all, but even better when we had to watch Logan mimic actions with no hands as we had all been restricted to no talking. Another bus ride brought us back to Space Camp where we had the opportunity to sit in a real size cinema and watch a documentary about storm/tornado chasers. Many of us took this as an opportunity to regain on sleep we had lost. When the documentary had finished we were rushed back into our third rotation of mission training, and straight after that we completed our last rotation of training for the day. (dinner). The night was coming to an end as you could begin to see the lack of motivation show, while tiredness began to overtake some of us. We began finishing the night with a presentation on fuel cells which brought a spark to some but drained the much needed energy of others. We concluded the night with one final task which involved the design and construction of a single or double staged rocket. A long and packed 14 hour day left most of us dying to get into bed.

 

 

By Lillian and Shauna.

Day 6

Day 6

Day six of the 2013 Leeming USA space camp, was a day of transition. It started off in a luxury hotel in Arlington, and by the end of the day we were in bunk beds in confined rooms in Huntsville at the space camp facility, which would be our home for the next week. The day started off in quite luxurious fashion, as we enjoyed the last of our three world class breakfasts at the Hilton in Arlington. Our awesome leader, Mr Roberts then set us on our way, as he informed us of the daily announcements, and enlightened us on the day’s schedule. After cleaning ourselves up, and getting our possessions in order, we were met at the front of the hotel by the coach that would take us to Baltimore Airport.

We were informed that we were an hour late arriving and we may struggle to board on time. After rushing through check-in and security and running through the terminal we managed to board with 3 minutes to spare. A short one and a half hour flight took us to the busiest airport in the world in Atlanta.  We were soon to know, after we arrived at Atlanta airport, that the next flight had been delayed for an hour and 15 minutes. Within the duration of this period, most of us stocked up on junk food for the week ahead. After the delays finally came to an end, we boarded our flight bound for Huntsville, Alabama which would be the site where we would partake in the space camp program. When we arrived, we collected our luggage and was met by the shuttle bus which then took us to space camp. Prior to arrival, some of us had some preconceptions about the conditions of the campsite. These presumptions were soon put to rest, as we became orientated with the logistics of the campsite, and settled into our dormitories.

As we entered into the evening hours, we had dinner, and then we had our first introductory course of the space camp. We had three information sessions-Mission roles, Parts of the Shuttle and its propulsion systems and Abort procedures.  Following this introduction, the lecturer took us outside and demonstrated practically on a smaller scale about what he had been teaching us; there were three types of fuels the instructor explained, solid rocket fuel, liquid rocket fuel and hypergollic fuel. After this, we learnt more about the mechanics and processes of the spaceship. We were enlightened about the several procedures that may take place in the case of an emergency. We learnt about several different abort techniques such as ATO, RTLS and ECAL.  ATO is Abort-To-Orbit, RTLS is Return-To-Launch-Site and ECAL is East-Coast-Abort-Landing. We were then issued with a Space Camp T-shirt and our Flight Suits.  After all this we prepared ourselves for our first night here at the campsite, and then soon enough it was lights out. In conclusion, day six was a day of transition and travel, and a day of conformity as we tried to change our mindsets from that of a luxurious hotel, to that of a regimented campsite.

By Michael and Sam.