Space Center History. Our Young Astronauts Attend the International Space Camp. Siberia USSR. 1989

Rangi, Rocky, Me and Kyle 

The Young Pioneer Camp. Novosibirsk, Siberia.  USSR

This picture was taken by a KGB photographer who photographed us 

the entire 3 weeks of the camp.

Hello Troops,

In the summer of 1989 I received a fax from Moscow, USSR inviting myself and three students to attend an International Youth Space Camp in Novosibirsk, Siberia.  Another invitation was sent to a Salt Lake Young Astronaut Chapter operated by Milagros Baladozo at Northwest Middle School.  The invitation was extended through the American Young Astronaut Council in Washington DC.  Our Young Astronaut Club at Central School was one of the top in the nation.

 Part of the original Telex giving me instruction on putting together

our delegation to the International Space Camp

We couldn't phone or fax.  Messages had to go back and forth by telex.  Very expensive to send a message.

 We had previously represented the United States at the International Young Astronaut Convention in Japan two years earlier and proven we could handle ourselves well on the international stage.   We were chosen from among 27,000 Young Astronaut Chapters nationally.  I selected my top club members, Rangi Smart, Rocky Smart and Kyle Sanderson to accompany me for the three week camp from July 25 to August 17.

A Glavkosmos Patch.

Soviet Space Program

The invitation to attend the camp was issued by Glavkosmos, the Soviet Space Agency, and the All Union Youth Aerospace Society, which sponsored the Soviet Union's Young Cosmonaut Clubs.  The Soviet government payed all our expenses except for airfare to and from the USSR.  The other countries invited to participate were Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, France and Kuwait.  All of those countries were involved in the Soviet "Intercosmos" Program which allowed astronauts from other nations to fly on Soviet space missions.

 The unofficial motto of the Young Astronaut Program was "Peace Through Space".  The focus for the camp was to build friendships between our nations youth.

I didn't know very much about our trip to Russia before leaving Utah.  It was hard to get much information from the Russians , but I knew we would spend three days sightseeing in Moscow, and the rest of the time at the Siberian camp attending lectures, designing space equipment and meeting cosmonauts.  I knew we would also be visiting the Novosibirsk Academy of Sciences.

USSR State Seal Patch worn by Cosmonauts

This was my second of three trips to the Soviet Union.  My first was in 1986 as a tourist.  I was teaching very basic Russian history as part of our 6th grade social studies and wanted to see the places I covered in my curriculum.

World events were changing in the mid to late 1980's.  Communism was beginning to loose its iron hold in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.  I wanted to experience life in a communist totalitarian state before history swept most of them away.      

We Were Off to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!

Our group left Salt Lake City on July 25, 1989 for Chicago.  We were suppose to have over an hour layover there, but the plane was kept in a holding pattern due to poor weather.  I got real nervous as the time for our departure to Europe was getting closer and closer and we were still circling the airport on our flight from Salt Lake.  We had 15 minutes to catch our Lufthansa Flight to Germany after we finally landed.   It was a mad dash to the Lufthansa gate.  They were holding the DC10 for us.

 A Lufthansa DC10

National German Airlines

I was worried our luggage wouldn't make it.  The gate attendant said 15 minutes was enough time for their ground crew to transfer our bags.  I think she said it to calm me down, knowing the bags most likely wouldn't make the transfer - and they didn't.

Our flight was uneventful, except for the fact that our seats were in the last row of the no smoking section of the aircraft.  The smoking section started right behind us.  A lot of good that did us in the six hour or so flight.  

We had a layover in Frankfort Germany, then flew on to Moscow.  Our luggage wasn't there.  I started to panic.  Normally it wouldn't have been a big deal - your luggage would come on the next Lufthansa flight the following day.   But the next day we were on our way to Novosibirsk, Siberia and Lufthansa didn't fly to Siberia!  To add to the problem was the fact that the camp wasn't located in Novosibirsk.  Our Young Pioneer Communist Camp was located 70 miles outside of the capital of Siberia.

Cosmonaut Arm Patch

We were met at Moscow's International Airport by representatives from Souyz, the Soviet Young Cosmonauts Club, who were very helpful in tracking down the right authorities and filling out the missing luggage paperwork.  We were spared the sometimes grueling customs procedures because we were official guests of the government.

That evening in our Moscow hotel room, the boys and I discussed how we could live without suitcases.  Luckily Kyle had packed most of his candy, food and other treats we were going to give away to our  fellow Russian campers and supplement the unknown and rather bland Soviet cafeteria food, in his carry on.  Between the rest of us, we had soap, shampoo, a razor, our gifts to give to our hosts and other odds and ends that enabled us to survived the five days it took to get our luggage to us out in the middle of the Siberian wilderness.  Kyle also had a change of clothes in his carry on.  The rest of us didn't.  The suitcases arrived none too soon.

To Be Continued Tomorrow....

Space In the News. The Imaginarium

Team 34 B on the way to ISS

Blast off of the TMA-07M Soyuz rocket and spacecraft.

Help is on the way for the three current crew of the International Space Station. This morning at 5:12 am MST, a Russian rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is on a two-day orbit path to intersect and dock with the ISS on Friday. On board are astronauts Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn, and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. When Expedition 35 begins in March 2013. Canadian Chris Hadfield will become the station commander.

Currently, the expedition 34 team on ISS is Commander Kevin Ford, and flight engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin. 

Missed Me! Missed Me!

Asteroid Toutatis radar images.

This last week saw a flurry of asteroid watch action as several rocky bodies passed close to the Earth. Well, relatively speaking.  On December 11, not one but THREE asteroids made scientists take notice.

Zip! There it goes! 2012 XE54 is spotted.

First on the list was 2012 XE54, a small bodied rock about 36 meters in size, passed within the Earth-Moon distance, a little over 60% of the distance. Not Earth-shattering, but big enough to possibly cause a Tunguska-like event if it had hit us. Scary note here: this was a recently-discovered asteroid, which shows you that there are dangerous steroids out there that we DON'T know about yet.

Next up was 2012 XL55, about half the size of XE54, but it wasn't as close... just a mere 4.2 times the distance from Earth to Moon (which itself is 240,000+ miles away). And on it's heels was 2009 BS5, just a little bit smaller, but twice as far away.

Then came the big show on the 12th. Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is an old friend, first discovered in 1934. It has a somewhat erratic orbit that actually crosses the orbit of Mars as well as Earth's, and is influenced by the gravity of Jupiter. It comes closer to earth about every four years. Radar images show it to be like a peanut shell in shape, with two lobes. It's greatest length is about 4.2 kilometers, making rather large actually.  On December 13th, a Chinese space probe made a close pass to Toutatis. You can find all about that encounter here on SpaceRef: http://spaceref.com/asteroids/chinas-change-2-does-close-flyby-of-asteroid-toutatis.html

Toutatis came by at about 18 Lunar Distances. It is expected to make a really close pass in 2069!

Space in the News is written by Mark Daymont

 

The Imaginarium

Charlie Brown actually got his nickel's worth of advice from Lucy's 

Psychiatric Help booth.

 

Even the best in the world make mistakes.

 An "E" for effort?

 A few creative ways of reminding customers that a tip is always appreciated.

Another creative way of lodging complaints.

Beware of low flying reindeer.

Sign in dentist's office

Creativity: A

Actual Zimbabwe money.

The country is experiencing massive inflation.

This may buy you a loaf of bread.

Great way to lose weight while you read

Imagination: A

A different kind of lamp.

 The Difference between what an adult and child perceives.

The illustration of imagination.

Selling snow balls.

A creative way of begging.

I'll take a dozen please.

Creativity: A

Creativity: A

Don't we all wonder where this door leads.

 Storm troopers taking the high ground

R2D2 sneakers.

Brilliant

A way to capture people's attention

Your guess is as good as mine on this one.

 An actual Hobbit pub in New Zealand

I'd be a regular customer for a nice pub meal of shepard's pie with and Diet Coke
to wash it down.

A tech Merry Christmas!

Creativity: A

A chemistry lab's Christmas Tree

Imagination: A

Your Part in the Future. An Update from a Space Center Soldier. And Something to Ponder

Hello Troops,
I imagine the woman in the painting is your great great granddaughter, holding your first great, great, great, great grandson.  They are entering orbit of the first  habitable Earth like planet mankind discovered in 2015.

Your descendants are among the first to colonize this new world.  They say their pioneering spirit comes from you.  You were the one who dreamt of far distant places.  You are the one who kept a journal of your fantasy trips into deep space on a ship called Voyager at a school in northern Utah.

"One day what we did at the Space Center will be real.  People will travel into space and live on other planets," you wrote long ago in a journal your family will treasure. 

Your trip to the Space Center got you interested in space.  You read about space.  You loved the sci-fi television shows and movies.  You spent many an hour looking up at the stars wondering who and what was out there;  and if there was intelligent life on a distant planet, did they know we existed on this tiny blue marble in space?  And even though you never became an astronaut or engineer or astronomer, you supported your country's space programs and always voted for people who believed like you, that our place was out with the stars.

Your love of space was passed on to your children.  One of your sons became an engineer.  He helped develop the ion drive engine for the country's first deep space probe.  One of your granddaughters worked for the Mars Terraforming Administration.  She helped develop a new strain of grain developed to thrive in Martian soil.  One of your great grandsons spent several months living on the permanent Moon colony.  One of your great great granddaughters pioneered a new branch of exomedicine.  Her work opened the door for her family to take part in the colonization of New Earth.

Who knows what distant shores your descendants will walk.  Who knows what stars they will see in their night sky; and all of this, because of your love for space and space exploration.

The future is bright.  What part will you play in its writing?

Mr. W.

 

An Email from a Former Volunteer Now Serving in Afghanistan

Brooklyn Welch sent this email Christmas greeting to all.  Brooklyn was a long time Space Center volunteer.  She joined the army after high school and is deployed in Afghanistan working as an army field medic.

Friends and Family,
As we get closer and closer to Christmas, I cant help but be amazed at how fortunate we are in America. I look around and see kids running barefoot in the snow, and parents struggling to get by. And even though these Afghans have almost nothing, they're still happy. It kinda makes me wonder where we lost it in America. I would like to ask everyone back home to try to involve service in your days as you prepare for Christmas.
I've also had a chance to see God's hand in our lives, keeping us safe. About a month ago, one of the vehicles in my convoy lost control and rolled 2 and a half times. As I ran over to the vehicle to check for casualties, I was amazed to find that two out of the four passengers were already outside pulling security. Both of these soldiers were completely uninjured. I climbed in the gunners hatch to find the third passenger collecting his gear, also uninjured. I then saw the last passenger climbing out the back. He had the only injury, a cut on one finger. I should probably note that this isn't just a normal vehicle. It weighs almost 40,000 lbs. In addition to that weight, it was also full of gear in the back. The gunner ( the one with the cut), was incredibly lucky to only have the one minor injury, since he was basically unrestrained during the rollover. There were so many things that could have gone wrong- The gunner could have forgotten to drop into the vehicle ( the turret was entirely destroyed), they all could have decided not to wear their seat belts, they could have forgotten to tie down they gear. But today, they didn't. It was a miracle that every single passenger was able to walk away from what could have been a devastating accident.
As I pass the halfway point of this deployment, the days have started to run together. So I've decided to try to find at least one good thing each day. I tried to include an awesome pic of a picture of the leaves turning nearby one of the cobs I was stationed at, but unfortunately the internet isn't fast enough to upload a picture.I guess I'll have to show you guys when I get home. It's unreal how much this place looks just like Utah.
I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

And Now, something to ponder.

Programmer sent the following email:

The Math of Life After Death

---

This is how you get the universe from nothingness. Nothingness is the property of not being. If there were a never ending amount of things to not be, nothing would not be able to not be them all. This is because never ending never ends. So the universe would be nothing getting around to not doing a never ending amount of things. It would get around to not doing them one at a time.

Each frame of time in the universe (another configuration of it) slips off into the past and becomes nothing. This would mean that there is a never ending amount of time in the universe. The future would go on forever. Now think of an example of nothing getting around to not doing a thing: where events slip off into nothingness. Look close enough and you will see that perception does this. Our perception is like a hole that experiences go into. The past frames of time don't stack up on the present frame of time. The past frames of time have become nothingness. Being that our perception is more like a hole than a material, might it be that we live after we die?

Thanks programmer.  I'm not sure I get it but I want you to know that I read it several times in an attempt comprehend its meaning.  It's a bit of a mind / logic puzzle, good for a ponder on a cold dark winter's night.