Contact Victor Williamson with your questions about simulator based experiential education programs for your school.
SpaceCampUtah@gmail.com

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Back to Earth from Space Camp

Greetings fellow Troubadours!

My name is Tyler Gardner.  You may remember reading about me on this very blog last August.  At that time, I had just been awarded a scholarship to Space Camp.  Even more recently, you may have read about the benches that I made for the Space Center as my Eagle Scout Project.  Well, one week ago, I arrived home from the week long Advanced Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama..  This academy is one of the multiple programs that the U.S. Space Camp runs weekly and is considered to be one of their ‘top tier’ camps.

I plan to post in three or four parts so that I can share most of my experience while keeping my posts fairly short.

To start off, let me talk some about the U.S. Space and Rocket Center for those of you less familiar with it.  “Home to Space Camp, and Aviation Challenge; The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is recognized as one of the most comprehensive U.S. manned space flight hardware museums in the world. Facilities [there] include Spacedome Theater, Rocket Park, the Education Training Center, which houses NASA's Educator Resource Center, and more” (USSRC website).  For anyone who loves technology, NASA, or space, the USSRC is an amazing place to visit even if you just walk around the museum and rocket park.



The Pathfinder Space Shuttle is located in the center of the Space Camp campus.


 

A model of the massive Saturn V rocket that stands outside.



An actual Saturn V which lays on its side inside the museum.


Much of the magic of Space Camp, however, comes not only from the space travel history around you, but from those things which you get to experience in the simulators.


Pictures of the Enterprise Orbiter simulator.


Enterprise Mission Control.

 The following are pictures from inside the shuttle simulator and Mission Control.








Other aspects of the camp.....

 

Space Shot, the USSRC’s ‘launch and free fall simulator’.


You also get the opportunity to familiarize yourself with Mercury and Apollo program astronaut training (or maybe it’s just to have fun!).


1/6th gravity chair.

 

Multi Axis Trainer.


Those who chose to take the Mission Specialist track have the opportunity to scuba dive in the Underwater Astronaut Trainer.


Underwater Astronaut Trainer (Scuba tank).

Pilot Track campers fly fighter jet simulators and experience elevated g-forces in the centrifuge.


Fighter Jet Simulators.


Centerfuge.

That is a good overview of many of the things I experienced at Space Camp.  Next post, I’ll cover Area 51, Space Camp’s ropes course and teamwork/leadership development area.

Friday, June 22, 2012

EdVenture Camp 3. First Report

Hello Troops,

The boys and girls are settling down in their sleeping quarters.  The 19 girls are with their chaperons in the new addition of the school.  They are using two rooms.  Nineteen girls is the most we've had on a single camp this summer.  Mrs. Houston and Metta Smith will earn their chaperoning money tonight, considering our last camp had seven girls total!  The 26 boys are in the Voyager.  I'm on the floor in front of my desk.


This first night of camp has gone well.  We've got a great group of kids.  Pleasant Grove's Strawberry Days Fireworks show at the rodeo grounds was the highlight of the evening for me.  I heard several loud bangs and booms in the hallway on my way to set out the bed time snack.  I thought Ben was getting carried away with his Galileo sound effects.  I turned down the cafeteria hallway to tell Ben to turn down the sound effects when I realized the booming was coming from outside the school.

"Strawberry Days," I remembered.

It was an impressive fireworks show for a small town like Pleasant Grove.  I'm hoping they don't plan on increasing my property tax to pay for the extravaganza.  Between the booming and banging I could hear the screams and shouts coming from the city park.  The Strawberry Days Carnival was in full operation.

There isn't a peep coming from the boy's sleeping areas.  The boys are cooperating by not trying to stay up all night.

I told them, "If you sleep, we sleep.  If you stay awake and make noises, then we stay awake and plot revenge once we get you in the ships tomorrow."  Nine times out of ten it works.  The boys go to sleep, letting us sleep.  That makes us all Happy Campers!

Good Night.

Mr.  W. 

 

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Down and Up

 

X-37 in the hangar after landing. Credit: Boeing/USAF

Last Saturday the US Air Force's super secret (well, not too super secret) X-37 space plane touched down at Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California. Although the USAF will not tell us what it's classified mission was, we do know that this fantastic machine has been in space for a year and three months! It's clear to see that the SPace Shuttle is not quite dead yet, as the design lives on in this remarkable spacecraft. Even the heat tiles and structure colors are similar. The tail is a little different... oh, well. This beauty blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida in March 2011 on top of an Atlas 5 rocket (more on that rocket below). During its mission many space fans pondered its purpose and secret mission. Maybe someday we'll find out, but we can reasonably be assured that part of its mission was testing the craft itself in low Earth maneuvers. This is the second X-37 to fly, the first one made a 244-day mission in 2010. That spaceplane will soon be off on another mission.
 
 
 
Blastoff This morning from Cape Canaveral. Credit: ULA

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) sent another classified satellite up into orbit on board an Atlas 5 rocket. This classified mission is designated NROL-38, and some spacewatchers have guessed it may be a communications satellite which will be used to coordinate transmissions from other secret satellites. An educated guess, since there are lots of smart people watching these missions. For me the best part of this mission is that it's the 50th successful launch of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program, or EELV. Besides the Atlas 5, the Delta 4 rocket  has helped to make this series an important NASA transportation system as well as for the Air Force and NRO. The Atlas 5 is calculated to be used for the test launches of the Orion capsule being developed by Lockheed and NASA in a couple of years.
 
 
Atlas 5 on the left, Delta 4 on the right.  Credit: ULA.
 

By Mark Daymont
Space Center Educator