Day 3 started out with a bang! We went to the rocket launch area to blast off the rockets we made yesterday. Everyone's rocket launched successfully and we had none that got stuck in a tree.
Notice our awesome NASA shirts!
Here is everyone setting up their rockets on the launch lad with our friend 'The Wanderer', Scott from Syracuse, NY. He likes to explore while wandering away from our group. He always comes back though. :)
Here they are all lined up and ready to go!
When it was our turn, we went up to the launch control panel and had our count down. 3,2,1 and blast off! We pushed the button and our rockets went sailing.
This is Tackett's rocket. Her parachute didn't deploy quite right. It had a dramatic crash landing, but it will be able to redeem itself in another launch attempt very soon.
After the rocket launch, we had some very coveted time in the gift shop. No pictures, but our team was REALLY happy that Katie let us finally go there. She has been holding out all week long and guess what, we have gift shop time tomorrow too!!!! :):):)
Then we had another photo shoot before our Orion Mission practice.
Here are our friends Ulises and Even! Can you tell we love the Even pose?
We had to get another pic with our favorite 'dad' Jeff. He is the commander on this mission and will take good care of our crew for the trip.
Here are our two partners in crime, Jersey and Chelsea. We have had a good time finding our way through some challenges and maybe bending the rules a little. Or as we like to call it, thinking outside of the box.
We couldn't resist adding our leader Katie in the mix. She loves it when we 'think outside the box'!
We will give more details about our mission tomorrow, but wanted to share Tackett's 'weightless' pic from the mission practice. This is D and Christine. They are going to be on her team tomorrow! They can't wait to do some experiments in space!!!
We had some down time after practice and was able to watch the IMAX movie 'Magnificent Desolation'. It was about the moon missions and what the future might hold for travel there someday. It was a good movie and we didn't get any motion sickness from it. Jeff even got us a treat for the movie. Rock CANDY!
After lunch, we had the privilege of hearing Ed Buckbee speak. He is the author of the book The Real Space Cowboys. He told stories about the golden days of space travel. It was really neat to hear firsthand experiences with the giants that we teach about in space exploration. The personal stories made this experience unique and memorable. We can't wait to share some of these stories when we go back home to teach.
The end of his presentation was really poignant. He makes a good point when he talks about how everyone is important in a big job like landing a man on the moon. Without the effort of thousands, that one man would just be stuck on Earth! It is all about teamwork. I sense a theme at Space Camp!
The last challenge of the day was to construct a heat shield out of common household materials. This shield would have to protect an egg from a flame torch for 3 minutes. The egg could not cook or be charred. We had a budget for each material and a time limit of 20 minutes. It was tough and we were tired.
We finished right on budget and with time to spare. We are that good! So now it was time to test our shield. Not gonna lie, we were nervous. All went well in the first minute and a half. No fire, no smoke, and no melting.
After that, we had a bit of melt down. Our steel and spackle was holding up, but it seems that our polyester felt caught on fire. That kind of charred our lasagna noodle too. It looked like our egg was going to bust. However, when we cracked it open, the egg was declared not cooked! Looking back we did think of some things that we would do differently like get rid of the flame cloth.
This wasn't part of our day, but we wanted to share this picture. It is of the 'habitat' where the children of Space Camp stay. Kelly immediately thought of a gerbil habitat. So picture some students doing things like: running in wheels, drinking from a gerbil water bottle, being locked in their cages... rooms, and so on. Every time we walk by it, we giggle. They won't let us go in there, so we will just have to imagine what it looks like.
Tomorrow we have our Aviation Challenge, our Orion Mission, and MORE GIFT SHOP time. Until then...
Kelly & Tackett,
over and out!
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