We are on to day 4 of our Space Camp adventure. We started the day with some free/exploration time. Of course this started in the gift shop. We actually got someone to open the gift shop early for us today. She was a former teacher and saw us eyeing some items from outside. She let us in and let us buy. We couldn't help but try on these 'space'tastic sunglasses!
Everyone has been telling us about this movie A Smile as Big as the Moon. Kelly has never seen it, but it is on her list of movies to see before the summer is out.
There is a pretty cool exhibit of all of the different planets and they are placed in their relative distance from the sun. It talks a little about each planet and shows the size compared to the sun also. Tackett's favorite planet is Uranus. :) She likes to let her inner middle schooler come out when she discusses the planet!
Kelly's favorite planet is Mars. Do you like the visit Mars shirt? She likes it because it is like earth but older and wiser. She hopes that in her lifetime humans will set foot on Mars.
While exploring more of the rocket center, we passed the G force accelerator. It brought back memories of the inner ear problems that it gave Tackett just days before. It even said it on the sign, but we didn't pay any attention at the time. After all... we were determined to try EVERYTHING at camp that week. So note to future Space Camp attendees, if you have inner ear issues, don't ride this ride!
We also had time to check out the Black Hole Adventure in one of the museums. You started this exhibit with a card that you plugged into different areas around the exhibit. It showed you a lot of information about black holes that was integrated with hands on exhibits and technology. At the end you could send an e-card from a black hole to someone you know. Very educational!
After lunch, we had our lunar base challenge. We were a team of 5 with Jersey, Chelsea and Auriole. Our job was to purchase items to build a portion of a lunar base camp. We had a budget and had models that we would choose from. Our portion of the base was about the exploration of the moons surface. We had to 'sell' our ideas to people with a poster and presentation. Both items are below. Tackett didn't want the presentation on here... but too bad! She did an awesome job as our information host. Auriole was our agreeable co-host and Chelsea was our NASA expert. Jersey acted fantastically as our volunteer. Kelly was the camera woman!
Here is pic of our poster:
Here is our presentation:
We went off to the Saturn V Rocket to take our team picture. We couldn't help but add some more of our pictures! We are laying on the moon under the nose of the rocket.
Our dad, Jeff, wanted to get in our pic!
Here is Team Zarya! What an awesome team!
We stayed in our space suits because we were ready for our Orion Mission! We had different jobs and different objectives for this mission. Tackett was in the Space Station on the moon at first performing some experiments with her team: Salvador, Dilek, and Christine. They had to complete the experiments and report on the data.
There was also a relief crew on their way to send them back to Earth. After all, they had been on the moon for months doing different research! So they switched it up and hopped on the shuttle to head home.
Here they are in the shuttle. Jeff was the commander of the shuttle to switch the crews. He did a great job as commander! Even was his partner in crime. They communicated directly with Kelly the whole mission because...
Kelly's job was Communications officer, also known as Capcom. It was almost like we had switched roles from our last mission! Her job was to directly communicate with the shuttle Orion. It was pretty intense trying to stay on cue and to speak all the space lingo. But after a while, it was second nature. We had a successful mission and hit all of our objectives: switch the crews, obtain data from experiments, and land the shuttle Orion back on Earth! Mission accomplished!!!
The last part of the day was spent over in the camp of the Aviation Challenge. This is a separate camp from Space Camp that hosts a military style camp for kids. It was a little intense to see the kids being treated like air force trainees!
So why were we over here? For more simulators!!! Here we were going to crash into the water like a crash landing and we were going to get to zip line too!
Here is the zip line we were going to drop from. It was 3 stories up! When we got there, it was a little intimidating! But we were sticking with our space camp motto of YOLO (you only live one). This is a phrase that we learned from teaching at the middle school level. Sorry if we annoyed anyone by yelling it out most of the time we were at camp. :)
Another shot of Tackett and Even. We loved exchanging stories about our cultures and teaching in China and the US.
The first simulator that we got to experience was the splash down tube! We were loaded into it in teams of 6 and splashed down in a crash situation. We had to swim out the windows to safety. We got to do this a few times while we were waiting to zip line. Each time we had different handicaps. One of the times Kelly lost an arm and leg and had to be helped. Tackett lost both legs and had to swim only using her arms! It was a blast crashing into the water. :)
The last simulator was the zip line. It was quite amusing getting ready to go up. We had to get strapped into harnesses. We were laughing at each other while we tugged at the straps to make sure we were safe. We also dawned helmets to keep our noggins safe!
We went up one at a time. Making the 3 story climb was kind of scary! Especially in the dark. The guys at the top who hooked us up were really nice and reassuring. You were hooked up backwards so you weren't looking down. They told us they were studying to be pilots in the Air Force, so I guess we trusted them a little. Then it was time to zip on down.
Here is Tackett going down:
Here is Kelly going down:
It was another amazing experience. We were exhausted after this day! It was a 15 hour day full of AWESOMENESS!!!
We were pretty sad to see this list though. This was our arrangements to head back home in just one day. :( It was hard to believe our experience was coming to an end. We had one more day with our new friends.
Kelly & Tackett,
Over and out. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment