HESA Space Camp Day 3

Day 3 of Space Camp was probably one of my favorite days.  We had free time in the morning to do whatever we wanted before our training started.  I took this time to visit the gift shop and purchase some goodies for my family.

Our first activity this day was our Alpha Mission (there is more information on this here).  We all took our places in the shuttle, the International Space Station, and mission control.  My job as CAPCOM was pretty stressful because I had to constantly switch channels to speak to mission control or the astronauts in the shuttle.  Once we had a successful lift-off we began to have problems that we had to address.  We had a binder of solutions that we had to look through to find the correct "fix" for each problem.  Team Columbus did very well and we were able to solve each of our problems in a pretty timely manner.  The most hilarious part for our team was when a voice came over our speakers reminding our commander to fly the shuttle.  By the end of the flight we had landed with only two minor problems. First, we had landed with our hatch open. Secondly, we broke off our front wheel.  It was a story that we will continue to tell and laugh about for years to come.

Team Columbus Landing

SUCCESS!!

My view from Mission Control

CAPCOM

After our mission we attended a presentation from one of the HESA Ambassadors.  These presentations were AWESOME!!!  We got lots of great ideas from two teachers who had attended Space Camp previously and were back to share how they had incorporated what they learned into their classroom.  We were also so excited to see how Space Camp had influenced their teaching.  It was a great learning experience.

We then back to the International Space Station to train for our next mission...Bravo.  Once again we were given our job duties, instructions on how to do our job, and a little practice time.  My job this time was Mission Specialist.  I was going to be in the space craft for lift-off and then trade places with other mission specialists who had been living at the International Space Station.  We got to complete our mission on Day 4.

Another favorite activity of mine was the Aviation Water Challenge.  We were taken to the Aviation portion of the campus and got to complete three training simulations.  First, we zip lined backward into the lake. This was to simulate parachuting out of a plane into water.

 

The second simulation was a plane crashing into water.  We were in the "air-craft" and had to escape out of the windows after it had crashed.  This one was funny because our Chinese friends wouldn't evacuate because they wanted to take pictures inside the plane.  So we were hanging out inside for a little bit :-).  

 

The final simulation was being rescued by a helicopter while in the water.  For this simulation, we had to climb into a very large water basket that lifted us out of the water.  The Aviation Water Challenge was one of my favorite experiences of the week.