Tuesday, June 26
And just like that, it was the last day. I think time passes differently at Space Camp. At least our final day was a long one!
We started with an early breakfast followed by our Charlie mission. This was our final AOA mission before getting ready for our extended duration mission (EDM) in the afternoon. I was surprised when I was named Commander (!), but I quickly learned I loved the position. It also turns out I’m pretty good at landing the orbiter! Plus, the pilot on the mission, Jenn, was fabulous and very focused. We made a great team. At Space Camp, if you stay on the timeline and get things done efficiently, you know you are going to be thrown an anomaly! Well, they through a crazy one at us right near the end of the mission. Thankfully, Jenn focused on solving it while I focused on landing. She even got the landing gear down just in time! It was a great mission.
After our Charlie mission, we sat down as a team to decided what our positions would be for our EDM. The only constraints in choosing our position was that it had to be a position we had during our Alpha, Bravo, or Charlie missions, and the Station and Orbiter crews would swap places mid-mission. You know you have a team that works well together when there is no arguing about this process and it only takes five minutes! My position was decided as orbiter Commander for the first half of the mission and station Flight Engineer for the second half of the mission. The EDM is a three-hour long mission, by the way.
We then headed to our first Lego robotics session of the day followed by lunch. After lunch, the other half of our team did UAT, and the rest of us had some free time. I visited the Mammoths and Mastodons exhibit and finished up my gift shop purchases. We then met back together for our final Lego robotics session. We furiously worked to get our robot programmed and ready for the competition that evening. It’s amazing how quickly an hour and half passes when you are focused on a task! When time ran out, we were almost ready, but we wished for just a few more minutes. Thankfully, we had them right before our competition.
Next up was training for our EDM mission. Since we knew a lot about how the missions themselves work, this training gave us some tips for making our mission successful. For instance, if we had to use the bathroom during the mission, we had to wear a special helmet (the PVA helmet) to allow us to safely leave the station or orbiter without “dying”. We were all instructed to secure objects or they might start “floating”. (Well, really it was the space ghosts throwing things around.)
When we finished up, we were rushed off to dinner. Our leader, Dan, explained that a bigwig from Honeywell was there. We needed to hurry over there so that we could hear him speak. When we got to the door of the Astrotrek building and started walking in, all of the first year campers started clapping. As we took our seats, we instantly realized we’d been set up! It was our graduation ceremony! We were called up front and then called across to get our certificate and wings. Next, Dan got up and talked about choosing a Right Stuff Award. He said instead of a Right Stuff Award, he would be giving out a Space Camp Challenge coin. The coin is not just given – it is earned and even more special than the Right Stuff Award. As he continued talking, he revealed that every member of Team Kennedy would earn a challenge coin. We were all in tears. It was just another indication of what a fabulous team we all made together!
We then quickly ate dinner and headed to our EDM mission. Now this is where things started to get silly. I knew there would be anomalies on the mission, but I expected them to be based in reality. Most of these were a bit over the top! The mission started out smoothly. Then, four minutes in my pilot, Becky, “passed out”. As the mission specialists were attempting to help, one of them got out of her seat belt and “broke” both of her legs. The same thing happened to the second mission specialist a little bit later. During all this time, I’m attempting to find out from Capcom what is wrong with the pilot, get us in orbit, and finish all the checklists. Once we reached orbit, I had to splint the two mission specialists and treat the pilot. It turns out the pilot had a “heart attack”, and with the correct medication she was revived. That’s just the first hour or so of the mission. Even more crazy things happened throughout, but I think you’d find it more amusing if you had been there – or if you could hear the stories first hand from the entire team!
Once we survived our EDM, we headed over for our Lego Robotics competition. We had 5 minutes to prepare. Then we started the first round of competition. During our first round, we did pretty well, but we missed one of our goals. At half time, we had 10 minutes to plan and re-program. During the second half of the competition, our robot performed really well – although there were a few tense moments! We were able to reach all of our planned goals as well as a goal that we had not planned. Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for – who would “win” the contract? My team was excited to learn we were the Lego Robotics champions!
It was after 9:30 pm, and it was time to head back to the dorms. Once we got to the dorms, we watched our wrap up video of the week and shared memories together. Then, people started packing up to head home the next day. We spent some time hanging out and chatting, but all too soon it was over.
I am still in awe over the incredible week I had at Advanced Space Academy. I am so indebted to Honeywell and all of my teammates for such an amazing time. I am so inspired and excited to bring all of these amazing ideas to the classroom. I also know this is not the last I have seen of Team Kennedy!
