Arrival Day
I decided to drive to Huntsville from where I live in GA. It ended up being a very pleasant four hour drive through really nice countryside of GA and AL.
When I arrived at Charger Village on the campus of University of Alabama, Huntsville where our dorm accommodations are I was immediately introduced to the generosity of Honeywell. We received a backpack, water bottle, a book, a space camp squishy astronaut, name badge and team assignments (go Team Columbus!) and a FLIGHT SUIT! Since we needed to make sure it was the right size, I got into the suit immediately and then had a picture taken with a couple of my space camp comrades right away.
I then got settled into my dorm room (which is really nice!), and prepared for dinner at 5:30. Dinner was a great sandwich or salad. I had turkey on a croissant. During dinner I got to know some of my fellow space camp attendees, and just happened to sit with two of my Team Columbus teammates! We then watched In the Shadow of the Moon – definitely a great warm up to space camp!
All of this was on arrival and not technically part of the space camp program! What an amazing way to begin.
Day 1
- Bus to Breakfast: We met the bus at 7 am for a quick drive over to the Educator Training Facility (ETF) at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (USSRC).
- Breakfast: When we arrived, we sat down and got settled and then jumped in the breakfast line. The spread included fresh fruit, yogurt, biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon and sausage, juice and coffee. It was definitely a sign of all the great food we would enjoy throughout the week.
- Opening Remarks: Mare Gilmore, the education director of space camp, welcomed us and gave us some introductory information. The most important thing we learned is that we should ALWAYS wear clothes under our flight suits. (We were frequently reminded of this throughout the week.) We were also welcomed by another USSRC/Space Camp director and a Honeywell director.
- Team Building/Name game: Next up, we met the members of our team. I was on Team Columbus. Among the activities we completed were tying and untying ourselves in a human knot, and learning all about each other. We went in a circle and told our name and something we like to do. Amy likes to play volleyball, Cliff likes karate kid, Carol likes snakes, Sharon likes to cycle, Janelle (me) likes to tweet, Deanna likes to tube down a river, Amy likes to hike, Kerri likes to read, Michelle likes to kayak, Randy likes to geocache, Steve likes to blast off rockets, Jon likes to surf, Nathan likes to skateboard, Mark likes strategy games, Elizabeth likes to slalom water sky, Robyn likes to (oh no, I forgot!), Sward likes to fish, and Lauren likes to (forgot this one too!). Ryan arrived later and didn’t get to play this with us, but when he arrived, we found out he likes to play guitar.
- Shuttle Orientation: Next up was our shuttle orientation in order to get us familiar with the shuttle system as we would be running two simulated shuttle missions. I seemed to know a lot about the shuttle already thanks to the spacetweeps and my space geek tendencies, but I still managed to take about 7 pages of notes!
- Lunch: This time it was fried chicken, greens, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes, white gravy. There was always a salad bar and lunch and dinner as well as dessert! I tried not to partake in eating dessert at every meal, but I did break down occasionally.
- Mission Overview: Next we learned more about each position on the shuttle team to help us prepare for our shuttle missions. We then had an opportunity to choose where we would be for our missions. My top two choices were on the orbiter as a mission specialist to complete an EVA and in MOCR as flight director. After that, we received a great Honeywell red t-shirt to put on for a photo op after our next session.
- Astronaut – Dr. Don Thomas speaks to us: This was an incredible time with astronaut Dr. Don Thomas. The most amazing thing I learned from his presentation was that he applied to be an astronaut four times, and was finally selected the fourth time. If that is not a lesson in persistence and doing what needs to be done to reach a goal, I don’t know what is. I can’t wait to share this with my students! After the session, we had a team photo wearing our Honeywell t-shirts with Dr. Thomas.
- Mathematical Curiosity: Our next session was a very hands on lesson where we built a Mars rover with recycled materials and incorporated math using a line of best fit/equation of line, etc. It was a lot of fun.
- Dinner: Next up was dinner. It was pizza.
- Atlantis Mission Training: After dinner, we headed over to the shuttle sims to find out our positions for our first shuttle mission and to train up for the actually mission which would be the next day. I was very excited to learn I was Mission Specialist 1 which meant I would head up our EVA out of the orbiter. This was exciting since Atlantis is my favorite orbiter, and I received my number 1 choice!
- Mission Patch: Finally our last activity of the day was to learn about the history of mission patch designs and then to start working on our Team Columbus mission patch. We started brainstorming and getting ideas together that night.
As we were leaving to head back to the dorms, we received another Honeywell Space Academy t-shirt because the first one did not have the Honeywell logo large enough on the front of the shirt. When we got back to the dorm, my roommates and I decided to try to find Wal-mart to get some supplies. We found out it was a bit of a trick to find things in Huntsville, but we finally had success when we found a Publix. We then went back to our room and spent some time getting to know each other a little bit better. My roommate Michelle is from Alaska, and Robyn and Elizabeth are from the Minneapolis/St.Paul area.
It was a long, exciting first day. It was definitely indicative of what each day would be like. Over 14 hour days would be the norm throughout the experience, but it was definitely exciting every minute.
Here is the link to my Day 1 photos.
