My 4-day SC experience...

[p51]

Just got back late Monday night from the 4-day experience.
LOVED IT. They paired one team together of facebook people, one team of people who'd never been before (felt bad for them, that whole team bialed from space bowl except for 2 guys) and another of only SC alumni. I can't recall what the 4th team was composed of.
Anyway, here are some photos of the trip where PK, Steve and I went to KSC, then to SC right afterward.
Lost the commander's cup to the Facebook group, but won best mission
And yes, I won the best mission patch. I'm now 3-0!
Got to finally meet Hoot, Dr Barnhart and Vincent! All were great folks, too. I was also on a team with a couple of folks from here at HAB1, as well.
More info here, just scroll down until you see 2014: http://www.freewebs.com/willysmb44/spacecamp.htm
Here are a few random shots:

[Conan]

Sounds like a great time. I wish I could have attended both. We only had the one adult team in August, and some of use were also on the Facebook group. I just joined it when I heard they were sponsoring the longer adult camps this year. They will be keeping us informed about the week long camp next year, so you might want to friend them too. They are called the Space Tweeps, because they live-tweet their Space Camp experiences. I was vicariously living the whole weekend with them. Congrats on the Mission Patch again. We also chose to feature the Orion craft. No Space Bowl for us since we only had one team and we won all the awards, but they didn't actually give many out. Just Commander's cup and the Right Stuff Award and a pin for best mission. It might have been fun with other teams, but generally, we are so busy interacting and working within our own team, that we might not have really paid attention to the others except in the Spacebowl competition.

[Hotdog]

Thanks for the update! I always love to hear the details of people's camp experiences. It was fun following the other team of SpaceTweeps throughout the week, too. They seemed to really be having the time of their lives!

As a fellow master of the mission patch, I must say bravo on your latest design. I have seen the patch from the other team, and theirs does not tell the story of their team the way yours does. The spirit and character of your team shines through your design, and the competing patch I saw fell flat in that department. Well done!

Ok Steve, your turn!

[p51]

I have seen the patch from the other team, and theirs does not tell the story of their team the way yours does. The spirit and character of your team shines through your design, and the competing patch I saw fell flat in that department. Well done!

Thanks, that means a great deal to me.
It's a shame they don't lay out all the patch designs. Only once did I see the designs I've beat out. I thought it was funny when they mentioned patch designs at the awards, they held it up for just a moment. I heard someone mutter from the row right behind me, "Holy sh--..." when they saw it. That brought a smirk to my face, of course.
But as they submitted a design they'd had made up well in advance as part of the competition, that seems messed up to me. If I had months to ponder a patch design, I could come to SC with something truly amazing. I'm sure that I came up with my design in about half an hour must have meant something to the trainers who made the call. But you have to wonder how many people come to SC and say to their team, "Hey, I've got this amazing design done already that I've been working on for half the year..." You should have to come up with something on the spot. I'd be willing to think the trainers probably see it the same way.
FYI to everyone else, here's the patch design I came up with:

[Conan]

The Space Tweeps patch was designed and made into actual patches in advance of the October program, but it was designed to represent both the August and October programs. As such, it had to be pretty generic and couldn't capture the spirit of each team the way your patch did for yours. That requires more than just artistic talent, you have to listen to and bond with your team to truly capture the essence of the group. Kudos to you for being able to do that successfully so many times.
On past Space Camp trips, we designed our patches on the first day and didn't really always have the best idea what our group was going to be. (Although I have won a couple of team patch awards anyway) I liked it this August, when we did it after a couple of days and had more of an idea what we wanted and knew each other well enough by then to not be afraid to say what we liked. Our patch this summer represented everyone on the team, and though there was no award because we were the only team, we felt like winners because we got the patch that we all liked.

[Phoenix PK]

In the past, we would often incorporate elements that were external to our experience at Camp: a Canadarm extending an olive branch to a Chinese fireworks rocket, a Mercury capsule flying into an orbital sunset when Gordo Cooper died, a SpaceShip One zooming up when Rutan's group won the X-Prize. Historical events that took place while at Camp. It worked when we didn't have elements of our own to showcase.

[SpaceCanada]

Any updates from Steve, majtom7, or Phoenix PK? I'd love to hear your summaries of the weekend too. And from anyone else I may have missed.

We tried contacting the shuttle landing flight company in Titusville but haven't had a reply yet. Too late to book anything now, but it would have been fun for our trip coming up.

[Phoenix PK]

SpaceCanada, this was one of my most enjoyable trips to SC yet. Mostly due to the great folks
on our team, all vets as stated before, but not too jaded as to expect more and more and more.

They were a FUN bunch, with a couple of them bringing along totems in the form of a Barbie
or a stuffed Laika. I've seen this behavior go badly in the past, but this time it definitely enhanced
the fun. My pre-Lunar EVA assessment of my teammate included the comment "Small humanoid
attached to hip ~~> NOMINAL." Barbie even came equipped with her own LEVA helmet. Simply
brilliant.

We did short STS missions, an Orion Lunar mission, and an anomaly-laced STS EDM. Plenty of sim time,
in other words. The ISS EVA was even better than last year, with new tools and equipment swaps.

We did do rocket building, but with a twist- launch and recover a raw egg. Our team of four
was the only one to succeed, being very conservative with a B motor and lots of padding.
No nose cone for us, the styrofoam coffee cup's flat top worked great, Gemini style.

Meeting Hoot Gibson, after his lecture, was a sweet treat. Best perk yet that I've experienced.

Vincent was an enthused witness and a joy to meet. Thanks, bud, for cheering us on!

I have to say the best part was making two new BEST friends, Steve and p51. I'll fly with them
any time. You could not ask for better teammates.

It was short compared to ASA and CSC, but I didn't notice much difference in content. Well
worth the price and travel time.

--PK

[p51]

We tried contacting the shuttle landing flight company in Titusville but haven't had a reply yet. Too late to book anything now, but it would have been fun for our trip coming up.

That was the one disappointment for this trip. Steve had been on top of this aspect of our KSC mission, with open comms to their people. Turns out, they'd apparently gone belly-up and wouldn't admit that to Steve until we were committing to the flight itself. Mind you, Steve could answer this better as he's the guy who made all the calls, but in the end I think that 'company' was a good idea that didn't go anywhere. We never got our crew flight over runway 33. Still, we did get the see the runway from the ground as one of the tours we took drove right up to the fence. So, at least we got eyes on the runway itself, just not from the elevation we'd had in mind.

I have to say the best part was making two new BEST friends, Steve and p51. I'll fly with them any time. You could not ask for better teammates.

Right back at ya, PK! The entire experience was made so much better with you two in the 'CSM' at KSC (to everyone else, this is what we called the rental van we took to Titusville from the Orlando airport). I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun alone as the best way to see KSC and go to SC is with folks of a smiliar enthusiasm/knowledge level. We sure accomplished that!
One thing I'll need to add to my blog is how we decided at KSC to walk into the HAB on the first day wearing matching grey 'Atlantis' t-shirts.

This was Steve's idea and I think it turned some head when we walked in like that. Wore them the entire first day as we didn't get the team photo taken until much later this time.

[majtom7]

That was the one disappointment for this trip. Steve had been on top of this aspect of our KSC mission, with open comms to their people. Turns out, they'd apparently gone belly-up and wouldn't admit that to Steve until we were committing to the flight itself. Mind you, Steve could answer this better as he's the guy who made all the calls, but in the end I think that 'company' was a good idea that didn't go anywhere.

I saw their website yet always wondered how they could dive on the SLF with the VAB a mile or so away, as to the best of my knowledge, KSC is restricted airspace. Is anyone here a pilot who can better answer that?

[p51]

I saw their website yet always wondered how they could dive on the SLF with the VAB a mile or so away, as to the best of my knowledge, KSC is restricted airspace. Is anyone here a pilot who can better answer that?

Well, there are actually commerical operators who use that runway as well. There's an F-104 demonstration team who also does high speed testing and they fly out of there.
More on that operation (which I'm ticked their site is still up as they proetty much told us they were done) here: http://www.americaspace.com/?p=35521
I wouldn't waste any time with them if I were any of you. Poor Steve wasted a ot of time with them...

[majtom7]

Well, there are actually commerical operators who use that runway as well. There's an F-104 demonstration team who also does high speed testing and they fly out of there.

Zero-G and StarFighters, Inc. are at a completely different level than some guys with a Beechcraft as they do some work with NASA.

http://www.theshuttlelandingexperience.com/flights.html

[p51]

I took an hour and did a quasi-digital version of the mission patch, with the line work done in ink and the rest on a computer...

[street]

Frankly Lee, I like the looks of the hand-drawn one better! Is the kangaroo shaped island in the ocean a nod to Mel?

[p51]

Frankly Lee, I like the looks of the hand-drawn one better!

Finished versions never have the exact same look as the sketch. But I couldn't get a patch company to get a good idea for the design with that photo of the sketch I did...

Is the kangaroo shaped island in the ocean a nod to Mel?

It is indeed. Hoot Gibson had given his lecture the day before and he'd talked about (what had to have been) George Abbey wanting a dragon in a mission patch, and they instead used a constellation to represent that. When Mel later said we needed to put a roo into the design, I instantly knew how I was going to incorportate that. Mel had no clue at the time that the Aussie flag would be a large element of the overall design.

[Deimos]

It was an absolutely AMAZING weekend is what it was
nice post lee, and loving the patch design! can't wait to get it

[p51]

And yet again, my patch design never makes it onto the SC site: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 727&type=3

[Vincent]

They don't want to make the other patches feel bad.

[p51]

They don't want to make the other patches feel bad.

That crossed my mind that it could be the case (I assume you're just kidding). I was going to ask around when we were there last but forgot to so, why the adult patch designs never seem to make the website. I assume it might be that if kids see what I did, for example, it might seem intimidating for a kid to think to step up thinking that’s the standard when its their turn.
If you want to get technical, maybe the adult programs shouldn't have a mission patch design because you can easily have people with serious artistic training or professional experience in such things, whereas it's highly unlikely that would happen with the kids.
Either way, they shouldn't tell the adult programs that the winning patches will show up on the site. None of my previous winning patches ever wound up on the old patch listing until I brought it up with them.

[p51]

I got a slideshow done from various shots taken by my team, I think it turned out pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klYM0S6UNjM