Train LIKE an Astronaut

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wxnerdjenn
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Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by wxnerdjenn »

So here we are having finished day 2 about 30 minutes ago. I've taken a shower to get the chlorine out of my hair and crawled into my bunk to wind down before I crash. I figured I'd come type up a little bit of what we've been up to on Team Columbia.

This week there are 3 adult teams: two train WITH an astronaut teams, and one train like an astronaut team. I'm on the "like" team, Columbia. The other two are Discovery and Challenger. Columbia only has 8 people! It is kind of awesome...actually, really awesome. Exactly half of the team is made up of first timers, which I find to be pretty cool. Our crew trainers are CC and Sam...both of whom are awesome. By the way, "awesome" can be used to describe everything about this week so far, so pardon my extreme overuse of the word. When our team first met up with CC Sunday, we were making the usual small talk and within minutes we were already bonding. We quickly discovered that every one of us is a geek...and that is totally cool with everyone else.

On day 1, we did a quick tour of the campus then all three teams met in the Challenger room where we had a very good presentation by a couple crew trainers with some help from Hoot. The presentation was mission orientation and they went through a lot of the basic stuff such as reading the checklists. I found that very helpful as last time I didn't feel we had quite enough time to really learn that kind of thing before jumping into learning our specific roles. Following that, the other two teams went to work on their mission patch while we had a lecture given half by a space camp employee I can't remember the name of and half by Hoot! It was about flight hardware and was super nerdy and awesome. Then my team worked on our patch (many great ideas, really..it was amazing) while the others had their lecture. We ended the day by piling all of us onto a camp bus and going to a nearby theater to see The Martian. We had about an hour to kill before the movie, so everyone scattered around (it was like an outdoor mall) and I ran into Will, my crew trainer from last time. That was super awesome. I could have walked right past him (hey, he wasn't in his flight suit, haha), but he got my attention. The movie was great, but it was special to see it while most of us were in flight suits and of course we made the theater be comprised mostly of nerds. After the movie, we all met back where we were dropped off and waited for the bus. Once on the bus, we noticed we were missing someone. Steve, a guy on my team, was nowhere to be found. His phone went straight to voicemail. Hab security said he wasn't in his room, so we knew he hadn't somehow gone back without us. We waited for a long time, then had to leave. Whoops. Good thing we're adults! Turns out, he had fallen asleep during the movie and even though a theater employee had cleaned up around him, he wasn't noticed. He woke up and realized he was alone and took a cab back to camp. He earned his call sign: MIA (we pronounce it mee-uh instead of saying the letters).

Day 2, well, my roommate has fallen asleep, so I will try not to type quite so much...haha. We started with alpha mission training, which was actually an hour and a half long. I scored my favorite position: PILOT! and had an absolute blast practicing getting those APUs going and helping the CDR (MIA, a first timer) learn what was going on. He did great, by the way. Next we again met with the other two teams over in the nat geo theater and had a guest speaker via Skype. I forgot his name, but I do have it written down, but he was in Houston in one of the observation rooms overlooking one of the smaller mission control rooms. He spoke about the flight controller position and what really makes a good flight director. That was a very interesting talk and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Next, we went back to do our alpha mission which went very well. Everyone really did a superb job, and I have to give major props to MIA for his landing. It was his first time, except for the three practice runs, and he did a fantastic job. We then took about 15 minutes to have a mission debrief, then had our team photo and lunch. Then on to another lecture, this time about the orbiter and station systems. Again, very interesting. Low ropes was next (curse you, traffic jam!!) then...the absolute highlight of my day...SCUBA! I was scared. Very nervous. I have a pool in my backyard and my ears hurt even at 5 ft in depth so I was nervous I wouldn't be able to go down 24 ft. I was also scared of having my sinuses hurt, or having my mask leak and me panicking...any number of things. We only had 6 people diving, so each instructor took two of us and I adored the one I got. He was so thorough in his explanations, including the physics of what's going on when we dive. We practiced just going under and breathing (I had to be weighted since I'm so buoyant, lol). Like I expected, I couldn't get a good mask seal and had leakage. I also am in the habit of breathing out through my nose when I swim, so I kept aggravating the leak. My instructor was great, recognized the issue, and helped me through it. We also learned how to find our regulator should we lose it, how to clear the water from it, and the part I was terrified of..clearing our masks. Turns out, that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, until we actually took them all the way off and had to put them back on and clear them. My brain got confused and I was just sure that since my eyes were squeezed shut, I couldn't breathe. Fortunately I got over that quickly and was able to get it done right the first time. After also learning how to signal we were out of air and needed to buddy breathe, and demonstrating each thing to the instructor, we started to descend the ladder. Every two steps, equalize the ears, signal ok, and then go down more. We were the first "group" down and right away I went for the bowling ball and had some fun. I LOVED IT. Every second. Leaky mask and all. Since learning how to clear it, I had no problems. It was simply awesome. I can almost think of nothing else, it was that cool. The day wasn't over yet though, we had dinner then worked on our rockets for a couple of hours. We ended day 2 with a lecture on space meds.

So, that was WAY longer than I intended, but I figure if I don't write the details now, I may forget stuff. Tomorrow we have a HUGE day. AC sims, centrifuge, 3 missions (for bravo, I'm FDO), and finishing our mission patch. I should attempt to sleep now...
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
Team Challenger
---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by wxnerdjenn »

I just have to add one thing. It just started raining, and in the hab it sounds SO musical, haha. It really sounds like someone is dragging thousands of tin cans behind them, but they make pretty clank clank noises. Ahhh, and there's some thunder. Now maybe I can go Zzzzzzz.....
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
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---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by p51 »

Thanks for the updates, Jenn. I have a few pals on the other teams right now and I've gotten some texts from my two closest SC friends on what's going on this week. I'm green with envy of you all! :mrgreen:
I'd love to see some photos if you (or anyone else there) could post them.
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by wxnerdjenn »

Your wish is my command. I brought along my laptop so I pulled the photos off my SD card, but I am running off my hotspot so I don't want to eat up allllll my data uploading photos, but here are a select few to get started. I have about 170 more, though that sure isn't very many considering we're now halfway done :-( Anyway, my flickr for you to enjoy:

www.flickr.com/serietah

The album is the Advanced Space Academy album. My photos from my January 3 day are in the Space Camp album. I will upload more during the week and all of them when I get home. Enjoy!

And for today's Columbia update....

Today we headed to Aviation Challenge where we failed miserably at shooting each other down. For some reason, everyone was hanging around 5k ft and lower (I was up around 40k wondering where everyone was) so it was tough to chase people around to shoot them haha. That fun didn't even start until we all took off and landed, and then took off again. It took me FOREVER to land because I forgot the little detail about the runways being at specific headings so I kept heading toward the airport just to find myself perpendicular to the runway. I'd circle around and be off still...rinse, repeat. Finally I got "close enough" and landed in the grass, but ended up on the runway before I stopped! I taxied back and took off, then just stayed up rather than continuing to practice landing. No sense in being frustrated, right? By that time they were ready to move us to the dog fight portion anyway. That was pretty fun even though I never did get in a good enough position to shoot anyone. I actually was having more fun just flying around doing barrel rolls and enjoying myself. After that we went to the centrifuge. One of our team members didn't want to ride, so one person had to go twice, so naturally I volunteered. Well, I didn't HAVE to, but I wanted to! I went first, then ended up going again right after since we needed a heavier person on the inside and we have a guy on our team who can't use his right arm so he couldn't press the button on that side. Anyway...I got to ride the centrifuge twice in a row! Awesome...sort of haha. It was a blast the first time. The second time I felt it a bit more and was a bit more dizzy when I got off, but it wasn't too bad. After the centrifuge, we actually had an hour scheduled for lunch. I wasn't quite ready to eat yet since it was only 10:30 (crazy scheduling) so I went to explore the museum a bit, then ate lunch.

Here, how about a paragraph for easier reading? :D Next we had our Bravo mission training. I was assigned to the FDO position, and went over the math a couple times and made sure I was good on the checklist. With 1.5 hours for training, I really felt prepared for the mission when we started it. Bravo went well. We landed just short of the runway (or maybe it was just off to the side) but ended up back on the runway and we didn't actually crash so it was called successful. We were running rather behind on the timeline pretty much the entire mission, but I enjoyed the FDO spot. The OMS burn math wasn't bad and made sense so it was just a matter of getting capcom to understand what I was giving him and having him communicate it to the orbiter. We actually ended up with about an hour of free time after that because one of our members had been working on our mission patch in his own time. We'd agreed on the basic design, and he used the google version of powerpoint to digitize it and email it to our trainer.

Next up...Charlie mission! For Charlie, I was capcom. Boy was I excited when I heard that!! After being pilot and FDO, I really understood what exactly capcom was dealing with, so I was stoked to get to apply everything I'd learned to the job. I really felt comfortable with the role and everyone said I did a great job (even the crew trainer), so I feel pretty good about that. We actually had an anomaly free mission, so it was great to really focus on the flight plan and get everything running smoothly. Our CDR was the guy with the impairment (sorry, I'm not sure how to be PC about that) and he did a fantastic job of going through his checklists with one arm. Our MSes both helped him and the pilot. The pilot for charlie is a first timer, and someone who really hasn't had the interest in space we have, so everything is new to her. She is quite awesome and really did a stellar job. I had a blast as capcom just following the flight plan, but also being able to be more specific with directions to her and to the CDR, depending on the task. It was just a great mission.

After dinner, we stole a bit of time to finish up our rockets, then came Delta, which would find all 8 of us stuffed into one module of the ISS. Yikes. We doubled up on each position so since the station cdr and scientist work together, we actually had 4 people doing each thing. It was crowded and hectic, but we found a groove and made it work. I enjoyed it, though I wish they'd split us into groups of 4 and done just a short mission each instead of all 8 of us doing a longer mission. It worked though.

Our earliest ending day, back in the hab by 10pm. Most folks are at the library, but I'm here writing this, haha. Hope you guys are enjoying this write up, I'm glad I'm having the opportunity to do it NOW rather than trying to remember all this later. More to come tomorrow!!

Preview of tomorrow: Marshall tor, rocket launch, guest speaker, Q&A with astronauts, climbing wall, Orion mission, and the 1/6th chair. Since there are only 8 of us, Im going to ask if we can also do the MMU.
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
Team Challenger
---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by wxnerdjenn »

Today I was given my call sign. Who gave it to me? None other than Astronaut Bob Springer. Yep. I was given my call sign BY A FREAKING ASTRONAUT! How cool is that?! I was given the name "Gimbal" for correctly answering that the SSMEs gimbal is what actually causes the orbiter to roll after lift-off. A teammate asked the question to "Hoot and Bob" after a talk they gave, and I wanted to throw my answer out before they answered to see if I was right. I win.

Sooooo today's update! We started off with a bus ride over to Marshall for a tour. The tour was a lot like the Level Nine tour at Johnson. We went to a viewing room for the ISS payload control room (I forgot the complete real name, but I've got pictures so I'll find that later). Then we went to an avionics integration lab like SAIL at JSC, but this was for the SLS booster. Basically, we stood inside a freaking rocket. That was super awesome, and yes I have pictures and will be uploading them to my flickr later. After that, we went over to the test launch stand that was actually used to test the Saturn V first stage, and many awesome things since then. Recently it's been used for testing filling and emptying SLS components that I honestly don't remember right now because standing under that structure was so daunting I kept having to remind myself to focus on what the guys were telling us. It was HUGE and AWESOME. Right around the corner, they are building a NEW test launch stand that will be used for many things. It was actively under construction as we were there, so that was pretty freaking cool. Then of course we had to invade the gift shop on site. Their credit card machine went down as we entered, so a lot of stuff got put back, but prices there were great and there was an ATM so I still walked out with a big bag full of stuff I just had to have. Our gift shop time was unplanned so we were running very late for our next activity, which was a guest speaker.

Our guest speaker was Mike Seibert, an actual Mars rover driver from JPL. He gave a fantastic, entertaining talk about mapping a Mars journey, based on Mark Watney's experiences in The Martian. Turns out, the guy who does the actual Mars maps, Mike Seibert, and another JPL nerd had a lunch time conversation about Watney's journeys and the "Keeper of the Maps" made maps based on the book. (yes I took pictures of the screen) That was awesome to see the path Watney would have taken for real and what a couple of better options would have been. He talked about the scientific accuracy (and inaccuracy) of the book. It was generally just a very entertaining talk.

Next, we hurriedly finished our rockets then headed out to launch. Forgive the direct copy/paste from my facebook status earlier, but I am exhausted and don't want to rewrite all this haha: Welllll, our eggstronaut did not survive. Unfortunately our rocket didn't function properly. It launched well, but the charge to deploy the parachute didn't separate the rocket at the coupler. Instead, the force sheared our capsule and caused failure. We were doomed from then. Our rocket, now a missile, completed its ascent and then proceeded to fall at a fatal 9.8m/s and plow into the ground. The nosecone was buried at least an inch. The eggstronaut was bleeding profusely and the injuries were incompatible with life.
Analysis of the missile revealed that the engine had been ejected. Team J squared S squared lost.

We had a quick lunch, then zipped off for our astronaut speakers which I talked about a bit at the beginning of the post. Although the other two teams got a lot more time with the astronauts, we definitely didn't feel neglected by them. This talk really helped. We all loved it and got to take a couple group photos with them after. Then it was off the Area 51 to do the climbing wall. I was absolutely terrified. Usually I'll jump to be first to do things, but not for this. I needed to watch others before I did it since I have zero experience with rock climbing at all, not even a little one like in the museum. I almost chickened out, but I made myself take the first step. I had set a goal of making it to the first 4x4, which is at the 10ft mark. That isn't much, but I'm not in good shape and again, was terrified, so I just wanted to set a realistic goal. I started climbing (OMG that is hard!!) and made it to my goal, went about a foot higher, and decided to quit. I was sure. But my team was cheering me on, and I heard my crew trainer yell "Gimbals don't stop gimballing, so don't stop climbing" which, while silly, was a huge motivator. I kept going, but only for a few more feet. I ended up alllllmost halfway up the wall, so about 20 feet. My whole body was starting to get shaky at that point and I was getting a little panicky, so I decided to call it and come down. Coming down was great. I picked up a rock and kissed it!

We then went to Orion mission training. I was assigned to be Environmental Specialist on the orbiting station. I got excited to see that that position involved doing some weather map analysis, since as a meteorology student, I've done that. The people who designed our mission were there (we were only the 6th team to ever do this particular mission) so that was pretty cool. They were excited to get my feedback as a met student. We ate dinner next, and Hoot actually joined us for a bit. I got to have a candid conversation with him about Challenger and Columbia. I loved hearing his real opinion. After dinner, we ran our Orion mission. I had a blast doing Mars weather forecasts and getting increasingly panicky about a dust storm. The mission they'd designed was awesome. Everyone was doing such different things and having a blast. We skipped our last activity of the day, and moved it to Friday instead just because we still had to fill out our meal requests for our LDM and do a mission position survey.

Oh yeah, I got to meet our own Vincent at Marshall, so that was super cool! That wouldn't have happened had we not made our unscheduled stop at the gift shop.

Overall, today was a great, very long day, but tomorrow..is a beast. We have a pre launch breakfast, then LDM training, then our LDM. We voted on positions tonight and I'm 99% sure I'll be pilot. Should be awesome!
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
Team Challenger
---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by majtom7 »

So you went to the NASA Exchange? Love shopping there due to the non publicly available items...

Did they give you the option of climbing the ladder instead of the wall or was it wall or nothing? (couldn't resist the word play)
"I wanted to be humble, never arrogant, which is a trait astronauts despise." Mike Massimino
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by p51 »

Wow, Jenn, thanks for the play-by-play of what's going on this week. I'm seething with jealousy for not being able to be there, but glad you're all having a great time, nonetheless.
wxnerdjenn wrote:Today I was given my call sign. Who gave it to me? None other than Astronaut Bob Springer. Yep. I was given my call sign BY A FREAKING ASTRONAUT! How cool is that?!
Man, I'm green with envy over here... :mrgreen: Call signs don't seem to be all that terribly common at Camp (I've gone three times and have only ever had one person get a call sign while there, and one other afterward).
wxnerdjenn wrote:Then of course we had to invade the gift shop on site. Their credit card machine went down as we entered, so a lot of stuff got put back, but prices there were great and there was an ATM so I still walked out with a big bag full of stuff I just had to have.
Okay, now I'm almost drooling with envy, being a NASA swag collector. The 'away from the public' shops always have really neat stuff.
wxnerdjenn wrote:Oh yeah, I got to meet our own Vincent at Marshall, so that was super cool! That wouldn't have happened had we not made our unscheduled stop at the gift shop.
Vincent really is a great guy. I got to meet him last year, and I'm happy you had a similar experience.
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

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Today we had our LDM. I am EXHAUSTED mentally and physically, so forgive me for not providing the details tonight. I'll try to type that up tomorrow maybe on the plane or when I plop into bed at home late tomorrow night.

For now, just a few notes. We weren't specifically given the option of climbing the ladder or the wall, but we did have one guy who used the ladder since he has no use of his right hand. The rest of us did the wall with no thought to the other side.

The gift shop was awesome. $20 backpack with a NASA logo on it, and much higher quality than the $26 camp backpack that is currently available. There was a lot of really cool stuff in there at very low prices (NASA jackets, like proper jackets, for $50 or $60). I would have spent a lot more money there had the credit card machine been working.

My team had fun with the whole call sign thing. Almost everyone was "given" one, though we didn't really use them much. I did thoroughly enjoy each time I was called Gimbal today though.

Finally, before I absolutely pass out...I just have to say that I got our APUs started in <30 seconds. I looked at the clock, waited for 00, then started, looked back at the clock, and it was at 30. Of course, my celebration of meeting my goal was quickly met with a C&W that said "APU" hahaha. I'm sure the space ghosts were giggling quietly to themselves. A quick switch of APU 2 and 3 to high speed, turning off 1, then turning it back on at normal speed resolved the issue. But I am STOKED about how quickly I got through that checklist. I'll try to get more details posted soon. I know at least a few fellow trainees this week have been reading this, so I hope you guys have all enjoyed my perspective. I am bummed that it's just about over, but I'm also ready to go hug my cats.

Tomorrow Team Columbia has the 1/6 chair, the MAT, evals, and graduation. But we'll be down one person as Shalini really has to get back to her real life. She just wasn't prepared for the rigors of camp as far as not having time at all to do any work, but she did an amazing job adapting to the "culture", if you will. Tonight at the "library", she even was tossing out some acronyms like a pro. It was great. We'll miss her tomorrow, but glad to have had the experience of creating a new space nerd. Welcome to the club!

GOOD NIGHT!
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
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---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by p51 »

wxnerdjenn wrote:The gift shop was awesome. $20 backpack with a NASA logo on it, and much higher quality than the $26 camp backpack that is currently available. There was a lot of really cool stuff in there at very low prices (NASA jackets, like proper jackets, for $50 or $60). I would have spent a lot more money there had the credit card machine been working.
Man, that would have killed me if I'd been there to not be able to buy the stuff I'd have wanted. I'm a gift shop swag junkie, I always hit gift shops everywhere I go. Anyone familiar with my posts here knows I'm a NASA gear collector as well...
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

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Well I'm home, and suffering from a severe case of post camp blues. Once graduation is over, there is a distinct change from having every moment of your life scheduled to having this sudden onset of this magical thing called "free time". Many of us looked lost. I still feel odd not having the structure of camp. Amazing what we adjust to in such a short time.

So let me talk about Thursday and Friday to wrap up my "blog".

Thursday we had our LDM, a whopping 12 hour long mission. We started with breakfast as usual at 7, but instead of the normal breakfast, we had steak and eggs. I was extraordinarily nervous and couldn't even finish my steak because of the butterflies. Team Challenger had done their LDM on Wednesday, so they offered some words of wisdom (stash food everywhere, for example). Around 8, we went upstairs above the MCC floor and had our LDM briefing and position assignment. It was a pretty cool powerpoint production that included an overview of what was going to happen. We were a bit in shock that while a meager lunch would be provided, dinner was not on the schedule. Our LDM was scheduled to end at 10pm, far too late for the cafeteria. We did have a custom cake made for us, though. It had our mission patch design on it and we'd be able to eat it after the LDM. As you may have guessed from my previous post about the APUs: I was assigned to my #1 choice...pilot! We got a bit more training on the differences for this mission, and on moving to the ISS after docking. We'd have our lunch there and spend some time there before moving back to the orbiter for reentry and landing. We were also taught about the anti-gravity rules that would now be enforced. Three pieces of imaginary velcro on the flight deck were all that was allowed, so we would have to figure out what to do with extra checklists and stuff. On a normal sized team, that would have been a swap of the ISS crew and orbiter crew, but with only 8 people, we would move the entire flight crew to the ISS then back. Unfortunately, even though our flight plan was custom made for us, it was far from perfect. We were delayed in starting our mission for quite a while, I'm not sure what time we started, but it was definitely late. They told us they wouldn't count off points since it wasn't in our control. Flight plan issues resolved, or so we though, the flight crew was told to head to the Mars Grill area to change. Change? What? They had something special for us to wear apparently. We walked out of MOCR and found several piles of orange flightsuits on tables. We swapped our blue camp suits for the orange ones, then noticed some NASA vest type things (I'll have to find out what exactly they're called, you guys probably know) that we strapped ourselves into also. Pictures will be on flickr soon, I promise! They are currently importing to my main computer, then I'll export them to flickr.

So new spiffy outfits on, we posed for a couple of pictures, then feeling VERY cool, we strutted back to MOCR, did our team cheer (1, 2, 3, COLUMBIA!!!!!) and departed for Atlantis. I pulled out my phone and played the Apollo 13 theme song as we walked. It was kind of awesome. We stowed our stuff, then headed up to the flight deck. We "velcroed" our checklists we needed down, sat on the rest, took some deep breaths, and began. SPEC 0078 EXEC...get those APUs up. Honestly, we flew through the checklists like pros. I couldn't believe our timing. We were *ahead* on the pre-launch lists. Communication was spot on and everything was going so well. It took me about 45 seconds, probably a little less, to get the APUs up pre-launch, but I had that down to below 30 seconds before re-entry. Our mission is kind of a blur, to be honest. It was very long and things just weren't as perfect as they should have been. Flight plans would have us doing checklists that didn't exist in the flight deck books, but we did the best we could and before we knew it, we had been at it for a couple of hours and it was nearly time to dock with the ISS. Unfortunately, again the flight plan was messed up. It had us having lunch on the ISS before we even docked. Space ghosts chose to intervene and speed up our clock so autodock would take place. We docked, then headed over to the ISS where we found the Kibo module didn't even have a microwave. Stealing the one from Zarya, we started making our lunches. With only one microwave and four people trying to use it, it was a bit on the frustrating side. And with no dinner scheduled, hot pockets or tv dinners just aren't sufficient. We also had a few bananas and boxes of M&Ms but we would have had issues if someone hadn't made us two big tubs of cookies too. Those cookies saved me, lol. Lunch done, our timeline resumed. We ran through some checklists on the station then got called back to the orbiter (MS1 and MS2 stayed doing experiments) to do some post dock procedures. (See the issues with the flight plan? That should have happened before lunch too.) Whoops, forgot to mention that at some point during lunch, I was talking to CAPCOM and suddenly heard soft snores through the headset. I called over and over "Houston, Atlantis?" but no response. I told the CDR that something was up, and kept calling. Finally FDO (seated right next to CAPCOM) noticed the snoring CAPCOM and woke him. A minute later..snoring. Quicker on the response this time, he was roused by FDO. And then again. Finally FDO (who was also flight surgeon) realized something was wrong. Turns out, our dear CAPCOM had narcolepsy (not "banana narcolepsy" but space ghost induced narcolepsy...just to make that clear, lol). Problem solved, we continued on. Jump back to post lunch time in the orbiter...we were just kind of chilling waiting on a certain time to perform the next task, and a red box popped up saying "Commander, you are feeling light headed and having some chest pains". CDR says "I'm going to go down and check my blood pressure and stuff". My response "NO!!!! I'll go get it and bring it back up!". Thank goodness. A space ghost was waiting for me when I got down (curse that lack of gravity, I had to be more careful to hold onto my stuff then). I put everything up on the flight deck and climbed up, and ...oh dear. CDR was slumped across C3. Since he had an arm on top of our checklists, I said something to the space ghost about velcroing down our medical supplies. Cool, except I hadn't snapped both sides of the lid of one box down. So the lid floated off and my medical supplies started floating away..some down to the middeck. I called Houston and requested help from the flight surgeon, picked up the CDR (crap...those checklists just floated all over...including one into the toilet) and checked his ABCs, and got instructions to give him phenergan IV. (That didn't make much sense, though he had indeed vomited all over my chair. If he was really unconscious, something besides phenergan would be necessary, but that's ok). I put a foot on the handle of the bag, quickly pulled out the IV kit, and verbalized the administration of the drug. CDR feeling better, the space ghost departed "until next time". I cleaned up the mess. Ugh. I noticed when retrieving a checklist that our toilet seemed to be starting to back up. I pulled up SPEC 0066 and saw our Waste H2O going up slowly but surely. No one in MOCR could find the right fix for it, and it went on long enough that finally I think a space ghost just cleared it because they knew I was on top of it and we were running really shorthanded compared to other teams. Other stuff was going on.

We were eventually recalled back to the ISS where we arrived to find several C&W lights on. I panicked and asked if Houston was aware...they were. In fact, we had two people in the UAT doing a dive to try to find a fix to the problem. I got so insanely jealous, though I never once thought it was unfair. It made perfect sense to me that two folks who were otherwise stuck in MOCR got to go SCUBA. I got to go to the ISS and be pilot, so while I was jealous, I just have to make it clear that it was perfectly fair and I knew that. A space ghost let me put on a PEVA (pee - EVA) helmet and go watch a minute or so of the dive from a porthole. That was cool! While in the ISS, a meteor shower was detected so we began emergency shutdown procedures. We were having issues with one particular thing and thinking we were out of time, the CDR called for immediate evacuation. Of course, that wasn't what was intended for the mission, so naturally the meteor shower was then declared to be further away than we were initially told. We returned to continue the shutdown procedures, but still got stuck. Finally we figured out, with help from a space ghost, that it was just a computer software issue. We were shutting down the ISS, but some systems were already off due to the point in the timeline, so the computer just was confused. We had to do a few extra steps to satisfy the software, then continued with the shutdown. The final steps are to stow loose items and retreat. So we did. I figured we'd be back, but nope. We started having checklists to complete in the orbiter. During some downtime, our CDR put on some music and did a dance on the flight deck, much to the amusement of everyone in MOCR (including space ghosts). I have video, but unfortunately can't share it due to the CDR's real life job. He's a public defender and understandably doesn't want to risk having that video on the internet. No problem.

During the entire mission, I found that I had a very clear understanding of the orbiter's systems. I was pulling up SPEC screens without looking them up, rattling off checklists without looking, and just in general doing a really [darn] good job if I may say so myself. I was explaining the numbers in the OMS burns to the CDR and paused to say how nerdy I was being. I was quickly told to never be ashamed of my knowledge and to continue. I had the most amazing time going through whatever anomalies popped up. We had a christmas tree come up once, with every single C&W on. I knew the solution, but wanted to give the folks in MOCR time to find it too (basically let them participate instead of me just jumping in to fix it). I had my hand on the switch waiting...and waiting. I finally said I was just going to do it, called Houston and told them I knew the solution and was it ok if I proceeded. With the go ahead, I flipped the C&W memory clear switch, waited 10 sec, then flipped it back. All C&Ws cleared, I reported my success. I was of course immediately asked how the heck I knew that. I'd simply seen it before in the ops manual. After undocking from the ISS, we needed to do our reentry OMS burn, but the numbers provided didn't seem right. The TGO was ok, but the TIG just didn't seem right. I confirmed the numbers and programmed them in. Right away my fears were confirmed. The OMS shouldn't have happened immediately, but the engines fired as soon as I hit EXEC. Crap. I let it go for a minute, then after a conversation with the CDR, I called back to question the TIG. I explained why I thought it was wrong, and after a few minutes...confirmed. They provided the new numbers and verified that the problem would correct itself when our next time jump happened. Honestly I think that should have affected our mission. We should have had to reverse the maneuver in order to continue, but the manuals aren't written that way, so it's all good. I couldn't see from the flight deck, but according to everyone in MOCR, when the burn started, we started moving straight up away from the ISS, lol. Correct numbers programmed in, we continued. In what seemed like nowhere near 12 hours, we were ready for the CDR to take manual control and begin our descent.

It was an intense landing. Our CDR was on the edge of his seat, death grip on the joystick, and constantly chanting "I got you baby, I got you" and "Come back to me baby", etc. It was hilarious. He had spent 3 hours the night before on the shuttle lander sim in the museum. THREE HOURS. Hardcore. It paid off. We were right on target. I armed the gear at 1700ft. Still right on target. 200ft (I like to make MOCR sweat) deployed the gear and armed the parachute. Still on target. Rear wheels touched down, I deployed the chute then the celebration started. I quietly told the CDR to make sure to say "Houston, Atlantis, wheel stop". He did..and there was much rejoicing, haha. High fives all around, lots of cheering. Our mission was successful! I left out a lot of details I'm sure, but it was a LONG day. We headed over to the "library" for dinner and a champagne toast. What a day. And night.

Friday was bittersweet. We woke at normal time, 6am, but since breakfast wasn't until 8, we packed up our stuff and hauled it downstairs. At breakfast, we saw Hoot and Bob signing some stuff and we asked them if they'd take a picture with our team. They kindly obliged, so we have a great picture with both our crew trainers and both astronauts. Unfortunately we were missing a member of our team who took an early flight out. She missed all of Friday. After breakfast and pictures, we went to do the MAT (just as fun the second time), and the 1/6th chair (also fun the 2nd time). Then we headed back for graduation. We clumped up in teams..me trying not to cry the whole time. We had really bonded and I truly feel like I made some new lifelong friends this week. Finally it was time to start the ceremony. We filed in by team, with Columbia being last. There were a couple of short talks, then Discovery graduated, then Challenger. Then it was our turn. We filed up to the stage, listened to day crew trainer Sam's short, sweet speech and before I knew it, a real astronaut was pinning my wings on my flight suit. How cool! We shook hands with Tank as he flipped our name tags over, then with Hoot and Bob. Our certificates were in very nice thick folders with the team photo on the left and certificate on the right (it opens like a book). We did our team cheer again before taking our seats. Time for awards. Best Mission Patch went to Challenger, and that was well deserved. Commander's Cup went to Discovery. We didn't even have a chance at that since we skipped space bowl to do our sims, so while it was disappointing to lose, we weren't surprised. Best team went to the small but mighty COLUMBIA!!! I actually burst into tears (thankfully, it was a brief breakdown). As soon as they said the word "small", we all knew it was us. I get teary eyed just typing the story. I am just full of pride. I was later told that it was unanimous that we won that award. Our teamwork, happiness, and pride was just that obvious to everyone. We even did our team cheer in the "library"! What a fantastic end to the week...oh but wait, individual awards were still to come! Each individual award was given to someone from each team. The Right Stuff awards went to females from each team, which I thought was pretty cool. On Columbia, the award went to a very deserving person who made personal sacrifices that would benefit others. She kept us going and was just awesome. Although everyone wants that award, it did go to the right person. The first personal award that was given, though, was Best Pilot. I didn't even know such an award existed, but as soon as they announced it, the guy next to me started elbowing me. For one team, that award went to a real life pilot. When they announced the winner for Columbia, my tear factory again turned on as I heard my name announced. I went up, fighting back the sobs, shook hands with Astronaut Robert "Bob" Springer, nodded at his acknowledgement of me being the only female to win best pilot, shook hands with Hoot, and held up my award proudly before returning to my seat. The award for Best Pilot is a printed version of our mission patch, signed by the astronauts. It's on plastic about 1cm thick, and approximately 10x10inches. I had the rest of my team as well as both crew trainers sign it too, and it is proudly displayed next to my certificate and team photos. The final personal award was made up by the astronauts and was the Challenger award. It was given to someone who overcame challenges. On my team, the recipient was a man who came out of his shell during the week. He wasn't a shy person, but seemed very serious. During our LDM, he was amaaaaaaaaaaaazing as EVA officer and then PAYCOM despite having no training as PAYCOM.

So. It was a fantastic week and I absolutely can't wait to go back. It sounds like there will be a couple of 6 day AASAs next year, so stay tuned. I wasn't involved in the focus group after graduation, but got debriefed by someone who was. They know of the issues with the flight plan and other things that came up. Despite the issues, and sometimes feeling a bit like the red haired stepchild since our schedule had to be made around the other teams (due to the astronaut schedules), our experience was not diminished. We had a blast. I can't say enough positive things about my team. They are just amazing people and I am privileged to know them. I miss them already.

I'll post again when the photos are up. Hope you all enjoyed my posts, and enjoy the photos!
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
Team Challenger
---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Conan
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by Conan »

Here is a slideshow of all the photos that I have. Warning, it is over 500 and includes the photo disk that I paid for that the counselors took.

https://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/vie ... 752d9a603c

Conan (Diane)
Conan
1988-Adult Lev. I
1994-Parent/Child
1996-Adult Lev. II
1997-Adult AC
1998-P/C
1999-Pilot/Copilot
2000-P/C FL
2000-Adv. Adult Acad
2001-Adult AC
2004-Pilot/Copilot,
2007-Adult Alum.Reunion
2009-P/C
2014 - Adult 4-Day
2015 - Advance Adult Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by p51 »

The link you sent requires you have to be a member...
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by Conan »

Conan
1988-Adult Lev. I
1994-Parent/Child
1996-Adult Lev. II
1997-Adult AC
1998-P/C
1999-Pilot/Copilot
2000-P/C FL
2000-Adv. Adult Acad
2001-Adult AC
2004-Pilot/Copilot,
2007-Adult Alum.Reunion
2009-P/C
2014 - Adult 4-Day
2015 - Advance Adult Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by wxnerdjenn »

Here they are, all 650ish of them!

https://www.flickr.com/gp/serietah/8tXw8e

If that link doesn't work for some reason, just go to www.flickr.com/serietah
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
Team Challenger
---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by wxnerdjenn »

I just copy-pasted all of my posts in this thread to a word document, times new roman 8pt, standard 1" margins all around. 8 pages. 6583 words. My earth science professor told me I could have extra credit for writing a couple of pages. Cool! I printed out the document so my mom can read it. I'll have to do some editing to clarify acronyms and such before I send it off to my professor, but my mom can just ask me :D
January 16-18, 2015 - Adult 3 Day Space Camp
Team Challenger
---Alpha: Science Officer in MOCR ---- Bravo: Pilot ---- Charlie: Commander
October 11-16, 2015 - Adult Advanced Space Academy
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by TheBryanScout »

wxnerdjenn wrote:NASA jackets, like proper jackets, for $50 or $60
Oh, like flight jackets? If so, were they Gibson and Barnes or Alpha industries?
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by p51 »

TheBryanScout wrote:
wxnerdjenn wrote:NASA jackets, like proper jackets, for $50 or $60
Oh, like flight jackets? If so, were they Gibson and Barnes or Alpha industries?
No way, Alpha licenses jackets to be sold close to retail, nothing they sell costs that little. Proper is a trade name for a tactical clothing outfit but I doubt she means that.
G&B jackets are custom-ordered, so I highly doubt it's them, either. If you're lucky, though, you can sometimes find a good deal of their sales page for items I assume were returned for a bad fit. I got mine for a third of the normal retail price (though it's just a little bigger than a custom fit would be):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/ ... a13341.jpg
You can find some here, just make sure you're looking for their "classic" jacket in royal blue. Make sure the listing says this as you can count on the photos being exact: http://www.gibson-barnes.com/dept-29521 ... ckets.html
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Re: Train LIKE an Astronaut

Post by TheBryanScout »

So it could be like a hoodie or something of the sort that she meant. That makes more sense. Come to think of it, I could see that being in a gift shop way more than a flight jacket.
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