first time for a second time.

[rycho626]

ok im going to ASA for my first time and i have some questions
ive been to camp for three years before but they've all been in SA. I'm going for the reg 6 day at the start of off season like a always do. I'm doing the mission specialist track.
:::ok here we go:::
1) Im a guy, so am i going to be sleeping on the 2nd floor or 3rd of Hab1? i thought it was the 2nd like all the guys but now im confused

2) How many missions do u do in total and how long are they? Are you for the most part a diferent part of the crew everytime? Since I'm doing the mission specialist track, that doesnt limit me to only mission specialist jobs does it? stupid question i know but just making sure....

3)How long do u scuba dive for? Exactly HOW awsome was it lol i wanna know.

4)How many times do you go to Area-51 and for how long? I know you "can't tell me anything about it" and i dont want u to lol.

5)For people who have done both SA and ASA, how much diferently do the counselors treat you? I know for SA they treat u for the most part normally but last year me being noticably older than everyone else in my group i saw that they actually treated us immaturely to some extent.

6)When you go, personally, is it more of an older group (17&18), younger (15&16) or split pretty evenly?

7)As far as the museum goes, do u spend alot of time learning the history of space? I've learned it all 3 years now and im wiped! hopefully its something a little diferent....

Do u still go to IMAX movies?

9)Do u still make rockets? if so, how many?

10)do u still do the MAT and the 1/6 gravity chair???

11)In your opinion, do u like arriving at camp an hour or two early and leaving an hour or two late? stupid question im sure you would all agree yes but for the past three years something ALWAYS happend to our plane (overheating, emergency landing, someone has a heart attack...im not lying)

12)What things should i bring to camp that i probaly didnt bring to camp during my SA years?

13) One last thing, as many of your parents may be, mine are overprotective. This is my FOURTH year traveling to camp and they're trying to put me in the unaccompanied minor program again. I mean sure u get free food and service but u cant even go to the bathroom without someone waiting outside and TIMING YOU!!! IM SERIOUS!!! some of them are like this!!! So, feel free to share your UM stories.

Thanks, if i come up with anoymore ill post them

[Boomerang]

Well keep in mind all my experiances are pretty dated but i'm sure some of it still applies.

1) Atleast when i went ASA guys were on the third floor and academy was on the second. This might have changed or maybe it depoends on how busy it is i don't know.

2) again when i went we did 4 missions 3 of them lasted an hour though i think someone said its 2 now and one lasted 6 don't know if thats changed either. For the short missions you spend 1 in mission control, 1 on the iss and one on the orbiter there use to be 2 ms positions for each location but since there are no more payload specialist i guess its 4 you will have one of the 4. Dont remember what they were i was a pilot. For the big mission we got together as a team and decided who would take what jobs and the shuttle crew and iss crew switched half way through the mission. Again things maybe very diffrent now this was 8 years ago.

3) I think it was only an hour or maybe 2 total but that included time learning the basic emergency stuff you needed too. The experiance was great though It was one of my favorite parts of ASA most people seem to agree.

4)I honestly dont remember i think we had 2 times scheduled and only did one because it was dangerously hot.

5) Well my Sa counselor was good at treating us maturely. As for my ASA counseelor he was more like part of the team with us. Being closer in age i think asa counselors and their teams relate more on an equal level.

6) Our team was all pretty close in age.

7) Dont take mynteam as the best example sadly a few members seemed to have alot of influence on my team and we got jipped on museum time because they didnt want to.

yes

9)we didnt but more recent people who have gone have been doing them

10) ofcours

11) i always liked to get there as early as possibnle and leave as late as possible

12)duct tape

13) I flew um one year had some advantages mainly because i was nursing an injured knee other than that i hated it.

[tennisrox014]

1) As of this last winter, ASA guys were on the 2nd floor, this might change depending on the season though.

2) We did 3 or 4 smaller missions and one big 6 hour one. In the training missions you are a different part everytime

3)we scuba dove for about 15 min each, but you get some time at the surface to swim, so the experience takes about an hour, not including the little physical with the nurse before. Scuba was definitely my favorite part of ASA.

4) We actually didnt go to area 51, but only because my week was really, really rainy.

6) I was the oldest on my team, I had just turned 18, the next oldest was 17, but besides us two, everyone came from the same school in Ireland, so they were all 15 or 16.

7) We spent a fair amount of time learning space history, however, it wasn't as much as usual due to some bad attitudes.

8 ) yes, plus I did EALD so I was Magnificent Desolation and Harry Potter in IMAX

9) we made rockets, one, but mine was multiple stages.

10) yep

11) I always get to camp the day before and leave a day late, just because i like chilling with the eald staff and its nice to have extra time to relax. plus, if i wanted to leave the day of graduation, the latest i could leave is 9am

12) extra pens, I always lose the pens they give us, and it gets a little old always asking for new ones, so a couple extra will come in handy.

13) my parents are way underprotective and I travel a lot, so I have been flying solo since I was 14, but once when I was 12 they made me fly alone, it defintely sucked.

[SpaceCanada]

Ans some mroe answers, even if some are duplicates:

1) I am a girl, and we always slept on floor four, so I have no idea if the boys are on floor two or three.

2) There will be three or four 1-hour missions and a 6-hour EDM. Each of the short missions you will be in a different position - on the shuttle, the ISS, or in MOCR. The EDM you will likely stay in the same role the entire time, although the shuttle and ISS crews sometime switch at the halfway point. Being a Mission Specialist, you will only get Mission Specialist roles, so that means you will be doing experiments, going on EVAs, giving instructions to the EVA crew, flight surgeon, etc.

3) Everyone gets about 15-20 minutes at the bottom of the UAT. It is definitely amazing, without a doubt! Definitely one of the hilights of camp.

4) Typically, and this was with the old AREA 51, not sure about the new one, we went to Area 51 twice, on two separate days. We spent about 2 hours there each time completing various challenges. Great fun! Area 51 is one of my favourite parts of camp.

5) I haven't been to SA, but the counsellors at ASA treat you pretty normal, not like little kids or anything. Speaking from experience though, as I know I sometimes do this, if your group acts like little kids, they will get treated like little kids; if your group acts their age, they will be treated with more respect.

6) Going to ASA twice, I noticed a good mix of different ages. There weren't many 18 year olds, but there were a pretty even amount of 15, 16, and 17 year olds each time I went.

7) We never spent too much time in the museum. We had a scavenger hunt and an hour for museum and gift shop, but not much more than that. There was a history of spaceflight session but it shouldn't rack your brain too much.

8.) Yes, we went to see one IMAX each week. You will see more if you come early or stay late.

9) You get to make one rocket. I don't know which one they are making these days...

10) All programmes do the MAT and the 1/6th G chair.

11) I prefer to arrive a day early and leave a day late. The more time I got at camp the better! Then again, I could never get flights that got me to camp before registration (usually arrived at 8 PM) or leave after graduation (usually left at 8 AM), and I didn't want to miss any part of camp..

12) Duct tape! (It comes in handy for missions.) I always like to bring a mini notepad and a pen with me everywhere I go to write down notes, get addresses from friends, or whatever else - very handy. Oh, and a camera... but it looks like you brought one to SA.

13) I went to camp at age 15 and 16 and I never went UM because it was optional. A flight attendant still made sure I was doing okay and gave me directions to my connecting gate. I had friends fly UM before, and they never had any bad stories about it. Maybe it depends on the airline.

If you have any more questions, please post them here.

[rycho626]

What about space bowl? thats definitly a highlight from my SA years. Do they do it for ASA kids too?

[Repeat]

1. Housing always ALWAYS depends on availability - I'm sure most of y'all never stayed down in Hab 3 for EALD, but we had EALD kids this past weekend in my bay (Wagstaff). So it depends - you may be on the 2nd or 3rd floor - it depends.

2. When I was here in 2003 for ASA, you did two shorter missions (I believe two hours each) and then your third mission was 6 hours long. As a mission specialist track, you will ONLY have the option of a mission specialist job - MS 1&2, Prop and Inco (I think), and Station Commander and Station Scientist (maybe?).

3. Scuba's changed so much, I'm not really in the loop to talk about it confidently. When I first started going to ASA, ALL tracks scuba dived - even the pilots.

4. It's supposed to be 2 times, though they can do one of those times inside the habitat. They just opened a new Area 51, so things will be a bit different.

5. It depends on two things - the counselors and the kids. Most of the ASA counselors are pretty laid back, and used to dealing with the older kids. However, if you act like a little kid, they will treat you like a little kid.

6. I've had pretty mixed groups every time - when I went the first two years, it seemed like most people were older than me, but my last year, only my friend who'd come with me (we met our first year in ASA) was older than me (by a couple months) - of course, I was almost 18 at that point.

7. You will probably learn that stuff again - I know I did. You might get a slightly more indepth look at it, if the difference between ASA and SA is anything like the difference between Mach II and III.

8. You should still go see at least one IMAX movie - whether or not you see more is dependent on your shcedule.

9. You will make a three stage rocket out of two rocket kits - a loadstar and an eagle - you have to figure out how to make a bigger, better rocket.

10. Both of those should still be in the schedule.

11. I was always in EALD and arrived on Saturday and left on Saturday, so yes - I liked arriving early and leaving late. That allowed not just for plane changes, but also for me to relax in between my travelling and my program.

12. Duct Tape.

13. I did UM my first three years, I believe. My fourth year, I was 15 going on 16, and managed to convince my mom to not spend the extra money, and that I'd be okay - partly because I was to be travelling through the SAME airport as the previous three time in my transfer, and wasn't too worried about getting lost in Atlanta. Point out the money cost, and that you're old enough to get yourself from one gate to another without someone watching you. if you've got a cell phone, promise you'll call them at the airport to let them know you've gotten to your next gate sucessfully.

[SpaceCanada]

What about space bowl? thats definitly a highlight from my SA years. Do they do it for ASA kids too?

Oh yes, and the questions are different, so it will still be a challenge.

I remember spending some spare time in Challenger Auditorium one day when we found a sheet on the floor with some SA Space Bowl questions and answers. It was good fun going through them all and quizzing ourselves. Some questions appeared in the ASA Space Bowl, but there were a lot of new ones too.

[Boomerang]

I always loved space bowl but then i always kicked butt in it whether we went over quesstions for practice during the week or not but then i've been learning everything i can about space since i was 5 years old i'm now 27.

[MAYTAG]

haha space bowl, ive always done soooo awesome in spacebowl, then wagered every point our team had on the last question and got it wrong lol

[Boomerang]

Im glad we didnt do that in 98 because the last question which i knew i drew a blank on thankfully we still won since we didnt wager it all.

[tennisrox014]

My team wasn't so great at it, but then the other team didn't get a single question right during the whole bowl, so we won.

[Boomerang]

Only bad thing was the tshirt i won was a sixe Large and i needed an xl but didnt realise it till too late to changew it. \still have the shirt though

[SpaceCanada]

I still have my SpaceBowl 'dress' too

[CampGirlKelly]

i think i still have an area 51 "dress" somewhere too! thank goodness they ask for sizes for the pre-order gear

[Boomerang]

A, i the only persom who got a shirt that was too small?

[CampGirlKelly]

wait, they actually made shirts smaller than xxl? lucky.

[Boomerang]

Yeah we all got a size Large.

[tennisrox014]

we got larges too, but i shrunk it since i have no laundry skills, so it fits pretty well now.

[Boomerang]

I guess i should try mine on again since i have lost some weight maybe it will fit now.

[SpaceCanada]

They ask for shirt sizes when you register now. I wish they did that ages ago because all my shirts are too huge to ever wear in public. I did buy a size small Academy shirt though, which is still big, but better than size L. Why don't they make the Academy shirts in youth medium or large? And... you cannot even buy an ASA shirt at the gift shop... hmmm...

We had the option of size L or XL when we got all our shirts (ASA, Are 51, SpaceBowl) but nothing smaller than that.

We had a guy on my ASA team in 1998 whose shirts were too small too, so you're not alone Jason.