OK, Here's my report of camp (ASA 8-day week 39) (sorry it couldn't be sooner but I was out of town with no internet this last week):
So for the first two or three days there was a cold spell in Huntsville, which could be considered by some people to be normal weather. We had an awesome team, two of whom I knew from last year. We were Goddard team (if you were there at that time, even if you weren't on our team you will probably remember:
Leader: "What team is this!?"
All: "Goddard!"
Leader: "What!?"
All: "GODDARD!"
Followed by the chorus of We Are The Champions.
For anybody not there at the time, the above "incident" isn't worth trying to explain. We were left laughing so hard some of us had difficulty breathing.
We had nicknames ("Gordo" for the kid who fell asleep in every breifing [After Gordo Cooper, who fell asleep on the launch pad]) and our share of anomalies during training ("The Freon loop!!!!!")
We had a rocket building competition, which had... interesting... results.
The objective: build a rocket from scratch capable of carrying an egg and landing safely. my team started fairly simply: nose cone with two cups atop a cardboadt tube and a D engine. Unfortunatel the only way to carry the egg with the available supplies was to arrange the cups in more or less the shape of a warhead from an RPG. We're pretty sure the folks over at Redstone wouldn't have approved. So then we got to thinking: as long as we're recreating a Russian anti-tank weapon, why not make it a litte more authentic? So we coated the whole thing in duct tape and filled the cups with cotton balls to cushion the egg:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... 010030.jpg My face is not clearly visible in this picture.
Now, with our rocket greyed out and our payload secure, and still with a fifth of our credits still available (this was an exercise in budgeting AND engineering) we decided, why not slap on an extra stage? We did, so now we had two D engines, with a ton of duct tape that, for all we knew, could flash-ignite on the launchpad. With a parachute and a ton of hot glue the rocket was coming together. Unfortunately, we had succeded in going for broke. We had only three popsicle sticks to stabilize the second stage. So we duct taped that together and readied it for launch. At this point the other groups were about halfway through and we still had an hour. So I made a dust cover out of masking tape.
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... ure227.jpg (here you can see the finished rocket with pemporary seals and caution&warning screen attached.)
At launch the rocket did its best sidewinder missile impression and the egg ended up scrambled. But it was definetly the best launch of the day!
I have some pictures from inside the dunker and lifter at AC, as well as the UAT but I haven't gotten them developed yet. When I do I'll put them up. Here are some topside, pre-crash pics:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY001.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY004.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY003.jpg
We went to Area 51 and climbed some stuff:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day040.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day011.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day050.jpg
We dove in the UAT:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day006.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day012.jpg
Of course we rode Space Shot:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY009.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY012.jpg
So then came the EDM. We had the regular heart attack at launch, but ater SRB sep, so in the confusion we did not know if we were supposed to stay seated still. Flight Director said to stand. Flight Director didn't think that one through much. Everyone on the flight deck was incapacitated, but eventually the situation was happily resolved and the Mission Specialists went out for an EVA:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day099.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day103.jpg
*That's me in the harness, attempting to not cause a hypergolic explosion during refueling of the satellite.
We had fun with chemicals and medical anomalies in the ISS:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day192.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day146.jpg
Including psychotic "episode":
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day225.jpg
And of course MOCR had their share of problems:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day087.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day077.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day074.jpg
And finally, things went crazy back aboard Enterprise when the space craziness returned:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... 010059.jpg (a close approximation of what happened)
All in all, an awesome week!