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Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2002 9:38 pm
by Richasi
I dunno. They certainly didn't seem to do much good according to my memory... More added weight than anything else. Not much weight mind you, but added.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 12:44 am
by Boomerang
I'm sure you would have been hotter without the ice packs though.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 2:02 am
by FatMan
hey im getting a job to pay for my summer session in asa and my trip. i wannabe a pilot this time give some orders
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:10 am
by Boomerang
Good choice Marcus. pilots are the best.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:18 am
by Richasi
What's this... everyone gang up on me?
Yes, Pilots would be my first choice... but there is something to be said for variety. Maybe the next three times I go (and I'll have to now) I'll chose each track. Ha!
Richasi
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:27 am
by Boomerang
Pilot would always be my first choice but if i couldnt have that i would definately rather have MS. Doing space walks id like but i cant picture myself a PS and doing expirements.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:47 am
by Richasi
I didn't like the experiments... and i don't think I'd be real good at that. Not enough action... I think I'd be real good at Commander/Pilot. I'd like to do Pilot now that I've been Commander...... then EVA work... and then anything else after that.
I wish I could afford to go every year now but I'll have to do it every other year if I try that.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:59 am
by Boomerang
Truth is at ASA your so bust fixng problems on board that the counselors give you you dont have much time for expirements anyway. The pilot and commander are super busy with all the mechanical stuff and warning lights. It makes apollo 13 look oike a walk in the park after a while.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 1:24 pm
by Richasi
I think that would take away from the business at hand. You want it to be life like and certainly it's not "Apollo 13" every flight. Three problems I acn understand... minor ones that you don't notice for a while are good... but if there aer too many it ruins the reality of it all...
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 5:20 pm
by Boomerang
I agree with you completely but if you go to ASA expect alot of anomolies during the mission. Thats what keep the counselors busy thinking them up. I agree though id rather have it a little more realistic. At academy level 1 we had a few but not one every 5 minutes and that was good. I mean the apollo 13 crew even said after their flight that if someone had something like that in the sim they would have laughed and thought it would never happen. But at ASA they insist on doing it all the time. Verry few missions ever have that many problems.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 5:54 pm
by Richasi
Then I may be no good a Pilot/Commander role. I don't like making snap decisions. I don't mind making a decision and dishing out the orders but there'd be too many variables for me to compute to make a decision about the mission every 5 minutes
But, then again, it might be fun. Who knows!!
I think for my Academy Discovery mission we had 3 errors... an OMS engine problem - where we ddin't know whether the engines lit or not... a computer malfunction and something else now that I don't recall off the top of my head (though I have it written down somewhere).
I know our mission was a disaster because my Pilot couldn't remember how to launch the satellite and I didn't write down the steps to know either...
For camp I was on mission control so I don't recall if there were any problems or not. Something inside me tells me there was, but maybe only one.
Ricky
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 6:02 pm
by Boomerang
Well not all the anomolies are left upo to the pilots to solve but They get the ones that involve checklist and mechanical stuff. The solutions to warning lights are ussualy found in check list. Thinking anomolies ussualy have the whole crew working on them and Medical anomolies are left up to the payload specialist. At spacve camp you were only given 2 anomolies and they were solved verry simply by picking the best choice from a list on the computer screen.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 6:12 pm
by Richasi
That might be, but ultimately it would be the Commander who was responsible for it... at least that's how I see it.
If I happen to go that route and get picked for it I'll just remember not to crosswire, like in the movie.
Then again, that is one of the funniest moments in the film..
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 6:20 pm
by Boomerang
Well the pilot is ultimately responsible without a doubt. Like the movie said the commander is responsible for everything that happens onboard. But many times it helps to get the opinions of the rest of the crew especially for thinking anomolies, As i said the ons that involve warning lights are ussualy solved with a check list or two and theirs no real decision making involved. The medical ones are treated by the payload specialist because they are specificly trained to handle them. Since vince doesnt like us telling about anomolies on the board because it ruins the experiance for new people i wont post any specific stuff. If youd like to hear about some specific ones im me sometime ill tell you about some of the ones we had.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 6:39 pm
by Richasi
Yeah, I'll probably need all the help I can get

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 6:48 pm
by Boomerang
Well just pay attnetion during mission practices and lectures and you should do ok during the mission.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 9:32 pm
by Richasi
I'll probably be so busy though documenting my experience that I'll forget to pay attention in lectures
One of the things I kick myself over is not capturing the experience better. I'll do much better next time.
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 9:38 pm
by Boomerang
It would be cool if you could get a small wearable video camera like they use on tv to record your week at camp. I just though if that you could record what you do on the missions, what gets said, and what the team does all week.
In defense of PS
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2002 4:44 am
by Kemara
In defense of PS, I will say that I enjoyed everything *except* being space station commander. And looking back, that's probably because we had a really bad station training experience that day. The counselor who was training us had a husband in the military and was understandably distracted. So our training was basicly a tour of the station. When the mission rolled around, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing or when. We got some great station anomolies too. Hee hee... And had one heck of a scramble on the flight deck....I won't say no more....
I had a blast doing experiments in the lab. We did the polymers and I remember being so surprised when one bounced. I kept one of the results in a plastic bag (the one that was like clear, cold goo) and I think I still have it.
The problems I had in MOCR were mostly my fault. I couldn't read my two monitors very well and that got me flustered. But that's just my bad eyesight plus a dark room and small print on the screen. Not much to be done there except wear glasses instead of contacts.

All in all, PS is good for the scientists among us.
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2002 11:53 am
by Richasi
When I was younger and there was only 3 to 4 years since I had attended a session, I told myself I'd bring a tape recorder and record certain things as they happened. Not everything, mind you, but certain things. But, that never materialized so I'll have to stick to paper and pen.
I'd like to bring a video camera - I might look into renting one before going. It would be great to make my own video of the week. But I'm more for still pictures than anything.
I did think to bring my camera when I went to Academy (and to use it) only the pictures didn't come out because it was too dark for the camera. It was, afterall, a stupid Kodak instamatic camera
