The HabForum

I cant say that we ever got in trouble for silly things or jokes in the youth programs.

oooh the scuba..wow i miss that right now

Hey all!

This is going to be my last update from Huntsville. Our 24-hour mission ended this morning and we had a very nice graduation to follow. Now Elaine (AKA Mitts) and I are in the computer lab trying not to remember how much we miss our team mates. Yes, we miss them already!

From AREA 51 to rocketry, robotics, and the EDM, there was never a dull moment in our week. Between the P-Deck, Flash, and some of the real anomolies, this week will be remembered by many as the best week of their lives. I cannot say too much, or post too many pictures, for I do not want to spoil some of the spectacular surprises that the 8-day programme brings.

The 24-hour mission was good. I would say it was great, but I had an incident early on that left me distracted for the better portion of the mission. I was chosed for the EDM SCUBA. However, with my small neck, the bubble helmet did not fit properly and filled up with water when I got to the bottom. It was super scary, but SCUBA Steve rescued me and brought me to the top - thanks SCUBA Steve!!

Anyway, I have a dozen rolls of film to be processed and three memory chips to review. You will see it all and read all about it in time!

Take care everyone. I will tell you more when I get home!

So today was graduation for the Adult Advanced Academy from September 25 till October 2, 2004. This was my first time at Space Camp and it will be one of the most inspiring times of my life. I call this a vacation, but really it was like a boot camp
I've met some awesome people here and bonded with them. Just to let you guys know that I felt teary-eyed when everyone left. Me and Jennifer kinda wished we left first so that it wouldn't feel like it ended so fast.
I can see the program getting more realistic in the years to come. I can't believe they had the younger kids cheering and taking pictures of the shuttle crew too. Did everyone feel the pride or what?
Anywayz, I hope we all will see each other again. Take care.

Elaine (aka mitts)

"Oh, and we never got any PDA lecture, which makes things fun. Not in a sick sense, but just how we can make funny jokes and do silly things without getting in trouble. It's awesome. Once again, I'll tell you more later."

Heh heh.
I tend to obey the "no sex jokes" unwritten rule for about the first, oh, ten minutes.

"I can't believe they had the younger kids cheering and taking pictures of the shuttle crew too"

I think Tony must have come up with that idea the morning of our EDM, cause at that point, it was rather unorganized.

10 Minutes? Thats a little high Dan i was thinking about the first 2. I think you're right about the cheering thing too because when we went in the just stared at us lol.

it was cute! they were like "LOOK! REAL ASTRONAUTS!"

Well i seriously hope that if i ever become a real astronaut i'll be more awake before standing in front of the public. And also that in my parachute i have more than sandbags...

I understand that they were trying to simulate the weight of a parachute, but they seeemed a bit heavier than packed parachutes that I've felt.

heeheehee.
that just sounds bad.

Have you felt a lot of packed parachutes Dan? lol Despite the fact that i was wicked tired and wicked sick i still thought it was pretty cool. Couldnt have been too uncomfortable i guess i slept all the way through reentry and landing. Even through the computer malfunction lol.

everyone was asleep in middeck.

There were a couple people driving and Daria who were awake on flight deck. I was most definitly not one of them. lol.

lol, i prolly shouldnt have been sleeping....at all. but eh. lol. damage done.

I liked how we broke the computers.
That was fun.

I think our team applied A LOT of stress to those poor computers. I can think of at least twice and maybe a third time that we crashed them.

This is just an opener, but I have to say that the adult 8-day blew me away. It was my first time at Space Camp (after 20 years of wanting to go), but even my drooling fanboy expectations were met and exceeded within the first few days.

Of course, it helps when you have rockin' good mates like Flash, Mitts, and especially Braids (aka SpaceCanada) to hang out with. We all felt like big kids playing with the really cool toys. OK, OK... we were!

More later...

Hey, does one pip mean I'm an ensign?

Hey P-Deck!

The little pips denote the amount of posts you have made.

For everyone else, I will be posting some photos on the Hab1 Photo Portal soon enough.

Some random comments on the ASA 8-Day:

Rocketry and Robotics were awesome!! Having the water rocket activity between the two model rocketry sessions worked extremely well.

Lenny and Phil are amazing counsellors.

Phil's hand-outs were much appreciated, although they could be hole-punched for our binders.

I wish they had shirts smaller than size Large.

I wish they had a smaller seal for the SCUBA bubble helmet thing.
The bubble helmet SCUBA thing was AWESOME!!! (minus the leak)
Thanks SCUBA Steve, Dana, and Flash, for helping me with that...

The 24-hour EDM was wonderful, everyone including MOCR was kept very busy.

Eight days is just enough time to do everything. Anything longer would make it more difficult to take time off work.

The Black Box activity was fun, although it took up a lot of time.

Lurch's survival briefing was fun.

The RTLS activity was much appreciated. The MSs enjoyed it just as much as the pilots.

Sometimes adults can act like little kids, which includes their maturity. It might be best for counsellors to pick positions for the crew instead of letting them choose positions for themselves.

The EDM EVAs need more supporting information. The solar array photos are good, but a photo of the entire completed solar array would be greatly appreciated. A photo of the Canadarm EVA would be nice too.

I'll come up with more comments later...

SpaceCanada wrote:The little pips denote the amount of posts you have made.

Phil's hand-outs were much appreciated, although they could be hole-punched for our binders.

Got that bit. Just making a bad Star Trek joke.

Agreed about the handouts. Anyone going to ASA in future should demand PDFs of those handouts beforehand.

SpaceCanada wrote:The RTLS activity was much appreciated. The MSs enjoyed it just as much as the pilots.

Sometimes adults can act like little kids, which includes their maturity. It might be best for counsellors to pick positions for the crew instead of letting them choose positions for themselves.

Loved RTLS. I just wish I had known I could play with the knobs. Flash has all the fun!

Making decisions for the team just gives them more of a chance to be whiny about it. My suggestion is to make the stock answer, "Suck it up! You're a team!" But that's probably just me.