The HabForum

I think a lot of people on the forum would agree with me that changes should be made at camp. I think they should change the mission format to this:

7 Flight Controllers
4 shuttle astronauts
3 soyuz/station astronauts

This way, with 2 missions, everyone gets to fly in space. The 4 shuttle astronauts could be commander, pilot, and 2 mission specialists. They soyuz ones could run the station, because a lot of people complained about how boring the roles on the station were.

The next change I think they should make probably only affects me (out of everyone on the forum, that is), but the rule they have is unnecessary. I think they should relax their medical restrictions on diving. There are places that let asthmatics, epileptics, and diabetics dive, and even get certified if it's well controlled. I think the new rule they should have is that the trainee should decide with their doctor if they are fit to dive or not. The reasons on the form about not being allowed to dive with asthma are not a risk at all in a 20' pool. I also think the rule is everything space camp is not. The point of it is to let people live their dreams, without unnecessary medical restrictions. If I have to hate anything about camp, it's probably this rule.

What other changes do you think they should make?

I'm not trying to be rude or immature, I just want to express my opinion and hear those of everyone else.

Well i'm sure there will be changes coming in mission formats in the future with the shuttle retiring next year now. Though what exactly is up in the air i guess.

As to the asthma restrictions once upon a time i seem to remember them taking it on a case by case basis with the dive team hving the final say usualy after consulting the doctor. The problem is that it is a major insurance liability and one bad problem could close the camp down of a parent sues.

Boomerang wrote: As to the asthma restrictions once upon a time i seem to remember them taking it on a case by case basis with the dive team hving the final say usualy after consulting the doctor. The problem is that it is a major insurance liability and one bad problem could close the camp down of a parent sues.

As usual, insurance liability ruins the fun -.- I guess it's for a good reason.

I feel your pain Dan. They won't allow me to dive either due to diabetes.
Neither the fact that my diabetes is well controlled or the fact that I work at camp make any difference.

Last time I was there, they at least let the non-divers snorkel in the UAT. If you are really good at skin diving, you could throw a NERF toy to a SCUBA diver at the bottom. I don't know if that policy has changed since 2004, but it's a glimmer of hope. That, or non-divers could partake in a different sim at the time their group did SCUBA - I think some of my team went to AC and did the flight sims there. Again, I don't know if that's still the case.

Plus, non-divers, if you don't get any of the options above, get the honourary task of being SCUBA photographer! You can take photos of everyone diving, something that will be greatly appreciated. Typical underwater cameras don't work well in the UAT due to the artificial lighting, so someone taking photos through the portholes or through the fish tank at the top gets the best results.

Keep your chin up. It's not all bad. You'll still have fun. SCUBA is only a small part of the camp experience.

Good point! The non-divers do get to fly the AC sims which is a whole bunch of fun!

Ok. Do you fly the mach III sims? And what plane are they modeled after? I remember the Mach II sims I flew at Academy Pilot track were F/A-18s. I'm kinda glad I'll get to fly them. I'm probably going scuba diving in January, so I'll get my fix, and I've been pretty into aviation lately. I just need to make my $900 or so by next summer.

I'm not sure if its still the case but when i worked their ASA trainees flew Mach 1 sims. I knkw they dont look as fancy or comlex as Mach 2 or 3 sims but they do use the same software. Main reason i think being they are easy to teach to use since you are not spending a week learning them like AC trainees do. And to my knowledge the FA-18 is still used.

Digger:

I too am diabetic. I don't know if you know or not, but the main reason that diabetics can't dive is that Insulin and oral diabetic medications change their effectiveness with depth and pressure. You can be fine at the surface, but 10 feet down is completely different. Then your meds do a 180 as you surface, which can be even worse. I found this out when I tried to dive in the Bahamas. Fortunately, I had a diving instructor that was up to speed and stopped me.

That's how it was explained to me as well bnaivar.

Dan,
ASA team members not diving fly Mach 1 sims. Same software, performance, stick and throttle in a different cockpit. Just a few less controls so you spend more time actually flying and fighting.
The standard aircraft of choice is the F/A-18 Hornet.