The HabForum

I just got back from Advanced Space Academy and wanted to say it was wonderful! International week was a blast, and it's the most fun I've had all year. I was worried about those only 30 minutes to get ready in the morning and night but as it turns out no one really cares if you wake up early (or stay up late ) I was so busy all day every day but it was so fun I didn't even mind, and those IMAX movies were great. Our rocket launch was successful and our egg didn't break. It was just so fun and eventful I can't even think of everything I want to write. I'll try to post some pictures later.

Glad you had fun and that you've come back to Hab1 to tell about it! How were the missions? Did you fly the shuttle or Orion or both? Did you have any crazy mishaps and anomalies during your missions? Looking forward to the pictures and the stories.

Our missions were really fun! We had a bunch of anomalies, but the medical ones were the best. Our whole Orbiter and ISS crew died at one point, haha. I got to be flight director for the 3 hour mission, and I was MS3, and 2 for the 1 hour missions ( Canadarm controller and the thing with the harness and cable). I think I stayed up till 2:30 or later every night, and I still managed to stay awake during the day all while being enthusiastic and excited because there was just so much fun stuff to do. I haven't even been home for a day and I miss it so much. Oh yeah! The pamper pole and zip line were crazy! It's so weird how the zip line is 20 feet higher but the pamper pole is SO much scarier but they're both a lot of fun. I'm definitely coming back next year!

Sounds like a blast!! I always got Post-camp letdown too. Takes some time to re-assimilate into everyday life. And I usually dream that I am at Space Camp for weeks afterward. Looking forward to your photos and more details. Thanks for sharing.

Glad to hear you had a wonderful time. This is a great place to write your random thoughts and memories form the trip. We can all relate to obscure mission anomalies, staying up late, and the eventual withdrawal symptoms upon returning home. Keep the stories coming!

coolgal wrote:Our missions were really fun! We had a bunch of anomalies, but the medical ones were the best. Our whole Orbiter and ISS crew died at one point, haha. I got to be flight director for the 3 hour mission, and I was MS3, and 2 for the 1 hour missions ( Canadarm controller and the thing with the harness and cable). I think I stayed up till 2:30 or later every night, and I still managed to stay awake during the day all while being enthusiastic and excited because there was just so much fun stuff to do. I haven't even been home for a day and I miss it so much. Oh yeah! The pamper pole and zip line were crazy! It's so weird how the zip line is 20 feet higher but the pamper pole is SO much scarier but they're both a lot of fun. I'm definitely coming back next year!

Glad you had a great time. Now you really now know that space camp is really a blast. As time so by, you will think on the missions, headed for blasting off the rocket u made, friends you made, fun in the HAB & how in life your learned the benefits of space. Looking forward to those photo's. As you forward to next year's camp, I am looking forward to space camp again in September. Keep sending updates!!

Our team won the Commander Cup award, that was pretty cool. But the thing I really hope to get out of camp is to stay in touch with all the wonderful people I met.

What is the Commander Cup award? That's a new one to me.

Camp is a great place to meet awesome like-minded people. I stayed in touch with some of my teammates for many years afterwards. Be sure to tell them about Hab1 and get them to join our community here! You may also want to join the Alumni Community if you have not done so already!

http://www.spacecamp.com/community/

Hotdog wrote:What is the Commander Cup award? That's a new one to me.

Yes, do tell, I have also never heard of that. Sounds like a team award, right? Is this some kind of overall 'best team' thing? If so, how many other teams were there at the same time?

The Commander Cup award goes to the team who earned the most points during engineer challenges like rocket building, the egg shield, apple space suit, and things like that. Whichever team got the most points overall got the commander cup award.

Good to know! There was an award for best overall team back in the day, but there was no points system (at least not known or told to the campers). The way I understand it the counselors or "crew trainers" would all get together like a jury and argue their cases for who had the best team until they came to some kind of agreement. So I can see the need for a more organized and scientific method of determining this award developing over the years!

Sounds like you had an awesome group. It's luck-of-the-draw getting a team of good chemistry sometimes and can be hit or miss.

I would like to know more about egg shields and apple space suits. This is new terminology to me.

Oh, they were both really fun! The egg shield experiment we did was super cool. We got a budget we could use to get supplies like aluminum foil, steel wool, cork, copper, and things like that, and we had to make a shield so that when they held up a blow torch that went to about 1200 degrees the egg wouldn't get cooked. Our team's egg was safe at the end so we got 200 points, and if the egg was slightly burned you'd get 100 points, and if the inside was cooked at all you'd get 0 points. The apple space suit was what we did after learning about space suit physiology. We had different materials we had to use to protect an apple from a water test, a heat and radiation test, and we dropped a nail on it to see if it would be safe from "space debris."We also had to time how long it took to get on and off. Our apple space suit failed everything but the nail test and the dress and undress test, haha.

Very cool! What kinds of materials exactly for the apple space suits? Interesting stuff

hmm, we could use aluminum foil of course, tarp, zip-lock bag, duct tape, foam, and rubber bands. It was a tough experiment.