Adult Week Long October 2016
Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 2:27 pm
Registration is open! I just reserved two spots in the Train With An Astronaut program! So excited! Who else is going!
Yeah, they said that last year's Train With an Astronaut operated at a loss. And it was mentioned in the round table/feedback session afterwards that it was a little overcrowded (awesome, and amazing but rushed at times and exhausting) so I'm guessing they will scale some things back. Not sure what they'll cut, if anything (I know what I'd cut for me, but some of my cuts wouldn't be popular). It will be interesting to see how it stacks up.majtom7 wrote:$1,699, same price as last year... I'll be curious to see the schedule and how it compares to last year. Ditto for the August at $1,349...
I'd heard the same thing about the days being packed from two pals of mine (Steve and PK on this forum) who went last year.gt0163c wrote:Yeah, they said that last year's Train With an Astronaut operated at a loss. And it was mentioned in the round table/feedback session afterwards that it was a little overcrowded (awesome, and amazing but rushed at times and exhausting) so I'm guessing they will scale some things back.
Steve and PK were both on my team last October. Great guys who I wish I would have had more opportunity to get to talk with and know better. The days were long. Some people did spend time at the Marriott bar some (most? all?) evenings but being more of a morning person I was always too exhausted. My suggestion at the round table was that if they just gave us 15 or 20 (maybe 30) minutes more for lunch and dinner that would have allowed for a bit more downtime and a great opportunity to chat with and get to know people better.p51 wrote:I'd heard the same thing about the days being packed from two pals of mine (Steve and PK on this forum) who went last year.gt0163c wrote:Yeah, they said that last year's Train With an Astronaut operated at a loss. And it was mentioned in the round table/feedback session afterwards that it was a little overcrowded (awesome, and amazing but rushed at times and exhausting) so I'm guessing they will scale some things back.
Even the 4-day camp session in 2014 had very long days. I think it's great that they try to pack as much as they can, but when you need a day or two to 'recover' from the experience, you do have to question if you simply did too much. One of things I always liked about the 3-day sessions was you called it a night at a reasonable time and had time to talk with the other people on your team (or head to the bar at the Marriott). Sounds like "Hoot Camp" last year didn't give much time for that.
I'm just fine without the SCUBA portion if it comes to that as I spent a great deal of my youth underwater, as well as the model rockets (which I flew plenty of them in high school). The guided tour could probably be axed as well, as most people who'd sign up for this would likely be SC alumni who've done the tours already, or space enthusiasts who likely know most of the stuff beforehand.
I'm all about the missions and sims, but I know that not everyone is so much into that.
Yeah, I would rather do the sims, too. But from "Hoot Camp" 2016, I heard about the Marshall tour, and I for sure want to do that, as well as hitting the NASA employee store there as I'm such a sucker for Swag...majtom7 wrote:It comes down to cost/benefit. A Marshall tour fills a good chunk of time at minimal cost, same with rocket building & launching. Me, I just want to run sims.
There are actually two mission patches.p51 wrote:I saw from the signup that there's no patch design done within the teams and apparently they're pre-done by someone at the SC staff.
Does anyone know who handles that? I'd love to volunteer my services to design one for my own team if they'd allow it...
Hmm. I know from Hoot Camp 2015, they already had pre-printed designs for mission patches for signs and computer graphics in the middle of the camp and neither were what you're talking about.gt0163c wrote:There's the one that's designed by each team. That one you're familiar with. A physical patch is not made, but design will show up at various points late in the week.
No, those "pre-printed" designs are exactly what I'm talking about. Those are the mission patches that we designed as teams. The one in the video is the one that my team, Discovery, designed. There are 17 small stars, one for each of the team members and one each for our counselors Lindsey and Marvin. There are two gold astronaut stars one each for Bob and Hoot. Everyone's name is around the edge in two rows with Discovery on the top because we only had 15 people on the team.p51 wrote:Hmm. I know from Hoot Camp 2015, they already had pre-printed designs for mission patches for signs and computer graphics in the middle of the camp and neither were what you're talking about.gt0163c wrote:There's the one that's designed by each team. That one you're familiar with. A physical patch is not made, but design will show up at various points late in the week.
Look at 2:16 in the left background of this video and you'll see what I'm talking about from Hoot Camp last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOGgD1N ... RdsIx2mJLA
Okay, PK here on this forum confirmed that as well. I hadn't realized that they were done by the people on the teams. But how'd something that professional-looking get done at SC? Did someone bring a good laptop with them and have them done at the time? How'd they get printed up like what was seen in that video?gt0163c wrote:No, those "pre-printed" designs are exactly what I'm talking about. Those are the mission patches that we designed as teams. The one in the video is the one that my team, Discovery, designed. There are 17 small stars, one for each of the team members and one each for our counselors Lindsey and Marvin. There are two gold astronaut stars one each for Bob and Hoot. Everyone's name is around the edge in two rows with Discovery on the top because we only had 15 people on the team.
For my team, we had one guy who does web design as a career. He brought a laptop with Photoshop and put in a lot of time putting together the patch with the team's input. I'm assuming that the other teams did something similar. As for how they were printed up, I know we were asked to turn in the file with the patch relatively early in the week (Tuesday evening maybe?). I'm assuming someone on staff did the rest either on-site or with a local company. I don't know if that is the plan for each week-long camp (is it done for the kids' week-long camps?) or if it was a special thing done for the pilot program adult week-long camp last year. I'm hoping it's done for each adult camp, as it's cool to see your patch design show up through the week (mostly related to EDM and at graduation).p51 wrote:Okay, PK here on this forum confirmed that as well. I hadn't realized that they were done by the people on the teams. But how'd something that professional-looking get done at SC? Did someone bring a good laptop with them and have them done at the time? How'd they get printed up like what was seen in that video?
Thanks for the info, I'd been wondering about that ever since Hoot Camp last fall.gt0163c wrote:For my team, we had one guy who does web design as a career. He brought a laptop with Photoshop and put in a lot of time putting together the patch with the team's input. I'm assuming that the other teams did something similar. As for how they were printed up, I know we were asked to turn in the file with the patch relatively early in the week (Tuesday evening maybe?). I'm assuming someone on staff did the rest either on-site or with a local company.
I swear I didn't see train with astronaut in the title on the website when I signed up, but I just checked the email I got from SC once I did sign up and it did say that in the title there.Vincent wrote:It says, "Adult Advanced Space Academy w/ Astronaut" for $1649, so if that's what you signed up for...