MNathaniel Checks in from Alumni Camp
Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 9:54 pm
I ran into MNathaniel again today and he asked if I could post his Day 1 report to the boards.
So, here it is:
I will say though, there are probably more than a few upset campers this week, because there is also a normal six-day ASA session going on right now, and some Alumni here in that this week never knew about the 8-day, 24-hour EDM session.
Whoops!
So, here it is:
Sounds like a really good time!I arrived somewhere around 1 after the drive from the airport. Once here, I met a few of my team and other teams, including 2 fellow Hab1ers (Monkeynautt and Hillary). We basically hung out doing nothing for a few hours (even after meeting our counselor). Then we went to SCUBA briefing, which was surprisingly un-boring. Then we went to dinner (same-old, same-old. This time spaghetti), and after that was THE COOL PART! We went to one of the corporate classrooms in the office area for our Mission Briefing thing, where "Dr. Mario Vitelli, Director of Manned Spaceflight Programs at Johnson Space Center" told us about our new program. Apparently, we were "magically transported through space-time" to Johnson, where we will train for our mission this whole week before being "actually launched into space" at the end of the week. Apparently, both the Enterprise team (us-formally known as Soyuz) and the Atlantis team (including Hillary) (formally known as the Vostok team) are training for the same 24-hour mission, on which the two crews will join. The realism is greater with items such as an actual diagnostic guide for medical anomalies and a PAO who types up a report and takes photos for a press report (which I'm hoping we get at the end of the week). We are allowed to bring our own personal belongings and whatnot on the orbiter (including drinks and snacks), but "you may drink only bottled water or fruits," "Dr. Vitelli" misspoke to us, for the sake of realism, of course. Apparently, for realism, they took the details from STS-54 and outlined our mission. Oh, and to supplement our log books, they gave us clipboards! Really simple, yet really cool. It's going to be a great week!
I will say though, there are probably more than a few upset campers this week, because there is also a normal six-day ASA session going on right now, and some Alumni here in that this week never knew about the 8-day, 24-hour EDM session.
Whoops!