Space Camp isn’t just for Kids
An early Friday morning flight took me to Huntsville, Alabama to the US Space and Rocket Center. Space Camp, or Adult Space Academy, consisted of 14 adult participants. We were a diverse group of nine men, five women aged 30 to 82 years old from the US, Spain, Pakistan and Russia. Some there just as an item on their bucket list, and a few worked in the space industry. The 82-year-old actually worked on Gemini 8.
We checked into our rooms in the “HAB”, which felt a little like a prison. Usually there’s 1200 kids that descend on each camp, so each room has seven bunk beds. I luckily had a room to myself. The HAB looks industrial, more like the underground living of the Dauntless in “Divergent”, but there is a hotel next door if one prefers. You do have to bring your own pillows and linens like a real camp.
We had a packed agenda for the next 48-ish hours. After a short orientation we were right to work with our first group mission. This entailed an ISS stimulation where the shuttle would dock and exchange astronauts and return home. We did 2 missions, with a one hour practice before the real thing.
Each person receives assignment to a different job, from mission specialist and pilots to pay comms. Everyone had distinct activities to complete and time allotted to call it a successful mission. The tricky part were anomalies that are thrown in when you least expect it. This is when it came down to staying calm and communicating to fix the problems and get home safely. These simulations give a better understanding of Apollo 13, when all the red lights are flashing and you’re really limited in resources and reliant on those on the ground for support. Even though my pilot didn’t quite get us on the runway and many red lights were flashing, the experience helps you understand how challenging each mission is and how much time and energy is put into making it as safe as possible.
After completing our first mission we headed straight to rocket construction. Although we would complete them the following day, due to rain we weren’t able to launch until Sunday. An 8:45 p.m. lights out seemed early, but my brain was already ready to rest. With a 6:30 a.m. wake up, we are immediately back to rocket construction. But our next activity of “breakfast with a docent” was a real highlight. We asked lots of questions and heard experiences of those who’ve been around the NASA space program since its inception. It helped us understand the advances and the technology that we’re able to use today because of the space race.
What I didn’t expect was to immediately go to the MAT, the multi-axis trainer, right after breakfast! Although they explain you won’t get sick or lose your stomach because you never rotate on the same access, I was not convinced. We each got about a minute in the MAT and as someone who doesn’t ride roller coasters I was a bit nervous. The sensation was like none other and all of us wanted to go again, even though I was screaming half of the time. And luckily we weren’t tasked with attempting to right ourselves, as astronauts would, it barely seemed possible.
Before lunch we did a second mission, this one to Mars. My job was driving the Rover out to collect equipment, kind of like a video game. Then we got on the Orion capsule to take us home. Again having to handle anomalies on the journey. We toured the rocket museum, and learned more about the upcoming Artemis missions and the sustainability projects that go into that, like getting protein from bugs as a food source. We toured an ISS replica and learned how astronauts exercise two hours every day to maintain their bone density in space. Getting to see archives like the astronaut’s Apollo boots, although they wouldn’t let me try them on, and an invitation from JFK for a dinner that would never happen due to his assassination were another highlight.
Control Station
Another fun activity was the 1/6 chair, for the Moon’s gravity ratio to Earth. It was fun to bounce around in but really quite difficult. But before wrapping up the day we had to build thermal protectors for our eggstronaut. We bought equipment to ensure they wouldn’t get charred or worse! Although my egg survived, it’s definitely interesting to think about the budgeting of the space program and how human life plays into those economics. Our last day was another early morning but we finally got to launch our rockets! Most of them didn’t work out how we wished which is why there’s a rocket Hall of Fame in the trees nearby. Our last activity was the planetarium. We selected the James Webb telescope presentation to view the amazing recently captured photos of stars and planets.
After a short graduation ceremony, our weekend was complete. I definitely learned a ton of information, got to see replicas of rockets, shuttles and simulate the tough job of an astronaut and all those that make NASA a success. Definitely worth it no matter what your age!
