This summer I took a trip to Alabama, not to the Gulf Shores, or to see Civil Rights history, but to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, home of Space Camp. This has been on my bucket list for years. It was amazing to finally get there.
My 3-day Adult Space Academy program included two simulated launch missions, rocket building, heat shield designing, a peek at items from the historical archives, and lots of cafeteria meals.
My favorite parts were the simulated space missions. For the first, I was Flight Director back on earth helping run the show in Mission Control while half the team was flying to the International Space Station (ISS), exchanging crew, and returning to earth. I even took a picture of the first lines I had to read from one of the many binders we used: "Mission Control, this is Flight Director. Complete final pre-flight checks and prepare for lift-off of Discovery and her crew. The second mission? This time I was a scientist on a US moon base circa 2034. After using the automated scanner to check the health of the crew, we completed experiments, then prepared for a crew exchange. After leaving the moon, we flew back to earth and safely landed our vehicle.
Other days had us building and shooting off our own rockets in the July Alabama heat and testing a self-designed heat shield to keep a raw egg from cooking after being blasted by a 3,000 degree blowtorch for 3 minutes. Inside activities included a planetarium show and a presentation from an archivist who brought out prototypes of moon boots, a V-2 rocket timing mechanism, letters, and ISS food packets.
I would recommend Space Camp/Adult Space Academy to anyone interested in space, or those looking for a weekend activity for themselves or their family. Besides programs for just kids or just adults, there are some where entire families can adventure together.
Thanks to my co-worker, Annie, for nudging me to write this blog post.
Anyone else want to share how they spent their summer vacation?
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