Senior Space School Dio 2018

This week has been taking a large toll on all of us energy wise, but the morning wakeups just keep on coming! Again, breakfast at the hotel at 6am, on the bus at 6:30am – the routine was becoming pretty second nature by now. The bus ride was filled with more frantic ChallengeX preparations from the finalist teams, while the rest of us were completely knocked out with the need for 45 more minutes of sleep!!

Another random sidenote: the funky road signs in Texas, which I don’t think we’ve mentioned. Some favourites are the ‘yield’ signs- exactly the same shape, colour, size, font and meaning apparently as our ‘give way’ signs, and the classic ‘don’t block the box’ signs at intersections, which have become iconic to our group.

First up today was a movie about an EVA (extra-vehicular activity) mission which had gone wrong. EVA 23 was a mission that was meant to be a ‘boring’ outing to check on an outside element of the International Space Station, however, it ended with much more ‘excitement’ than anticipated. Luca Parmitano was out with Chris Cassidy, when he felt some water on the back of his head. This turned out not to be a leak from his water bottle, but the temperature control layer in his space suit- a clothing layer laced with water tubes for heating or cooling. This continued to intensify, with us audience in the theater getting more and more stressed, while incredibly and somewhat frustratingly, mission control did not seem to take this as a serious threat and had him continue with the mission. It was not until the water, which clings tightly to objects and wraps around them in microgravity conditions, had blocked his ears and eyes, preventing communication and vision, and was heading for his mouth, that he was finally told to head back to the station. Though the movie was very dramatised, it was pretty terrifying to watch (though also really interesting), and taught a few of us that we could never be astronauts if this level of calm in life-threatening situations is required!

After this, we had guest speaker Jessica Vos come to talk to us about her work at NASA. Her areas of specialty were aerospace/spacecraft systems engineering and health science, so she is able to combine this in her job training astronauts and testing various elements of space modules, specifically working as an Orion spacecraft systems engineer. It was inspiring to hear her stories about her journey to work with NASA, as well as the advice that there is not one thing that is sought in an astronaut application or an application to work for this incredible company- it is the things that make you unique that distinguish you from the others and make you more likely to be hired. Unfortunately half of B24, despite valiant efforts, were passed out… Her talk was super interesting- when we were awake enough to process it- but late night Challenge X-capades meant that the finalists were scrounging for any sleep they could manage.

After this we headed outside for our tram tour. We piled into the carriages of a vehicle that seemed like some bus/train hybrid with open sides, and drove out through the gate for an adventure narrated by our guide Steve. On this outing we got to appreciate just how large the Johnson Space Center really is! There are so many different buildings for so many different things- it is almost like a town of its own. Various companies even donated bikes so employees could get around the ‘Space City’ in a more sustainable way without having to drive everywhere.

After an exciting tunnel, through which everyone took great delight in ‘woooo’-ing loudly (if we weren’t eking out any minute of sleep possible), we emerged next to a large green paddock containing Texan longhorn cattle, which are owned by NASA alongside their rockets. These are predominantly kept for educational purposes to allow NASA to have a more involved role in the community.

One of the first sites we visited was a mission control mockup, where a team of people were busy training to be in the real mission control for the International Space Station through use of a simulation. On the way in, we passed a display of the old monitors that were used in the past for mission control- though these had many switches and dials for adjustment, at that point in time, computers were still so huge that they had to be kept in separate rooms! We also passed the real mission control room that is used today, though photos of this room were prohibited and we were ushered quickly past lest we distract them from their calculations! It was really cool to see these setups especially after we did our own flight simulation at the George Observatory- though this was a lot more technical than our experience, the stations had the same names and were more or less carrying out the same tasks.

Next up we ‘mobilised’ at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. This is where various astronauts and engineers collaborate to develop new space exploration vehicles, as well as training for upcoming missions. This was one hall-length full of epicness!! Though we were behind the viewing glass, we got to get up close and have a good look at many amazing pieces of technology, such as Valkyrie (a next generation humanoid robot R5), Orion (a crewed space capsule under evaluation and testing, as well as design finalisation, intended to take astronauts to or beyond low earth orbit) and the Boeing Starliner (another crew transportation capsule for travel to the ISS). Robonaut, another humanoid robot, was also there, along with Gabi’s favourite- spidernaut- a terrifyingly lifelike giant robotic spider that you would not like to have chasing you… Similar to in the NBL, the ceiling also held a giant hydraulic lifting system for moving the mockups around.

The tour finished up with a visit to the Saturn 5 in residence. 13 of these gigantic 3-stage rockets were made and 10 used for missions such as launching Skylab, leaving 3 which are housed at the Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center and Huntsville Space & Rocket Center. The colossal beast was lying on its side in a shed, separated out into its 3 sections so the various engines were visible. Gabi was very knowledgeable about them so we enjoyed all her random facts. She also pointed out that though the whole rocket is about 110m long, the actual capsule (the bit that houses the astronauts and goes into space) is only about 10m long! It was so fascinating to see one of these beasts in real life, especially after watching the Space Race documentary which featured the story of Wernher von Braun, one of its creators. We had a fun time trying to get a good photo- there was some impressive bunching and mobilising from all involved, some of the best yet, but it was still a massive task to try and get as much of the huge rocket in as possible!

Then we returned to the main center for our final tour. This was around various exhibits on the first rockets, manned and unmanned, featuring a cool story from Steve about the first extravehicular activity (space walk) in space, in which Ed White let go of a glove, which stayed in orbit for about a month before finally burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere- luckily it was a spare! Interestingly, the first rocket in the exhibit had its fuel source in front of the nose- not quite sure how that worked! It didn’t get to space (hmmm…) but was a good example of the importance of learning from trial and error in science! In the rest of the tour, we also got to touch a space capsule that had been in space, touch a real moon rock, as well as learn about the process of testing and preserving these, and finally walk through a model of American space station Skylab, another incredible piece of engineering.

A well-needed lunch followed after all that walking and listening! It was the same drill at the Zero G place, and this time Gabi came and had a ‘lunch date’ with a bunch of us Dio girls so we shoved a few tables together to make a big one.

Before we graduated, we were herded over to do a survey in a room outside. iPads had been set up for us to use, and it was good to be able to give some feedback on our awesome SpaceU experience! On the way back, we were ordered into our teams for graduation, and Gabi had us do mini conga lines- only the front person was allowed to have their eyes open, and the rest had to hold onto the shoulders in front of them and trust that they wouldn’t get their head bashed on anything… Ananya was an excellent ‘driver’ for Mariner 4, though we all had sore hands at the end from clinging on for dear life! Gabi had a good laugh and apparently got some good photos of many a worried face!

Finally it was time for our graduation! We filed back into the theater with the giant screen, along with B23 (Wellington) B22 (Aussies) and B21 (MORE Aussies…). Another random sidenote from Arnie: we’ve had a few encounters with the Aussies staying in the same hotel as us. The other day I took my roomie (Izzy from Westlake) to the nurse’s room to get some medication for the dodgy haematoma she had under her toenail after she bashed it on the edge while scuba diving. A couple of Aussies came in and said they liked our accents (something we don’t hear often!) and they asked us to say ‘fish and chips’- which we did, much to their amusement. After that we had to get them to repeat it so we could have our fit of laughter too- such fun! Anyway, back to graduation.
There has been an unofficial competition of enthusiasm between us and the other groups since day 1 when Gabi and Shana got us to cheer really loudly for their introduction. (this was definitely not after an unfortunately thwarted repeat kidnapping attempt from Chris so that their final team Grail member, a cardboard cutout proudly featured in their team photo, to make it to graduation…) Since we were the last group to all go up and get our graduation certificates, we decided this was the perfect opportunity to go out with a bang and outdo their enthusiasm (we’re not competitive at all…) So we cheered our throats dry with a big load of appreciation for all 41 girls in our group- we have become such a family- as well as having lots of laughs over the botched names (we felt sorry for the announcer lady having Ananya, Anneke and Aletia one after the other!!) We also had fun with the ‘walks’ across the stage, our group featuring the ‘worm’ on the ground, a forwards roll and some excellent dabbing. We were each presented with a fancy folder with our group photo and graduation certificate in it, which was very exciting! Next it was time for the teachers. The other groups had cottoned on to our enthusiasm so started cheering with more life for their teachers, but when it came to Philipp, Chris, Gabi and Shana, we nearly lifted the roof- on video it sounded like someone was being stabbed, there was that much screaming!! First, second and third placings were also given overall after the week’s challenges, with the medal presentations also getting more cheering from our team- no matter who it was that won, it was really nice that everyone was genuinely happy for each other!

Finally it was time to go back to the hotel for the ChallengeX finals! The final teams got changed into their blue shirts and got ready to go. The rest of us got busy making posters and getting dressed up with our props- giant sunglasses, pompoms, feather boas and more, ready to do even more cheering (for those of us that had any voice left).

Hi! This is Emma, and I was a part of Lunar Conversions. And it was terrifying.
Other than utterly nerve wracking, it was pretty exciting- getting to present your ideas (and hopefully watertight research?) to a panel of experts is not what I expected to be doing, but was pretty cool! After having to re-do our organisational structure and suddenly thrust into CEO, with some last second budget-fixing… thank goodness that wasn’t questioned… to be honest I felt a combo of totally out of my depth but also ready to get up (and get it over with). It was super exciting to be awarded the best design prize though, especially knowing that a slightly crazy idea of ours was something that people thought was cool too- though I was super glad to get a restful night after!

Though they were full of nerves, with many shaking hands and knees, Lunar Conversions and Karman Beyond absolutely ‘slayed the game’ as we like to say- we were so proud to see them up there doing such a great job with their presentations. The preparation was especially visible when it came to the questioning by the judges, with Emma and Jemima rattling off justifications like pros and leaving the panel speechless- woohooo!!!

And finally we were given the glorious luxury of an early night! A truly early night and a good sleep with nothing more to stress about!

(shoutout to eating through all our excess snacks with netflix!)

 

These 5:30 mornings just keep on stacking up! Breakfast at the hotel was similar to usual, with today being a more ‘savoury’ day, the burritos, potato mixture, bacon as well as some pastries making the daily change from pancakes.

This morning’s first activity at the space center was a tour around one of the mars and moon exhibitions. There were lots of information panels, as well as plenty of interactive activities to keep us out of mischief for a while! These included a mars rover simulation to drive, a gravity simulation game where you had to get a ball out of earth’s orbit into the moon’s, launch a plastic bottle rocket, investigate changes in nutrients on plant growth, and look at samples of rock from asteroids through a microscope.

We also got a chance to visit the ‘independence plaza’ which is where they have one of the training Shuttles (Independence) and one of the modified Boeing planes which became one of the few Shuttle Carrying Aircrafts- this involved serious reinforcements and changes to how it flew in order to be able to ferry the Shuttles, now retired, from location to location. The inside of the shuttle was preserved and the living space was tiny! It was hard to believe just how long so many people had to fit into it… The shuttle now houses a mini-museum of its history, which was fascinating to walk through and we had a lot of fun exploring!

Next we hopped back on the bus for our journey to the NBL (neutral buoyancy lab). On the bus, we also got the ChallengeX results! In our group, 1st and 2nd place were Gold 2 (Jemima, Tess, Izzy, Alicia, Zenita) and White 2 (Emma, Chielin, Maddie, Elizabeth) respectively, who would then, much to their dismay at having to present again in front of all the groups, proceed to the finals. The Lunar-Tics were delighted to have placed 3rd, earning lots of points without having to do it again bwahhaahahhaaaa
Note from Emma: Arnie’s team were very pleased to not have to do any more work. As Jemima and I were roommates, our room quickly (and sarcastically) became the ‘party room’… ready to polish our projects for presenting in front of ~200 people and a panel of experts (yikes)!

The NBL is where full plastic models of various space modules are submerged in a 12m deep pool (the world’s largest pool by volume – it took a month to fill the pool up completely), meaning astronauts can train on them, getting used to the environment similar to the microgravity of space before they go. There was a giant hydraulic crane system attached to the roof which was used to move the models, as well as models of the ISS- it used to have models of the shuttles, and the NBL can also be used for practising ‘Splashdown’ exits like they used for some Apollo missions and will use for the Orion.

There were even some real astronauts (Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover) training when we were there, visible by their bright yellow life support cables and white space suits if they came close enough to the surface. It was fascinating to watch, especially since due to apparent depth (Thanks Mr B!) they appeared really close to the surface even though we knew they must’ve been around 6 or more meters deep.

Lunch was at the ‘Zero G’ cafe, as per usual while at space school. This is an open dining area with a few different counters with a range of food options, such as pizza, burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, salads and soup. The food here was pretty nice despite ‘too many chips!!!!!’, and we were happy to have some healthy options as well.

After this we excitedly returned to the bus to head off on our own scuba diving adventure. We were driven to another pool which was a bit less fancy than the NBL (imagine the paperwork to get us in there!!!!), and were divided in half. While one group got changed, the other was introduced to another robotics challenge- constructing a method for a sphero robot to carry a ‘payload’ of a ping pong ball in a race across the pool, without getting it wet. We had bits of pool noodle and various sticks and clips at our disposal, and had a lot of fun creating little boats for the spheros to pull. Racing them was pretty entertaining, especially when some started taking on water and other spheros disconnected from the iPods we were using to control them- it was a lot of fun.

Meanwhile the other group was diving. First we got into our ‘suits’ which had the oxygen tank and mouthpiece attached, strapping ourselves in and having weights attached so we could actually get under the water! Next we had to learn to trust the oxygen tank and get used to ‘mouth breathing’, which was such a weird feeling and kind of challenging! We learned some other skills, such as mask clearing underwater, by pressing on the top and breathing out through your nose, and using the button to clear water out of the mouthpiece. After we were clear with hand signals for ‘ok’, ‘stop’, ‘go up’, ‘go down’, ‘trouble’, ‘lobster’ and ‘shark’ (just in case we had some visitors to the pool…!?!?!?) and had suited up with fins, we were ready to go, and swum a few laps to get used to the diving apparatus. Then it was time to go to the deep end! As we went down further and further, it was important to equalise our ear pressure otherwise it got very uncomfortable. It felt quite unreal to be able to stay underwater for so long without coming up! Then we had a team challenge, where half had to build an ‘airlock’ structure out of pipes, and then the others had a race to swim through and collect rocks with a grabber device and bag, before racing back to the other end. We then returned to the surface, with slightly tired lungs and jaws from gripping the mouthpiece for dear life, as well as a very sore head from whacking it against the oxygen tank one too many times, but very happy and excited after such a cool experience!

We were running early returning back to Space U, which meant we had an hour in the Space Center gift shop! This was very exciting as it is a huge shop with shelves bursting with interesting things, from t-shirts to snow globes, mission patches to science kits and plush planets. The bus was considerably fuller when everyone got on with their bags of shopping!

Dinner was at the Cheesecake Factory, which as the name implies, is a restaurant that serves cheesecake (amongst other things). We had the choice between a vegan cob salad, turkey burger or steak and vegetables. Unfortunately, though edible, the meal did not live up to all the hype. With a measly vegetable serving, severely overcooked meat and a dry “block of rice that could be cut with a knife” (Emma 2018), at least the cheesecake served with a (very) gelatinous strawberry sauce was nice!

Then it was back to the hotel for MORE ChallengeX prep for the finalists- such fun… This thing never ends!

 

 

Authors’ note: Team names are different for Space U and the other Space School activities and ChallengeX, but members are the same:

• Anneke, Ananya, Jes, Aletia = Mariner 4/ Lunar-Tics/Green 2/Luminate
• Jemima, Tess, Alicia, Izzy, Zenita = Deep Space 1/Whetu Kaha/Gold 2/KarmanBeyond
• Emma, Chielin, Maddie, Elizabeth = LROC/Lunar Conversions/White 2/Caelum

Morrrrning!! Another 5:30 wake up today was met with just as many groans as ever, but we are getting used to it… It is so worth it though for all the awesome activities every day has in store for us at Space U!

This morning was pretty freezing, so we all wrapped up and headed to our first destination- the outdoor carpark where we would launch our rockets- the moment of truth was finally here! All our creations had been lined up on a table, wired up and ready to be launched at the click of a button. We donned safety goggles and hard hats (a bit of a throwback to bridge building with the awful photos to prove it!!!) and one by one, counted down to blastoff! It was very exciting to see the results! Deep Space 1 and the rest of the small rockets had evidently made the best choice in order to get their rockets the highest- there was a collective ‘woooaaaahhh!!!’ as these ones took to the sky! Some parachutes deployed successfully for the bonus as well (though we all reckoned the classification of Deep Space’s parachute as only ‘partially deployed’ should have counted properly!!). Mariner 4 was delighted when our rocket’s second stage separated properly, as we had been sanding down the connector piece for around an hour during building as it was too tight and we were scared it wouldn’t come off! Mariner 4 failed on the parachute front with a nice nose dive into the tarmac- so perhaps a bit more training will be required before we get to building rockets to carry real astronauts…

Next, we returned to our classroom for an introduction to today’s activities- robots!! Our first task was to use various available gears, motors, panels and other bits and pieces to construct an end effector off a basic robot console, creating a rover that could pick up rocks in our mock-up ‘mars’ surface when operated by our remote control. We learned about the different gearing patterns, such as that a small driving gear attached to the motor, with a larger driven gear, will cause a large torque but a smaller speed i.e. good for lifting, while a larger driving gear connected to the motor moving a smaller driven gear will have a larger speed but smaller torque. Once again, this was running off our same budget, so we had to plan and build carefully! Various groups had quite different designs, which was interesting to see.

Part way through, each group decided on one or a few members to be their ‘coders’ to take part in the next challenge, while the rest continued to work on the main robot. Ananya, Arnie and Emma, along with the others, all left our creations in the good hands of the rest of the group, Jemima staying as she played a vital part in her design and build. Our challenge was to code a robot to follow a certain path and do various turns and speed changes. This involved measuring distances on the track, adjusting the two-wheel sides to do different things in circular turns and measuring the radius etc of the turns to make calculations with the wheel circumference to work out how many rotations needed to be made. Under the time pressure, everyone was working furiously away, and we all more or less finished in the end! Each obstacle or track element successfully passed gained points, while going off the track and touching the floor resulted in deductions. Mariner 4 was delighted to be placed 3rd and gave Flibbles a joyride around. It was so much fun to test, and everyone’s efforts, whether successful or not, were met with enthusiastic cheering from students and chaperones alike.

After the very exciting testing of the coded robots, we moved to the rover challenge. Here, one person was designated ‘driver’ and had to use the PlayStation-like controller to work the precoded steering, as well as the motors we had installed to operate an arm and a claw at the end to attempt to grab the rocks. This was a lot easier said than done- Deep Space 1’s incredibly well-engineered robot did not want to cooperate and under the pressure of time (and admittedly Jemima’s dodgy driving skills) didn’t quite manage to grab the rocks as designed! That machine was an epic creature. Most of the teams’ robots ended up falling apart due to unbalanced components or some dodgy driving through the sand and hills of our mockup ‘mars’ terrain. Mariner 4’s robot finally stopped displaying its ‘error’ messages on the console, and we took to the sand, only for the arm to fall off when we tried to grab the heaviest rock… But with some epic driving from Jes and lots of encouraging competitive yelling from the rest of the team, we managed to drag the rock out of the sand, cm by painstaking cm, by rotating the main console side to side and shuffling along the ground, to finally make it back to the ‘safe zone’. Coupled with bonus points from correctly identifying all of the rocks, using features such as their colour, texture and location, we earned a somewhat dodgy 1st place!

Random sidenote: around the classroom area are various life-sized boards with full-body images of various NASA astronauts printed on them. The instructors take great delight in moving these around, so when we open a door or come out of the bathroom, one is always there to (creepily) greet us when we are least expecting it!!

I don’t think we’ve mentioned our GMs (group managers) and supporting teachers yet either. Our teachers are Chris from Waikato Dio, and Philipp from Napier Girls’ High- two awesome science teachers who are always keen to help out and get competitive, getting involved in the challenges with their own designs as well. Our GMs are Shana (who is mainly for the other subgroup in our group, AGSA 23), a very caring and enthusiastic lady with a wicked sense of humour, and Gabi, our subgroup (AGSA 24)’s main leader: a 24-year-old Dio old girl who has just finished a double degree in Biomedical Science and Engineering at Monash and is going to work for HP in Barcelona. She is such a legend with never-ending energy which gets us through the days and always makes us laugh. Another fabulous person on this trip is Troy, our bus driver. He is always there in the mornings to greet us with energy, a big smile and high-fives all around and gets into our fun and singing as we drive.

After our robot adventures, we headed back to the hotel for a quick dinner before finally presenting our ChallengeX projects! Not sure if we’re described these before, but it was essentially a challenge to create and present a company to fulfil the future demand of space tourism, complete with seemingly endless scientific and business details and planning, which we were scrambling to finish at the last minute. It was exciting to finally see everyone’s presentations that had been pretty secretive for a while! Gold 2 presented their ‘Karman Beyond’ company for a calming mind, body and soul trip to the moon, with incredible research and technology thanks to Jemima’s crazily awesome dedication to her cause and many late nights (/early mornings…), as well as White 2’s Lunar Conversions with their waste processing system and rover for lunar bases, with amazing scientific rationale by Emma, and the Lunar-tics’ ‘LID’ dome device and habitat designed in a lunar crater with an environmental focus.

And finally we had an early night- the best present we could wish for after such an insanely busy schedule!!

Authors’ note: Apologies for the slightly late blog posts and ‘radio silence’- the last few days have been absolutely hectic and we have been occupied with ChallengeX preparations (more about that later!)

Today was a fabulous early wakeup! 5:30 yayyyyyy. We stumbled downstairs, somewhat zombie-like, to try and get some breakfast down. We have developed some new fruit-snatching habits which involve ventures to the ‘special meals’ table after we have collected our normal food, as there is always a bowl of fruit there without fail- such fun. Today, for the first time, we had waffles on offer. This was very exciting, though many of us had to stop half way as they were so rich and filling!

We hopped onto the bus- it seemed crazy as it was still dark outside, and took the 45 minute trip to the Johnson Space Center. Here, were ushered into a theater with the hugest screen we had ever seen plastered across the whole front wall for our welcome to Space Center University. Next was a brunch, or a snack of some more fruit which was all we could finish so soon after breakfast! Also on offer were ‘chicken waffles’ which are fluffy waffles which you are meant to sandwich around a piece of chicken. Some of the teachers thought this tasted good but who knows if we should trust them… most of us didn’t try them as we didn’t realise that we were going to be getting brunch so soon after breakfast!

While we were eating, we were privileged enough to meet another astronaut- Ken Cameron. He gave us some accounts of his experiences in space, as well as detailing how some elements of space travel work. He gave us a lot to think about in terms of the microgravity environment, circadian rhythms and the benefits of launching from a low latitude (thank you Mr Boasman for your crazy rants about the way the International Space Station is constantly ‘falling’ around the earth).

Next we headed to our allocated classroom for our first challenge- rocket building! We were all still in our same teams, but have been given new names after various rovers while at Space U, such as Mariner 4 (Anneke, Ananya, Aletia and Jes) and Deep Space 1 (Jemima, Tess, Isabella, Alicia, Zenita). Each table was given a binder with information about each rocket part, our budget for the week of $600 million, and different roles we had to fulfil. After a presentation about the basics of rocket building, we were left to build our creations. We could choose from various sizes- such as the small alpha or the big loadstar, as well as whether our rocket would be one stage or two stages (where the first stage provides a boost, then separating and igniting the second fuel cylinder to then carry the payload into the air). There were a range of choices by the teams: Mariner 4 had an ambitious plan of a double loadstar, blowing $378 million of our budget in the first of 5 challenges (we had debated this, but then decided it was worth it to make a giant cool rocket!). On the complete contrary, Deep Space 1 chose to proceed conservatively given our projection of the other projects we would have to complete. Focusing on a lightweight design with minimal materials, focusing on the idea that the rocket would reach greater heights if there was less payload to launch. Each part had a different cost which had to be accounted for, and collected from the ‘shop’ by our designated supplies manager, before our assembly.

We had a short break in which we tried some American snack bars- the instructors thought they tasted like cardboard, but they weren’t too bad now that we are more used to everything being sugar loaded! (note: I read the back of one, at it was over 30% sugar!)

The next challenge was a thermal tile and cryogenics challenge. For this, each team had to construct a heat shield to protect our ‘egg-stronaut’ from a butane flame and a sealed capsule to prevent our ‘marsh-stronaut’ marshmallow from being frozen in a dousing of liquid nitrogen. Materials available included aluminium foil, cork, batting, iron wool, plastic, bubble wrap and other plastic insulation. Mariner 4’s heat shield had a layer of cotton batting closest to the egg, topped with a piece of cork, a zig-zag folded piece of foil for air pockets, some little pieces of cork for some mysterious function and another piece of foil on the top. Our marshmallow holder was a wrap of batting and bubble wrap, surrounded by a cork box.

Finally, before we were dismissed we had to do a swing test to check that our center of mass was above the center of pressure, allowing our rocket to be properly balanced. This was pretty amusing as it involved a volunteer/victim from the group swinging the rocket around their head on a string- if it flew forwards, it was fine, but if it went sideways or backwards, something had to be changed. It was a difficult balance between cowboy-lasso and trying not to get hit in the head with a rocket!

After all the rockets had been sorted out, it was time for another shopping excursion. This time we visited Tanger Outlets, which was an outlet mall with all the shops set out in a square. We had a good walk around, with a few of us hunting down some good bargains, ending up at the pretzel shop for a lovely warm snack before we raced back around the square to meet our set time.

Then we headed back to the bus to go to ‘Golden Corral’, another American diner, for our dinner. This was similar to Luby’s but so much better! Here it was self serve so a lot less stressful, and they also had some good salad options- going to America has made us all so grateful for healthy eating in NZ!!! After that though we had to check out the epic desert counter, including pies, frozen yoghurt, slices, fudge, cupcakes, fruit, a chocolate fountain and more!

We returned to the hotel full of food to do some ChallengeX prep and finally flop into bed (some later than others…)!

-Arnie, Emma and Jemima over and out

Mariner 4’s giant Loadstar rocket

 

This morning we had our last of our ‘sleep-ins’ (til 7:15) before our early morning wake ups which begin tomorrow. Rumour has it wakeups will now be at 5:30 for a 6:00 breakfast, but that will be worth it because we’re off to NASA each day for 5 days woohooooo!!!

 

This morning’s breakfast conversation was about the recent basketball game of the Houston Rockets (who we saw take away an unlikely win the other day) vs LA Lakers- we had just heard that the Rockets, supposedly the bottom of their league, had beaten the Lakers! This made for an interesting chat with Christina, one of our teammates from Hamilton who is passionate about basketball- we’re learning about more than just space!!

 

Next, we had our daily and final expression zone, which was, as always, interesting to hear the personal reflections of the group and a good way to get to know them better. We haven’t sung ‘The Climb’ in a while now, but after our reflections, we have an interesting rendition of Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ sung by the rest of the group to the speakers- such fun.

 

Our last activity before departure was another of the 7 principles- today’s was problem-solving. In our groups, we were given several riddles, a few of which were quite original and ones we hadn’t heard of before, as well as watching a fascinating and dramatic video clip about the Apollo 13 mission in which the CO2 scrubber broke after an oxygen tank exploded. This device is meant to remove CO2 from the air and replace is with oxygen for the astronauts to breathe, but the replacement being square while the original was circular meant that in order to stop the dangerously rising CO2 levels, they had to literally work out how to ‘fit a square peg into a round hole’, but they were successful in the end! We got to watch footage of a film that was made based on the events, also called Apollo 13, and can highly recommend it if you have time- their problem solving with such high stakes and tight deadlines were incredible.

 

Next was an hour bus trip out to Brazos State Bend Park, seemingly the middle of nowhere, where the George Observatory, the only constituent of the Smithsonian in Houston and part of the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, is located. This is one of the only observatories that is still open to the public all the time and is a non-profit organisation, which we thought was pretty awesome. After a short walk through semi-bush in the freezing cold (though luckily there was no rain this time!) we hurried inside to explore. First, we were ushered into a classroom for a captivating astronomy lesson. Our discussion ranged from light pollution to the life cycle of stars, the workings of telescopes, Galileo and other notable early astronomers, and the discovery of other galaxies. We’ve all been encouraged to spread the word of how easy it is to become a ‘dark city’. It’s as simple as directing lights correctly so that light isn’t lost upwards or beyond where it needs to be illuminating, and this is, in fact, more cost efficient for city councils- which was the primary driver for the first ‘dark city’, interestingly. The lesson also included an awesome video about how to calculate the speed of light using ‘peeps’/marshmallows in a microwave, by finding ‘hot points’ caused by constructive interference of microwaves- SO SO SO COOL- we were freaking out! Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkoVPbLVUqs This was followed by even more amazing content, such as exoplanets which looked incredibly like earth! We left the room absolutely starstruck!!

 

Next, it was time to head out to the dome in which their telescope is located. The telescope is absolutely massive, yet is balanced so perfectly on its support that the motor used to turn it only needs to be the strength of that in a sewing machine! Another exciting piece of technology is their hydraulic floor, which lifts the viewer up to the telescope, as moving the giant device downwards is not really an option! We were excited to see all these contraptions, as well as the roof opening, though since it was the middle of the day and very cloudy, we had no chance of seeing any stars- sad feeling. But that only gives us a good excuse to return one day, right?

 

Next up was lunch- a barbeque from a mobile catering cart, including turkey, brisket, various beans and sauces, salad, croutons, bread, cookies and drinks. We were a little hesitant at first to try some of it, but the meat especially was surprisingly tasty, and the lack of the typical American batter coating was much appreciated!

 

Then it was back to the observatory for a browse in the gift shop- a very exciting nerd shop indeed! Purchases ranged from plush planets to science kits and toys to small patches of the observatory- it was also fun to have a good browse.

 

Our next activity was the space mission simulation! Last night we had been assigned different roles, such as navigation, satellites, medical, communication, data, geology, bio, bots and more. We were split in half, with one group going into the ‘space shuttle’ for our simulated mission to the moon, while the other group remained in the ‘mission control’ room. We all had desks and computers, through which we carried out our tasks, which we could monitor the progress of on the main screens, as well as relaying messages to communications to send via a microphone to the other room. Other than when our oxygen nearly ran out (we had about 20 seconds remaining before asphyxiation), and when the ship got hit by an asteroid on the next mission, this time to mars, forcing an emergency landing, we had a smooth trip and got there safely. Even in our times of trouble, through working together and trying our best to stay calm, we got through and avoided disaster. It was a pretty realistic experience, which is apparently used for real astronauts as part of their training, and was heaps of fun to take part in.

 

After that is was back on the bus for another long ride home, rather hindered this time by Houston ‘5 o’clock traffic’, but we’ve been taking advantage of this time and the on-bus wifi (though this is a bit dodgy at times) to catch up with our last few blog posts, as with our packed days, waking at 7:15 am and finishing activities at 9:30 pm, we barely even have time to think!!!

 

Tonight’s dinner was held in a different room, as the main area and ballroom of the hotel were being used for some fancy dinner and dance. The food was good, similar to the usual with meat, vegetables and bread, and there was more ice cream for dessert, so we were happy!

 

We finished off with some Challenge X time- everyone is really stressed now, as well as tired, so things are going interestingly, but the presentation is on Sunday, so getting that done should be good. It will be a real cram to get things done, but the learning along the way has been amazing, whether about the topics, or time management, group work and ourselves.

 

This morning began in the typical dancing fashion- we are becoming rather familiar with the routines by now!!! We also got to experience some stunning soloists of the girls who were late yesterday, and luckily no one else was late. Breakfast after this was pancakes again, with nice bowls of fruit to go with it. Breakfast went quickly, and it was soon on to getting on with our day.

 

First up was our next presentation about the 7 principles- today’s was entrepreneurism, centred around Franklin Chang Diaz, founder and CEO of Ad Astra rocket company, that is currently working on cutting-edge VASIMR plasma propulsion technology for rocket engines. He is the first Costa-Rican astronaut in space and shares the record for the most space trips: 7! He’s done some really incredible work and his work is the future to facilitating long-term space travel. NASA is funding Ad Astra to keep going on their research in preparation for their future deep space missions.

 

We were set a task during our Mission Brief video at home: get some research ready for an Ad Astra pop quiz! The quiz included questions varied from names of rovers and their missions all the way through to various propulsion systems and the future of Ad Astra and VASMIR. Points were awarded to the most knowledgeable teams in the form of stickers, which we are all aiming to collect (other stickers are awarded for showing other aspects of the 7 success skills we’re being taught, anything from working well as a team during challenges to holding open doors or particularly enthusiastic dancing in the mornings!). Jemima and Tess’ team with Alicia (ex-Dio), Izzy and Zenita (Westlake) took the top prize with a grand total of 24.5 points, receiving a long strip of stickers. After a thrilling victory, or a shameful defeat in other cases, we headed on to work more on our Challenge X projects, and it’s safe to say that we’re all feeling the time crunch…

 

Lunch was held at the American diner Luby’s, a buffet-style lunch. Many of us found the ordering experience a little stressful and the portion sizes were slightly alarming. Nevertheless, we ordered a couple dishes each (salad, main, 2 sides, dessert and drink) and gave it a go. The general consensus was not particularly one of positivity, however, we all chalked it up to being “an experience”. Said ‘experience’ unfortunately included meat being in multiple of the supposedly vegetarian dishes, which we luckily found fairly quickly but not before someone, unfortunately, ate some and promptly felt quite unwell… luckily she recovered quickly as well with profuse apologies. Since the meal included anything and everything from monstrous hunks of meat and salad with two (2) slices of tomato total to what we think was supposed to be a strawberry shortcake which tasted predominantly of sugar and not much strawberry (but certainly a LOT of gelatin), it certainly was an adventure…

 

The bus trip to Ad Astra was pretty fun as we discovered a collective interest in waiata singing, with some classics ‘Te Aroha’ and ‘Tutira Mai’. There are some others that a few of the group know, so there has been some more teaching going on, which is a nice way to be more unified.

 

The visit to Ad Astra would have to be the highlight of the day. Firstly, we had a powerpoint presentation from one of the head engineers/designers working on the rocket, getting an explanation as to how their plasma propulsion VASIMR technology works. Though the physics was pretty extreme, we could apply and understand some ideas we have covered, such as current induction to slow a material travelling in a conductive pipe (Lenz’s law), magnetic fields, and it was fascinating to listen to and very inspiring in terms of future thinking and believing in the supposedly impossible. Then we got to go in and see where the testing of their rocket engine took place, in a large cylindrical vacuum chamber, as well as asking the engineer lots of questions.

 

On our way out, we were lucky enough to encounter Dr Chang Diaz himself!! Our group accosted him with excited requests for photos and signatures on our lanyards, which he politely indulged, much to our delight! We were all so excited, and we even sang Tutira Mai to him, which he seemed to enjoy (and one of his colleagues recorded from behind us). We were so shaky that we didn’t even care about the few metres in torrential rain to get back into the bus- Troy, our bus driver, was kind enough to pull as close as possible for us.

 

During the ride back towards the hotel, we stopped off at what might not be a tourist attraction but was certainly exciting to us- Wholefoods! Wholefood is a supermarket which specialises in health foods, no preservatives allowed, and we took our time exploring the isles and selecting a few things to test or just marvelling at what the shelves stocked. A personal shoutout goes to Emma (from B23, not B24) who managed to come out of Wholefoods with no food, but four plush toys instead!

 

After completing the rest of the journey back, a quick trip to our rooms to drop off the food, we were straight back into work. This time, our sixth principle: Agility. In this workshop, we learnt about The Ordinary Spaceman, Clayton Anderson, who applied 15 times to be an astronaut and refining his CV until he finally made it. He is certainly an inspiration to stay agile and always commit to working hard to achieve our dreams, no matter how big.

 

We then tried to maximise our time with a bit more Challenge X work before dinner- which we devoured and headed back to our group room. Just as we were preparing to leave, we got told that there was something exciting waiting outside for us- mango and chocolate gelato! We rushed to grab our share, some of us before even finishing our dinner, and hurried back to enjoy the indulgence. Over the last few days, we have also discovered some interesting eating habits in our group, namely the eating of apples with a knife and fork at the breakfast table. Tonight we added eating ice cream with a knife in the middle of the main dinner meal to that list (Ananya). Back at the group room, we made our lists of what roles we’d prefer to do in the mission simulation for tomorrow. It was hard to choose between so many cool roles!

 

Once we’d made some difficult decisions, we headed off to another guest speaker talk from Tom Nolan. From a dolphin trainer who hated school, he is now an Operations Engineer at NASA with degrees in Marine Biology and Oceanography. I (Emma) can honestly say he was the most inspiring person I’ve heard speak so far, at least personally. He preached the message of the importance of being in awe of what is happening, even under our own feet. Knowing that the world is amazing, that what we as a human race can and have achieved is amazing, and that we are all people who can achieve amazing things if we just keep working on our passions. Not only is the work that he’s done super inspirational, managing equipment at many different levels to record public data for the world to access, we all came away with the knowledge that at least there’d be a “Crazy old man, probably drooling a little, sitting on a rocking chair in California staring at the sky and saying ‘Go baby, go!’”.

 

We rounded out our evening with reflection zone/Challenge X time. Mr Nolan was kind enough to visit our room, where we eagerly thanked him (Ananya and Emma giving small gifts) and hearing some final words of inspiration. He said that hopefully at least if he was only a flash in the pan, someone can fan that spark into a flame. We then settled in once more and worked late into the evening before drifting off towards our rooms to (do more work… oops?) get some rest for the exciting day up ahead.

– Emma, Anneke and Jemima over and out

 

 

 

Once again this morning, relatively early start to get up and dance! Today we learnt Gabi’s personal favourite, the Actura version of Waka Waka: at times it was hard to tell if we were out of breath from skipping or from laughing! Breakfast again was our new standard, fruit included, and we hurried back to the room for Expression zone. It was Ananya, Antonia, and Tess’ turn today and they all spoke very well.

 

This was followed with our next principle, Communication, in which we heard about Erik Weihenmayer who with the support of his team in 2001 was the first man to reach the peak of Mt Everest… blind. This was an incredibly inspiring example of just how vital communication can be, and we hope to take this learning through into our own teams in the future half as successfully as their incredible team managed to. Some more Challenge X time followed, and soon after it was time to head off to the Museum!

 

Troy (our favourite bus driver) drove us over to the Houston Museum of Natural History, and the museum was incredible. The exhibits, way in which information was presented, the tech and how engaging it was… it must be amazing to live with a museum of that magnitude on your doorstep. It made Auckland Museum pale in comparison. With so much to explore and so little time to do it in we all parted ways in our little groups of 3+, when our vision tunnelled as soon as we heard of a dinosaur section, a walk through the evolutionary timeline from Cambrian to now. This whole experience was enhanced with the interesting facts and explanations peppered in by Emma (SHOUT OUT)  for those of us too lazy to read the complicated placards on the exhibition.

 

Lunch was served in adorable blue boxes which we took into the garden to eat. We finally got to try the majestical American orange cheese, which was an interesting experience, in our sandwich/burger thing, which also had lettuce, tomato and roast beef. Alongside this, the box also featured a chocolate chip cookie, chips and typical waxy American apple- we continue to be very grateful for any fruit we can find!!

 

Next, we returned to the museum for our space glove engineering session. Our challenge was to create a glove that would withstand various tests, such as resistance to heat, radiation and physical wear from the impact of ‘micrometeorites’, as well as keeping dexterity allowing the wearer to screw on bolts and complete a reaction time test. We had a budget of $3000 with which we had to ‘buy’ our materials, such as felt, structural tape and mylar, in order to make our creation. There was a range of awesome designs, though the execution of construction had different levels of success, with the lunar-tics group panicking at the last minute to tape our glove together, having spent a bit too much time getting excited about our design, rather than the actual making- something to work on we think…

 

After this, we headed to the mall for some shopping. Splitting off into our groups of 3 or more for safety, we went out on our American shopping adventure. Though our bunch made considerably fewer purchases than some of the others, it was a very successful and enjoyable trip. It was fun to go around the various stores, many holding new experiences, checking out the American fashion and finding some treasures. A highlight was the visit to ‘Salata’, a salad bar somewhat like subway, which was cheap and delicious! We also journeyed to Cinnabon (cinnamon buns), Pinkberry (frozen yoghurt) and Sugarfina (boutique lolly shop) for dessert, which was very exciting.

 

We returned to the hotel with a lot fuller bus than we arrived with, ready for our next presentation- this time on this time on collaboration in which one of our group managers, Shana, wrote up the word ‘capybara’. People who knew what this word meant formed a group of ‘experts’ that were spread out among the groups whilst gradually more information is revealed e.g. large rodent, South American, animal etc. This caused the understanding of each group to in theory also increase as knowledge was spread, indicating the benefits of collaboration.

 

Finally, we had some time to work on our Challenge X projects, which is ever increasing in pressure and stress, before finally returning to our rooms for a well-needed sleep!

– Emma, Anneke and Jemima over and out

 

This morning was off to a fun start with a brief bit of jump jam (a fabulous way to wake up!!!) prior to Case Move It: photos and video have been taken by our Group Managers (GMs)…

After all that moving, we were feeling pretty hungry and the pancakes that awaited were definitely well received. Once again, the fruit was scarce… we have plans to stock up whenever we can in future!

A new daily feature that was introduced today was the ‘expression zone’. This is when, each morning from now on, some members of the group present a short speech in front of the group, based on questions from one of four lists, featuring goals and reflections. This is a really nice way to get to know the group better individually as well as having the experience of speaking to an audience we aren’t familiar with.

We received the brief on Challenge X which was slightly overwhelming given the immense detail and complexity of the task. Our challenge is to propose a futuristic (but still plausible) solution including aspects of or all of the transport, habitation, and waste management for future space tourism on the moon. This is proving to be much more complicated than previously thought and on a very short time frame… if blogs get later then that’ll likely be the reason!

Before departing for our ‘NBA meets STEM’ talk, we tucked into lunch catered by the hotel. It was a short lunch, rice stuffed capsicum, which we demolished then headed out towards the Toyota Centre. We then heard an interesting talk from a Rice professor and someone from Microsoft about how STEM permeates through all careers. Not quite the biomechanics we were expecting from the name, but certainly, the venue added to the general excitement. After that was a short showcase, including educational Minecraft, the Texan Torque’s old competing robots, and much more.

We then ventured out to do a brief bit of shopping- which for us, was almost entirely spent fawning over Barnes and Noble- and then it was back to the stadium once more to catch the warm-ups. It was incredible to be able to sit so close and watch them as they prepared with such focus. Dinner adventures of the day were trying out some classic American game food- pizza for most of us, popcorn and cotton candy- plus looking at the surprisingly extensive range of Houston Rockets merchandise!

The game was incredibly exciting, and a little overwhelming. It was hard to know where to look. Even after a ‘Basketball for dummies’ briefing from a fellow group member, everywhere you turned there was something new and different to look at between the constantly changing chants, animations, breakdowns, replays, drill team, cheerleaders, and of course the game itself! Despite predictions, the hometown Houston Rockets won 111-104 in a very close and tense game. Exhausted, we bussed back towards the hotel and went straight up to bed for the night, heads filled with the roar of an ecstatic home crowd’s pride.

– Anneke, Emma and Jemima over and out