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.