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