Again, 5:30am wake up which doesn’t get any less painful – particularly for those who had dozed off on the later (earlier?) side of ‘past midnight’.

We started our day at Space U exploring the Mars Exhibit, taking note of a couple of factors we would have to later consider for our Mars Habitat design competition that is to come. Unfortunately, Gold 2 who had endured a rough night (including a midnight escapade involving more ChallengeX finals prep), was found on the ground in an exhausted heap. Gradually more and more girls drifted over until there were a pile of B24 girls that looked like they’d been there as long as the ‘rock faces’ they were sitting on.
However, there were plenty of interesting facts to be discovered by those who were still mentally competent. A favourite would be the fact that water and high-density polyethylene was a sufficient measure of protection against radiation from cosmic rays due to their high hydrogen content. Much more efficient than lead, apparently, which was a shock to a lot of people, us included.

The Mars habitat design became a bit of a last-ditch ‘throw whatever creativity we have left’ deal, at least for LROC and Deep Space 1. It was at this point where it became clear just how tired we were, and maybe a little delusional… Either way, it made it a little more fun and crazy. With some plans drawn up, it was time for testing of the thermal tiles and cryogenics. We were bundled out of the room and into the cold to watch how the tests went down.

First, our heat shields were exposed to the ‘flame of death’ for two minutes, and a temperature probe attached to an iPad was used to measure the change in temperature that the egg-stronaut behind the shield was exposed to. This was pretty exciting- some were scorched, others caught fire, and one got a hole burned right through the middle! There was a bit of fire and smoke from most groups as the tape we were given to stick our creations together was evidently highly flammable. It was a little dodgy testing outside though, as Mariner 4’s temperature change was a decrease from 34 to 25 degrees… Either we got lucky with the wind, or we had a visit from some aliens hehe, though it appears we were disqualified as we didn’t place- boooooo! After that was our cryo testing, for which our capsules were submerged in liquid nitrogen for two minutes, with the temperature change also being tracked by a similar probe inside our marshmallow. These were a bit less successful than the heat shields as it was hard to make a box which was completely sealed- nearly all of them sprung leaks, meaning when they were ‘unwrapped’ afterwards, most of the marsh-stronauts were frozen solid. Though Jemima and Tess were rather pleased in their deluded state (the two of them perhaps had 5 hours of sleep between them) that their marshmallow was declared “still slightly squishy”. Another piece of evidence that perhaps we need more training before making these in real life…!!!

Next, we had lunch at Zero-G again, with some new bold choices for meals, while for a few of us the ‘half mozzarella Caprese sandwich and small salad’ is becoming a staple meal! However, when just a half sandwich was asked for, the request was met with a rather odd look from the cashier – clearly asking for less food was an unheard of phenomenon. She even had to check with her co-worker that this was ok before fulfilling the order. Good grief.

Then we returned to the classroom to continue work on our habitats. After getting proposals approved (we were starting to suspect they didn’t realise just how much we’d learned from our Challenge X experience…) it was time for hot glue fun for the next few hours! Our creations were a little crazy, with details from fun rover wheels to tiny treadmills, but at least we had fun making them. Throughout the day, while various people were out taking photos or otherwise, we managed to organise gifts for both the teachers and the GMs without the respective parties noticing- just! Apparently, they almost ran into each other in the gift shop… oops?. We ended the day at Space U by making videos showing off our Mars habitat. These were somewhat interesting as we had to make things up on the spot, and the app didn’t allow you to edit the video after recording i.e. cutting out the ‘fails’ and laughs wasn’t an option- hopefully, the judges were amused…

Once we were back at the hotel, it was time for a quick change into our blue shirts again and ‘formal’ bottoms (interpreted to varying degrees- we took this to mean anything black that wasn’t track pants, while the Aussies came in high heels and short skirts…), for the highly anticipated ‘dinner with an astronaut’. The food deserves a mention – steak/chicken, salad, bread rolls and red velvet for dessert. It was a nice, hearty meal that was not too heavy handed on the salt or sugar. Nicole Stott was a flight engineer on numerous space expeditions to the International Space Station. We all enjoyed listening to Nicole describe various experiences she had, such as the seconds of anticipation before liftoff, the experience of being shaken and propelled into the air and seeing Earth from space. It was interesting to hear her insights on balancing her family life, especially with her young son, with her extremely busy astronaut training schedule which took her all over the world (especially to NASA’s partner countries), as well as her experiences being a woman in a mainly male-dominated field. One of the most intriguing stories was about painting a watercolour in space- an experience which she is the first to have. Nicole described how she had to squeeze a tiny drop of water out of a bottle onto her brush, which it seemed to be attracted to by some adhesive force. Next, this was carried carefully over to the dry paint palette onto which the drop was transferred, with a similar effect- ‘as if the water wanted to attach itself to the paint’. Next, this was collected back onto the brush before being applied to the paper, in which she felt like she was leading the drop of water over the page to deposit its colour.

After one of the best meals of the trip, it was time for more Challenge X prep for the finalists! Yay? Frantic fixes and budget juggling ensued… perhaps for a little longer than desired or, uh, were allowed to by Space School rules… but nevertheless, we got some work done before being sent off to bed to get some sleep before presenting the next day (Sorry Gabi for keeping you up past midnight!!).