Our Aussie Friends

This post is just to perpetuate the spirit of positive Aussie New Zealand relations.

  I think I have mentioned that their has been a group of Aussies here with us.  This is the first time this group has stayed at space camp and they have had a great time.  Last night Tom and I went out to dinner with them at a restaurant called the "outback"- where they sold genuine Aussie food. Did you all know that deep fried battered onion is the national dish of Australia.  What was disappointing is that there was no pavlova on the menu.   It was a great night and thanks to the Aussie crew for taking us out for such memorable food. We do hope to catch up with you all again and remember to look us up if you are in Christchurch.

We hope you have a great flight back and thanks for all the tips on Disney Land.

Louisa 

Last Post from Space Camp

Good evening everyone.

This is our last post from Space Camp.
Today we had graduation- which Tom has already put the photos up for.  We then took the students to Bridge St Mall.  This is a brand new pedestrian mall which is built around an artificial lake.  It had multitudes of shops- but all of a Merivale Mall type rather than a dress mart type of mall.  Still I think a bit of shopping was done.  The less hard core shoppers went to the movies.
And of course when Kiwi kids go shopping- someone bought a football and a piece of grass was found and they had to test out the aerodynamics of the ball.  A security guard was quickly on the scene and somewhat reluctantly did tell the students to stop.
At the end of the day we met for dinner at PF Changs for dinner.  An awesome Chinese restaurant where the kids could eat loads of veges.  We were a bit concerned about three of our boys choosing the hottest dish on the menu.  A little hot for the Josh's but cool as a cucumber Nick just ate it all up.
After birthday cookie cake (see Tom's Pictures) the waitress bought out fortune cookies. 
All good fun but some of the cookies suggested the students will find their hearts desire tonight.  I'm just pleased the space camp staff are in charge tonight or else I wouldn't sleep a wink.
The students were great today, we enjoyed spending the day out with them and we think they all had a good time having a low pressure day.

We have sent the students to pack- I'm picking there will be some issues here.  I know I'm struggling to fit everything back in my suitcase.

We will let you know when you get to Florida.

Take care everyone- Louisa
The photos below are of the students waiting outside the restaurant.

Happy Birthday Katie and Nick!!

Katie and Nick are both celebrating birthdays while we are here in the USA, Katie the 6/4 and Nick the 7/4. Tonight before we head to Florida, Saturday morning we had a birthday meal at P.F. Chang's China Bistro. Without the students knowing we Louisa and myself organised a very American Cookie Cake. It is basically a 12" Diameter Chocolate Chip Cookie - sounds over the top and it was. Both students were very happy to have a small celebration and I also believe that Katie was treated while at the mall by the girls courtesy of her Mum.

The birthday two with their cookie cake

Our students celebrating!

What an awesome week and our students have made us and the school very very proud!

Graduation: Mission Accomplished

Hi everyone,

Its Friday here at Space Camp and our students have just graduated from the Advanced Space Camp Program. They have had an incredibly successful week and all are absolutely buzzing about their experiences here at Camp. We had some successes with our teams, Adam and Seth were part of Team Holderer who won the Space Bowl Trivia Quiz last night.

Team Von Braun - Josh C, Victor, Izzy, Millie and Charlotte won the outstanding team of the week for the Advanced Space Camp program. There were only 4 other students from other countries in the team who were made honorary Kiwi's for the week

The Von Tisenhausen team also took home a prize for winning the engineering challenges throughout the week

Below are photos of our students graduating in their teams:

Team Von Tiesenhausen 

 

From Left: Nick, Kamen, Bry, Josh L, Andrew, Katie, Anna, Jonathan

Team Holderer

Adam and Seth in their multi-national team

Team Von Braun

From Left: Josh C, Victor,Charlotte,Izzy,Millie

Charlotte Displaying the outstanding team patch awarded to her team

Thoughts from Thursday

Hello everyone

We hope you are enjoying the start of the Easter break and enjoying Hot Cross Buns.  I'm sure you all bought some at the supermarket in the mad rush last night.  I haven't seen or smelt a hot cross bun anywhere.  I thought we were in the conservative south and they would have more Easter traditions. The shops are full of chocolate but no buns.  We have also been asking "will you be open on Good Friday" and everywhere seems to be.  We had thought about an Easter egg hunt in Florida but quickly realised in the heat that it may be a disaster that would turn into a feast for ants.  But we may think of something. 

The students are on their missions today and we have had little luck in seeing them.  The timetable they give us is subject to change- and today it has been "all turned around" as they say here in the south.  So we walk for twenty minutes to see rocket launches only to find them not there.  So we have had a frustrating day.

The students however do come home with stacks of photos that the Camp Counsellors have been taking.  There is another big international group here at the moment- from Melbourne.  It has been really useful as they are linked with a Space Ambassador- this person can get behind the scenes and take photos in the areas we aren't allowed.  They Aussies are going to send us their photos- so we are quite looking forward to that.
One of the goals of the missions is to really reinforce to the students how team work really works.  The pilots may get the glory but there is an awful lot of other work that goes on to get you there.  If you are going to sit on a big bomb and be blown into space you want to know that the person doing up the screws has got it right.  The students really do understand the importance of working together once they have been through the missions.  In the Saturn V museum they really pay tribute to all of the engineers and mission control specialists that brought it all together.  It really is a museum that acknowledges the significance of science and technology.  After my comment yesterday about the control systems I went back to the museum to find out more- I took photos of the three gyroscopes that were used to control the flight path of the Saturn V rocket.  This information was fed back to mission control where the flight path could be corrected.  (OK so I thought it was interesting)
So we haven't really seen much of the students today- but when we do they are buzzing.  Our quote of the day comes from Kamen- "I really miss my Mums cooking"  The food has been pretty challenging at times. 

We are hoping to be able to being you comments from the missions tomorrow. 

Take Care

Louisa 

The photo shows the gyroscope and map reading tools that were used to measure angles and trajectories.  (PS I know that map reading tools is the wrong term- an Easter egg to the person who corrects me)

Whale Spit and Diving

Hi everyone

Our students who have been completing the Scuba program have been very interested in the white bottles dotted around the edge of the pool

The Norwegian Whale spit - premium stuff apparently - is used to defog their masks prior to the dive.
The tank itself is most impressive:

The UAT tank is 24 foot deep and is held at a temperature of 91 Fahrenheit, according to Google this is 7.3m and 32 degrees centigrade. The top of the pool has a shelf that is 1.6m deep which allows the students to stand and take instructions from the trainers. They then practice the skills they need by kneeling on the stand before heading down the ladder to the obstacles and activities at the bottom of the tank.

Notes from Wednesday

Hello everyone

A busy day today with the students engaged in the variety of activities that are available for them here.  Tom is posting photos- a picture tells a thousand words.
Jonathan, Anna, Nick and Bry had their turn in the SCUBA tank.  Its an amazing process to watch- the students being prepared to dive and use the SCUBA equipment and 20 minutes later they are playing with bowling balls on the bottom of the pool.  We were told tonight that this is the only place outside of Russia where this sort of UAT (Under Water Astronaut training) training takes place.
A highlight for me today was going to see the Saturn 5 rocket.  It is amazing to see such a complicated piece of technology- the Rocket on display is one that wasn't used- it had been in storage somewhere, before they put it in its own museum.  The Saturn V rockets fired sequentially as they took the Apollo missions from take off through to the earths orbit and finally into the moons orbit.  One of the sections had to fire to to get into the earths orbit and then turn off.  It then had to be restarted and fire again to take the astronauts into the moons orbit. You realise the magnitude of the engineering and technology when you think what they had to control to make this happen.  You couldn't get out and wind the rubber band tighter or worse still "please wait while windows restarts".
The students had their final practice missions today before the big missions they all go through tomorrow.  The missions are scripted but their are non scripted parts the students don't know about that will test their problem solving skills.  Tonight the students are being told by their counsellors who will have which role tomorrow.  We know that Charlotte will be Commander of the ascent during their teams extended mission and Josh C will be flight engineer and mission specialist.  I am sure we will be told about the other 13 students roles as they are told them by their counsellors.  Millie is very proud of getting all of her check lists correct in her landing simulation this afternoon.
It is hard to find the students sometimes as they get spread far and wide through the complex.  Not helped by the massive thunder storms that are coming and going, when, their is lightening the students aren't allowed outside because of the slim chance of lightening strike.  They monitor the weather constantly and we have been told if there are huge storms likely we will be taken into the storm cellar.  (the storms don't worry me particularly but there are lot of children here doing other programmes who are 12 and under- being in a storm cellar with them may be trying).
Tom and I had to go and find a Walmart today to buy Muesli bars for the students, Granola bars over here, Often dinner is before 5pm and that's a long time until breakfast.  The students aren't allowed food in their rooms- so we had to sneak them in like contraband. 
The students continue to be amazing- they are positive and friendly to everyone.  Some of the students from other schools are looking very tired but ours are just trucking along.Sometimes they have wee moans but to us only.  We are so enjoying being away with them.  We are starting to put plans together for Friday.  But they are a surprise for the students so we can't tell you all either as we know some of the students are also reading the Blog.

Since this is your last day of school/work before Good Friday have a happy and safe holiday weekend.  More posts tomorrow.

Louisa

Victor and Adam Videos

Victor running on the 1/6 gravity chair and finding life difficult on the 'moon'

Adam on the Multi axis trainer being asked Star wars trivia questions by his camp counsellor

Scuba and Photo Update

Hi everyone

Just a quick note to update the previous post from Louisa. I have just returned from watching Izzy and Millie complete their Scuba dive. As with Seth and Adam last night they are over the moon (excuse the pun) with this experience. They are diving in a 24 foot tank (7m) which is around 4m in diameter. At the bottom of the tank there are a series of skills they have to perform. From shooting weighted balls through a hoop to assembling a trapezium out of lengths of pipe. I think this is going to be one of many highlights for the students who participate. We are lucky enough to get photos at the top of the tank before they dive and through portholes in the base of the tank. I have created another page for these Scuba Photos so take a look.

I have also added more photos of students completing tasks in the sims that Louisa has mentioned. These include Seth and Adam in the multi axis trainer and a video of Victor trying to walk on the moon.

All the best

Tom WK