work, work, work!

I’ve pretty much been working all the time since I got back from my week long vacation home to NC. I’ve had 2 week long teams now, one high school aged and this week middle schoolers. I miss my high schoolers, I get another high school aged group on monday… YIPPEE! my kids this week arn’t that bad, they just don’t always listen. I only have one more day with them. They leave Friday sometime before 3, which is when I Take over from the day team leader, so I wont see them after tomorrow. Plus I have to go on a STUPID MARKETING TRIP over the weekend. I get to promote space camp! how fun is that? NOT! Well, I wouldn’t be so bummed about having to go but the BLUE ANGELS are flying at the air show this weekend and I wanted to go see them. Then theres the fact that after I told Mom about wanting to see them she found out they were going to be in NC and she, Dad and Jeremy went to see them. At least I got a hat put of the deal… speaking of which it had arrived so I need to go pick it up.

Here is a picture of me working. I’m wearing a headset cause I was working EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity, aka space walk) and was listening in to the instructions that the person in mission control was giving the guys in space… and i just looked cool. The sunglasses were because where I sit during the EVA I’m looking up at a really bright light.

taken on my cell, so not all that great quality.

also! notice the t-shirt. now that its summer and really hot we wear t-shirts instead of our polos and polos on pick up and graduation days instead of hot flight suits.

Some Random Pictures…

Our Pathfinder orbiter broke last night… and the caution tape blocking off a 20-30 ft space around it. My new shoes. Mission control. The orbiter in orbit and on the lunch pad. We have some really cool graphics.

Advanced Acdemy Training & Weird Formating

Yummy Gatoraid… breakfast is served starting at 7:30, guess when training started… this and breakfast bars were my breakfast for the week.(top to bottom: My Advanced wings from training, My Academy wings from when I came as a kid, & my camp wings from my January counselor graduation.) and my training manual…

(Picturs left to right: The Iron Man Face of out egg, the face I drew on our egg, our Rocket the JERICO on the launch pad,and our egg after launch.)

I started writing this several days ago but just got around to publishing it, so its a little out of date. This past week, after a wonderful week at home, I started right back into work with doubles (shifts). I was working from 7:30am-9pm. In the mornings I was doing Advanced Academy training. In other words, training so I can work with the high schoolers. There were 17 of us (out of like 40 who signed up) 2 of whom were already trained but had to go through some of the training again because there are some difference between the 6 day programs of the off season and the 8 day program of the summer.

Some of the cool stuff we got to do during training include going down to AC (Aviation Challenge… they do fighter plane stuff instead of space stuff) and try out the flight simulators. I crashed a lot, and got lost. When we did the air craft carrier part I took off ok but then couldn’t find the carrier again. We also got to do some of the water activities that simulate a helicopter crash in the water. If I can get some of the pictures from one of the people I work with I’ll be able to show you cause if I try to explain it, it will make no sense.

We also got to do something we can Egg Rocketry. We (well, the kids really, but we got to try it) get certain pieces to design and build a rocket. After several tests a raw egg is placed inside (and hopefully protected in some way) and launched. The object is to still have your egg in one piece after it lands. This is done in teams of about 4 or so (or for us counselors, eight) My team did not win due to several factors.

I also learned more than anyone who doesn’t work for NASA or one of NASA’s contractors should ever know about the shuttle and its systems. We also had two tests to take. The first on all the information we need to know to be able to run Advanced missions. It was split into 5 parts and each was graded separately. To pass we had to get a certain amount right in each section. 10 of 12, 6 of 7, all 7, etc… If we missed more than allowed on a section we had to retake that section the next day. Out of the 15 of us who had to take the section, 10 of us had to retake at least one part. With the retake we got 2 bonus questions. See if you can get this one right: “There are 17 sheep in a field. All but 6 die. How many sheep are in the field.” The other test we had to take was on Orbiter Systems (the orbiter this the part of the shuttle that looks like an air plane that everyone thinks is called the shuttle.) So basically the test was about the systems that filter the water, run the AC,electrical power, hydraulics, computers and other stuff. Didn’t see my grade for this one but I assume I passed casue we all graduated on Friday. I got some nifty new wings now.

After we graduated I had a couple of hours before I started a long weekend of mission trainings and missions. Eight teams… which adds up to 16 hours in a little space station. All in all I think I’ve worked about 77 hours this past week alone.

This week I am working the Advanced Academy missions. I didn’t do to bad today. Especially since I had to help out in two other areas that I wasn’t really prepared for. Friday will be a lot of fun becasue they have their 6 hours missions and we get to have a lot of fun with them, giving them medical anomalies and stuff. Like if they stand up while they are ‘launching’ we get to tell them they have a broken arm and stuff like that.

I get my first Advanced team Friday, June 6. Not only is it my first team longer than 3 days, but I have doubles so I get them 16 hours a day for 8 days. I’ll let you all know if I’m still alive at the end of it.

I’m going to stop writing now or else I’ll start to ramble…

Camp Acronyms and Terminology

I have decided to make a list of acronyms and terminology that I use so that you all know what I’m talking about. So her goes…

Hab 1- Habitat 1: a four story building used to house most of the campers. The camper rooms hold up to 6 or 7 people.

Hab 2 – Habitat2: the 2 story building where I live. Campers stay in bays which hold more than 20 people. The lower level is built into the gound on one side so it is where we bring trainees during severe weather.

Trainees- our word for campers

Team Leader- the counselor in charge of a group. there can be up to two team leaders per group, a day counsleor and an evening counselor.

Support- a counselor who goes where is needed to support the other counselors or who could be running some activity or other.

Doubles- when you are both the morning and evening team leader.

USSRC- United States Space and Rocket Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama.

Shuttle- the assembly that takes our astronaust into space now.

Orbiter- the part of the shuttle that looks like a plain which most people think of as the shuttle

SRB’s- Solid Rocket Bosters: the two white rocket looking things on either side of the shuttle. they are the engines that get us moving.

ET- External Tank: the big orange thing. it is just a huge fuel tank. it fuels the SSMEs on the Orbiter.

SSME’s- Space Shuttle Main Engines: The three big engines on the orbiter. Fueled by the ET. Also used during launch.