Salad Is Slaughter

I think I forgot to mention one of the activities from the day we flew
the F-18 simulators. We also took a turn in the centrifuge and got to
experience 3.1 Gs. It spun us up to that acceleration for about a
minute.

Yesterday we went back to the F-18 Hornet simulators. I did better (I
didn’t crash) but I ended up at 90 degrees to the runway and (I
suspect) was turning to close to the airport and never got down.

Then we had our long - maybe 6 hour - mission. It was fun but there
were a bit too many anomalies.

After quite a long day we all hopped in to cabs and headed to a local
Mexican restaurant. I had the mole and it was pretty good.
Interestingly, the waiter verified that I really wanted mole. Turns
out that most people here don’t like it.

After dinner we came back to the hotel and drank in te bar.

This morning we launched the model rockets we had built earier in the
week, saw an IMAX movie on the moon landings narated by Tom Hanks, and
had our graduation ceremony.

I had a great time here.

–
frank
http://franksblog.hofer.us/

I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.

Charles Darwin

Wednesday morning and early afternoon was a bit of a commute day, if you consider a 5 minute bus ride a commute.  After leaving the 32-foot high pole we headed back for a quick lunch then got back on the bus and rode back to the Aviation Challenge area.

Our first task of the afternoon was to fly an F-18 Hornet.  Well, a simulator anyway.  I started out in the rear seat, talking to the tower and letting the pilot know when our altitude and airspeed was getting dangerously low.  He did really well and managed to get us back on the ground in one piece.

Then it was my turn in the front seat.  I taxied to the runway (without running in to the grass, thank you very much),  got on the runway, and took off.  Wheels up, flaps up, and away we go.

I did pretty well flying for my first time in a jet’s cockpit but straight and level flight is tough. When I started playing with the pedals during my turns things started to go wrong for me.  I managed to somehow put my plane in to a flat spin and ended up as a smoking hole in the Miami area.  They reset the computer and I was back in the air once more.

Landing was a problem for me and we eventually ran out of time before I could do it.  Realistically I think I would have run out of gas before I got that plane on the ground.

We hopped on the bus to go back to camp so we could put on our bathing suits.  Next was  a talk by the museum curator covering the artifacts the museum has, moving their Saturn V rocket in to the new building and so on.

Next up:  dinner (remembering not to drink soda or eat gassy food).  Then it was off to sick bay to get approval for scuba diving.  I passed and headed for the tank.  We got a review of basic rules, communicating under water, and so on.  Then we jumped in and swam over to a submerged platform.

After some basic lessons on the equipment and techniques - taking out the regulator, clearing the regulator, finding a regulator that floated away, clearing your mask, buddy breathing and so on, we went over to the ladder and slowly descended to the pool floor 25 feet below, stopping on every rung of the ladder to clear our ears.

On the bottom of the pool we tossed around a neutral buoyancy ball and played basketball with a 12 pound bowling ball.  Interestingly enough, a 12 pound bowling ball is almost neutrally boyant.

We then built a pyramid with pvc pipe (I would have like to see how the connectors snap on and off while on the surface but what are you going to do?) then climbed around on the truss they have submerged, and went to the portholes to way to people who were watching us.  Needless to say, I had the best time scuba diving and definitely want to do it again.

The only problem I had on the bottom was my tank kept popping out and the instructor had to futz with it.

Thursday is our six hour mission (I’m doing an EVA and will hang from the harness again) and the final wrap up.  Friday is graduation and done.

Space Camp day three was just packed.  The 1/6 G simulator was pretty interesting and I’ve decided that the bunny hop is far and away the best way to get around on the moon.  Walking just doesn’t cut it.

I spent one mission as a shuttle pilot.  The pilot isn’t the guy who lands the shuttle, but the guy who flips dozens of switches.  The trick is finding those buggers.   After the mission I took a turn in the commander’s seat.  I managed to get the shuttle down, but ended up on the side of the run way about three times.  The controls are really sensitive and you have to use small motions.

After being on the shuttle flight deck we went to the doohickey with the three concentric rings and got spun around all three axes.  That was fun.

Finally I took a turn as space station commander.  Frankly, it wasn’t that interesting; just flipping more switches, and doing things that I know are automated.   It was a late night and I ended up going to bed after 11.

This morning we went out to the aviation challenge area, climbed a 32 foot high pole, and jumped off.  Yes I did it and I have the pictures to prove it.

I’m off to lunch then to flight training and later tonight it’s scuba.

I’ve got a few minutes before I have to be at the 1/6 G simulator so this is a good chance to do a recap.

Monday we finished designing our mission patch.  I’ve got a Powerpoint version sitting in my in box and I’ll post it as a jpg when I get home.  It was a group effort and I think it turned out pretty well.

Monday afternoon was our first “mission.”  It was essentially the same as the rehearsal from that morning, only this time we were in contact with the campers in the mission control center.  For the actual mission we spacewalkers had to put on ice vests, white suits, headphones, and a helmet.  Once again my partner got hooked up to the robot arm while I was placed in a hang gliding harness so I could “float” around the cargo bay.

I hung suspended over the shuttle cargo bay and pulled myself along the guide wire.  At each corner I had to unclip my tether and move it to the next one so I could continue on.

The ice vest helped but I still had sweat pouring off of me.  The inside of my visor kept fogging up which made it hard to read the labels on the switches I had to throw and the buttons I needed to press.

My task was to take a broken antenna from my partner on the robot arm, float to the back of the shuttle cargo bay, get the replacement antenna, and put the broken one in its place.  I had to do this twice.  It was pretty easy in rehearsal but they adjusted something during the real thing so the antennas were not in easy reach.  I really had to stretch to get them.

After our mission we had a classroom session on scuba diving.  We’re going in to the 25 foot deep neutral buoyancy  tank on Wednesday and we need to know the basics of diving. Much of the class was what bad things can happen to your body if you F up.  First rule is “don’t hold your breath” because you could really do some damage to yourself when you ascend.

After scuba class we had a rehearsal for our second mission.  On this one I’m in mission control as Cato, the narrator you hear on TV.

This morning we started building our model rockets (we probably won’t launch until Friday when the weather clears up.  We also had a talk by Ed Buckbee who wrote the book The Real Space Cowboys.  He had some good stories about the early days of NASA.

This afternoon we’ve got the 1/6 gravity simulator, our second mission, rehearsal for the third mission, and running the third mission for real, training on the orbiter systems, and the multi-axis trainer (that thing where you’re inside the three rings.  It’s going to be a full day and I won’t get back to the room before 10:30 or 11:00 tonight.

The days are just packed.