Day 2: Mission 37 States, 25 Countries
Well, our 4th suite mate showed up last night,
late. Like after midnight late. Her name is Aring and she is from Indonesia!
Freaking, Indonesia. I am just amazed at how far teachers have come for this
experience. Today, I met teachers from Ireland, South Africa, and Russia. It
was announced at our morning session after breakfast that there were teachers
representing 37 states and 25 different countries!
With my knapsack packed, flight suit on, of course, I
was ready for my first mission. Today was referred to as media day. There was a
lot of picture taking. And I mean a lot. The weather in Alabama is finicky. It
was chilly this morning in which I was happy to don that beautiful flight suit
but by late afternoon trying to get a full group picture, followed by team
pictures, and country pictures, and then of course individual pictures in the
hot sun with the shuttle in the background, I was spent. I hadn’t
realized just how hot those suits are! You would think NASA engineers could
come up with a light-weight fabric for those things. By the time we finished
pictures, all I could think about was stripping that thing off and grabbing a
cold beer.
I had the opportunity to listen to and meet two guest
speakers today, Ed Buckbee and Bob Springer, and take a facilities tour. Ed Buckbee had been with the US
Space program for over 40 years. He started his career when the first Mercury
astronauts were selected. He, along with Werner von Braun, conceived and
developed the first exhibit relating stories about the first astronauts. He
also started the International Space Camp. I have to admit, I kind fan faved
here, when he autographed the book he wrote, The Real Space Cowboys, about the first seven astronauts. He
spelled my name wrong, but hey, I still got his autograph! And for a guy who’s
now in his 70’s, he looked awfully darn cute in his green Space Camp jacket!
Next, a retired NASA engineer walked us through the history
of the shuttle program and the functions of the shuttle itself on a facilities
tour. He was a wealth of information including the fact that Saturn 5 weighed
over 6 ½ million pounds, with 6 million of those pounds being fuel! He also had much
to say about the government decreasing the budge with only about 4/10 of
1% of the federal budget supporting NASA. I was kind of saddened by the fact
that the only way the US could get to the International Space Station is to
hitch a ride with the Russians. I knew we were no longer operating the Shuttle
but I had no idea that was our only ride into space. There is talk of missions
to Mars but our tour guide seemed to think that was much further off into the
future than officials are reporting, unless that budget changes. Maybe NASA could hold a big raffle or sell candy or popcorn door to door like the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts do to raise money? Hey, I might be on to something there. It’s really a shame that our future
generations won’t have the same enthusiasm for space exploration as there was
in the 1960’s. What’s the matter with our government officials? Haven’t they ever
watched Star Trek, The Right Stuff, or Apollo 13 and think wow, someday, I would love to ride in a space shuttle?
Our last speaker was astronaut, Bob Springer, who was a
mission specialist on both Discovery (1989) and Atlantis (1990). It was his
personal stories of flight missions that both awed and inspired me. When asked
about astronaut training, a question about going to bathroom came up. I have to
admit, I was kind of curious about that too! He had told us about the time he
refused to wear the MAG, Maximum Absorbency Garment, other wise known as NASA
adult diapers. I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t want to either. He commented that
in order to imagine what it would be like to use one, we would need to put one
on, lay on our backs on the bathroom floor, with our feet propped up on the
side of the bathtub, and try and go pee. “Let me tell you, it ain’t easy,” he
said with a grin.
It just didn’t seem like the day could get any better, but
it did. We headed back to the educational center where we sat in an auditorium
to hear about the specific mission jobs that we will be partaking in. We ran
through what each role was and from there had to choose and rank our top
choices. I took a fancy to a few different roles including that of Base
Commander, who is responsible for all crew activities and operations in
Shackleton Crater, Commander of the Orion Capsule, Lunar Mission Specialist,
which means I would get to do an OLE (Open Lunar Excursion, which is a fancy
name for Space Walk), and Flight Engineer for the International Space Station. I
only get to do one of these jobs, so I needed to choose wisely. I probably should go with my head rather than my heart, but I think the overwhelming desire to wear an actual space suit drove my final decision. We were told that only the
Type A personalities should go for the positions of Commander and Flight
Commander, especially those that liked to order others around and are control
freaks. My children would tell you, that’s me. I marked myself down for both space
walks, as did just about everyone else in the group as I think putting on that
white suit would be blast, but I’m not sure how the process goes. There was a questionnaire
that we methodically filled out regarding our abilities to take charge, and our
rankings of our desired positions, which we were told they would carefully look
over and make decisions from there, but I’m wondering if really, if after a few
beers (it is Biergarten Night back at the Shuttle exhibits) those crew
directors don’t just randomly pick out of a hat and say the hell with it. I don’t
know why, but I really want to try and do a space walk. So what if I’m claustrophobic,
it’s freaking Space Camp, and I’m damn well going to get over my fears once and
for all. I have to wait until tomorrow to find out my mission position. Wonder
who I can bribe to let me be in one of those space walks? What do you think, 50
bucks should do it? Or another round?
