The much awaited NASA Trip was a gateway to space exploration. We walked the grounds and experienced the journey of the astronauts and their heroic endeavours.
Day 1
The Junior Space School Programme began on the 14th of June at Lyndon B Johnson Space Centre, Houston.The students were introduced to their Space school teachers- Mr Ruben and Mr Dave.They were divided into 4 teams- Red, Blue, White and Silver. Each team was allocated a budget to reinforce the fact that all that they would work on in NASA had to be within the budget. Team Project managers were elected. Then began the briefing on the Mars overview. The JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] Mars landing video was shown. This was followed by a tour to the Mars Yard- an outdoor test facility that approximates Mars terrain. This was followed by a NASA Tour to the Rocket Park. The students then began to work on their Rover Construction Project.
Day 2
We were introduced to another Space School Scientist- Mr. Chris.
The Junior Space School was taken on a tour of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab- the Sonny Carter Training Facility. Here, the principle of neutral buoyancy is used to simulate the weightless environment of space. The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, or NBL, pool is 62 meters (202 feet) in length, 31 meters (102 feet) in width and 12 meters (40 feet) in depth -- 6 meters (20 feet) above ground level and an equal distance below ground.
The Astronauts spend seven hours training in the water for every hour they will spend spacewalking during a mission. The pool holds 22.7 million liters (6.2 million gallons) of water.
This tour was followed by Mars Rover Presentation by Silver Team and Mars Lander Presentation by Red Team.
Primary among NASA’s scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. Moving from place to place, the rovers perform on-site geological investigations. Each rover is sort of the mechanical equivalent of a geologist walking the surface of Mars. The mast-mounted cameras are mounted 1.5 meters(5 feet) high and provide 360-degree, stereoscopic, humanlike views of the terrain. The robotic arm is capable of movement in much the same way as a human arm with an elbow and wrist, and can place instruments directly up against rock and soil targets of interest. In the mechanical "fist" of the arm is a microscopic camera that serves the same purpose as a geologist's handheld magnifying lens.
The students had to build a robotic rover that would help to locate and retrieve the Martian rocks most valuable to NASA found on the Martian landscape they set up. This also included the use of a spectrometer as they had to indentify each and every rock they found and make graphs of their spectroscopy.
But undoubtedly the major event of the day was the engineering presentation by NASA Engineer Satish Reddy on Space Shuttles and their launching.
Day 2 ended with designing and creating a Lander which would safely protect the rover, but in this case an egg from the impact of landing on the Martian surface. The students had to make sure that the egg didn’t break during its 3-storey high fall; and also that it landed on the set target.
Day 3 saw the students engaged in purchasing rocket parts and rocket designing. There were 2 presentations on Model Rocket and Communication by White and Blue Team respectively. The students were also taken on a Shuttle Tour inside the visitors’ centre.
Day 4 was packed with rocket competition and Orbital Lofting Presentation.
Day 5 began with the amazing Starship Gallery Tour. into NASA history which houses artifacts, real spacecrafts that have flown in space, and mock-ups that take you on a journey through the history of manned space flight. In the Starship Gallery a number of artefacts can be seen- Mock-up of Goddard Liquid-fuelled rocket Mock-up of Explorer 1, Mercury Faith 7 Capsule, Gemini V Capsule, Apollo 17 “America” Capsule Skylab trainer, Apollo-Soyuz model Space Shuttle model. There are also displays of Lunar Soil collected during the Lunar Missions.
In addition to all these activities we also watched NASA Films- Northrop Grumman’s ‘Inside the International Space Station’; ‘To Be An Astronaut’. The 5 day Programme at Lyndon B Johnson Space Centre ended with a graduation dinner and awards ceremony.
On 19th of June early in the morning at 5 a.m we left Houston for Orlando.The main attractions for our stay in Orlando was Kennedy Space Centre, Disney Land and Universal Studios.At Kennedy Space Station we went through Shuttle Launch Experience, we visited Saturn V centre- the largest rocket ever made. We took a tour of the historic Cape Canaveral. We saw the International Space Station Modules being prepared for launch in September, 2010.We were thrilled to encounter Astronaut Jon McBride and heard firsthand about space travel. At Disney Land we explored Epcot and magic of land of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pluto , Donald and Goofy. At the Universal Studios we went through 4D adventures with Spiderman and Harry Potter, the Fury of Poseidon in the Lost Continent, the thrilling water rides of Jurassic Park and of course the world’s greatest rollercoaster ride with the Incredible Hulk.
In addition to all these are of course were bonuses-the shopping sprees and mouth-watering American delicacies.
Our mission ended on the 24th of June when we boarded the Shuttle left the Lunar Orbit entered into the Earth’s Atmosphere. We took our flight back to India.
The NASA Trip was a huge learning experience of how a stubborn species that strived for greatness left its footprints forever on “Tranquillity Base”.
