Mrs. Rath teaches Math: Space Camp - Day 4

Day 4 started off as usual with the bus at 7:00 am taking us to breakfast.

First activity of the day was a presentation by Andrea Tribo on International & Commercial space flight. A really fascinating look at the current plans of the Space Launch System and it's setbacks. She also told us about space programs in other countries (Japan, Russia, the European Space Agency, etc.). Andrea also discussed commercial space flight and the companies that are designing and building vehicles to take tourists on a ride in space.

After the presentation we headed over to the training simulators where we experienced what it is like to weigh 1/6 of your body weight. The 1/6 gravity chair simulates what it is like to bounce on the moon. We each took a turn in the chair and performed specific "bounces" during the simulation. The first was a simple hop, followed by a side to side shuffle, next was the "Baywatch" run and the last was left up to the individual. The 1/6 gravity chair was an incredible experience.

Mrs. Rath bouncing in the 1/6 gravity chair

Check out Mrs. Rath's bunny hops, side to side and Baywatch run

After the 1/6 gravity chair we spent some time on the Multi-Axis Trainer to experience roll, pitch and yaw. The Multi-Axis Trainer was a blast! We each spent 45 seconds in the chair. Because your stomach is at the center of the rotation you are not likely to get sick as long as you keep your head back and eyes open. I was a little dizzy when it was over however, I'd love to do it again!

Mrs. Rath in the Multi-Axis Trainer

Upside down in the Multi-Axis Trainer

Check out Mrs. Rath spinning in the Multi-Axis Trainer

After catching our breath from the trainers, we had lunch and headed back to the education building for our Ablative Shielding Lab. We broke in the teams of 4-5 and created a heat shield that had to protect an egg from 5 minutes of direct heat. Each team had a limited number of credits they could use to purchase materials to build their shield. The materials included things such as wire mesh, plaster, pasta, string, sponges,etc. Also, the shield could be no wider than a pencil. We were simulating the heat shield used on the space shuttle during reentry and the egg was our astronaut that we had to keep "alive".

Our mission!

Ebru, myself, Iskender and Alan discussing the materials to use. Alan and I were very confused at this point because a majority of the discussion was in Turkish or Russian, or both.

Alan adding Spackle to our heat shield

After creating our heat shields, we went outside to put them to the test.

Our egg being protected by the heat shield

Our "astronaut" survived thanks to our heat shield!

Next we were off to Homer Hickam Launch Pad to launch our rockets!

We put the solid rocket fuel engines in our rockets, lined then up on the launch pad and got ready for the countdown. It was a beautiful site seeing all of our rockets lined up on the launch pad. Each person got to press the button to launch their rocket!

There's my LSU rocket in first position on the launch pad!

I was very thankful that my rocket had a beautiful flight! It touched down across the street but I was able to recover it and bring it home. Some rockets landed in the surrounding trees and became part of the rocket graveyard.

Next up was our second mission, Orion. Set in 2025, Orion is a futuristic mission where a group of astronauts are traveling to the moon to make some repairs to a base camp and do a crew exchange. As CapCom my job was to relay messages from mission control to the orbiter and vice versa. A great time was had by all! Lots of cutting up, "ordering pizza", random songs being played by a mission specialist (Steve), talking to empty rooms and of course singing (Sylvia)!