Friday Night – April 1st.  

From Tim Boyer

We have finished our Camp experience.  We took the students back downtown after graduation today for the afternoon and we have now returned.  Students are doing their final packing and getting ready for bed.  We will have a very early wake-up tomorrow morning at 4:30 am.  We will get on the bus at 5:15 am and head to the airport.  Our Flight out is at 8:35 am out of Huntsville.  We will head to Detroit and will have a few hours layover before we start our long flight back to Shanghai.  

We to the best of our understanding will be landing in Terminal 1 at 1855.  We will look forward to seeing you in Shanghai.  The flight arrangements for our return trip are below.  

We will be flying out of Huntsville on Delta flight 3985.  We will be flying from Detroit to Shanghai on Delta flight 583 which will land in Shanghai on April 3 at 1855pm.

• DL3985 SA02APR HSVDTW 0835 1129
• DL583 SA02APR DTWPVG 1628 1855+1

At present, all students are well and healthy.  We do have some sniffles and some allergies symptoms due to the amount of pine in the air here.  All the students have done well, but they are tired from a long week of being “on” all the time.  They are looking forward to returning home and chilling out for a day before returning to school on Tuesday.  

We look forward to returning to Shanghai and sharing all the pictures of the week.

PS.  We hope we have a quiet night.  The last two nights have been a bit interesting, especially with the storm alerts last night.  The weather looks good for tonight and our flights tomorrow.

See you in Shanghai!

March 29th – The morning is nice and cool.  Blue skies in store for the rest of the day.  The student teams are up and starting their activities.  I touched base with each team.  Both teams have full days that end tonight with Shuttle Missions.  The middle school team (Team Europa) is working with rocked construction and the science of spaceflight this morning.  This afternoon they have a rope activity and then prep for their Orion Mission tonight.  The team faces a 2 hour mission on the Orion module from 7 to 9 pm.  It will be a long day, but looking at the students this morning, they are up for it.

The high school team (Team Elysium) is recovering from their night mission last night.  It was a bit stressful, but the team leaders were impressed with the students ability to roll with the punches and deal with the various problems thrown at them during the 1 hour mission on the Shuttle Enterprise.

 The team has a rope activity this morning and museum simulations.  They complete their Mission Bravo training this afternoon.  In addition they have presentation about Russian Space History and a robotics activity.  After supper they have additional presentation that run up to the time they begin their Bravo Mission at 8:30 pm.  It will be a late night for all our students.

I have the video from the HS Alpha Mission last night.  Tonight I will record both the MS and HS missions.

The picture above is from the Davidson Space Museum on Camp.  It shows the rocket engines.  The size is huge.  Each engine is about 5 meters across.

March 27th – Sunday Morning – We had a full day yesterday.  Students were up and out of Space Camp by 9 am.  We had a real lucky break.  It turned out that the FRC (First Robotics Competition) Regional was being held in Huntsville at the Von Braun Center.  It was free and open to the public so we decided to take the students there instead of going to the Botanical Gardens.  About a third of the students on our trip have been or are involved in SAS robotics at the Middle School or HS level so the opportunity to see the “big” boy robotics at work was really exciting. There were over 50 teams from the southeast United States and elsewhere competing in the 3 day event.  We were able to get a tour of the pit area and watch about 45 minutes of the head to head missions as the big robots went at it.  Our students were broken down into 3 groups.  I was fortunate to be the middle school boy group and our tour leader was a member of team “Bomb Squad” which was ranked number 1 while we were there.  The YouTube Video of the competition is below for any that are interested.

The robotics and the site was really a great opportunity for our robot oriented students.

Following the Robotic viewing we loaded back on the bus and headed for Bridge Street Mall.  Students were able to get a quick lunch and decide on the movie to watch.  22 students went with Mrs. Boyer to watch Batman and Superman movie.  5 students went with me to see Zoopotopia.  I think I got the better movie.  Following the movies which let out about 5 pm students were able to grab a quick supper then we were transported back to Space camp.

Students transferred from their temporary rooms into their rooms for the rest of the week. The amount of pine pollen in the air is causing some students some sniffles. Regular Camp begins at lunch today with registration.  In that our students are already in, their transfer will be easy.  I will pick up the group leaders paperwork this afternoon.  The students do not receive a schedule, but Sunday afternoon will be orientation to the program and some tours of the facility.  On Monday along with other activities both the HS team and the MS team will be split into mission control groups and flight groups.  They will begin their preflight preparation for their first launch on Tuesday.  I will be there on Tuesday in in the leader viewing area to watch and I hope record their mission.

So far all are holding up ok and are getting sleep during the night.  I checked in with them this morning when they were having breakfast. Some of the students have picked up some coughs/sniffles from the flight over.  The Camp infirmary is watching them. I have let the students know that if they are not feeling well, to let their group leader know. I have one student with a fever (Eric) and he is being monitored in the infirmary this morning.  I will check back with the Camp at lunch and supper tonight to see how the students are doing.  As a chaperone, I don’t get to see all the activities the students/teams are doing, but I hope to catch each of their launch missions.  I will get pictures through the week as I am able and the camp photographers will give us a photo disk of all their activities that we will bring back to SAS.

Space Camp News

Thursday March 24th – Flight Out to Huntsville

Well, we made it to Detroit and now we are in the big wait period.  Students have gotten something to eat and are now resting, sleeping, computing, gaming, and some are even reading.  We should board in about 1 hr 45 minutes.  Our flight to Huntsville should take off at 8:35 eastern time.  We land in Huntsville around 9:15 central time.  The flight is about 1.5 hours

The day started well.  All students got to school and brought their bags in in great order.  They attended their first period classes and met in the library at 9:25-9:40.  We proceeded to get on the bus to the Airport.  We had repeatedly checked with the school and travel agents about the Terminal.  Each time they assured us that we were flying out of Terminal 2.  Well, that information was in error.  We had to walk it across to Terminal 1.  Delta did not make it easy for us.  We were required to individually check in using the self-serve kiosks.  Not an easy task for students that have not had the experience before.  It was even more complicated in that visa papers for many students were required to be shown. We had a lot of heroes during this “stressful” period.  Karen and Owen especially were helpful in the process in that we had a problem with a visa paper.  It got all done, but the time it took pushed us very hard in getting through immigration and security.  The check in process at the Delta Desk left a lot to be desired. We were “walking very fast” to get to the plane.  Thankfully all worked out and the students were great helps. They listened well and took care of each other.

The flight was very full and we were in the back.  A few bumpy periods but not too bad.  The Delta Stewardesses commented on how great our students were on the plane.  Some of the students watched “The Martian” movie.  This movie is a great connection into Space Camp.  Arrival in Detroit worked well and we were able to proceed through immigration and customs without frustration.  We made the transit from Terminal A over to Terminal B.  Then student groups after receiving instructions split up to forage (food).  Now we are all resting for then next hour or so.

I will blog out tonight after all are tucked away at Space Camp. Tomorrow is a “full” restful day.  We have a shopping time set in the morning and a trip to a nearby state park for a hike.  Pictures will follow as soon as I can get them