Day 5 - Thursday, April 13
Post date: Apr 14, 2017 11:9:58 AM
As you can tell from the delay in this post, our final full day was jam packed. I only have time to post a very short summary now, but will go back and give more detail later this weekend.
Updates with more detail have been added in the second level of bullet points!
HIghlights from the day:
We completed our final SLED device testing on the Precision Air Bearing Floor and we successfully hit the target! Video is below!
On Tuesday we learned that we didn’t have enough velocity so we changed the spring to create more force. We also had to experiment with the correct angle we needed (our SLED had the ability to rotate the launcher) and finding the correct timing for launch. The spring was released by a signal from a remote control car controller. Because there was a human pulling the trigger to launch the device, we needed to find the exact moment to launch. We decided to consistently use a seam in the black curtain at the back as a reference point. When the launch pad reached the seam, Kara would use the remote control to launch the device. Kara moved left to right along the railing to find the correct timing. There still wasn’t quite enough velocity so we cut another spring in half and added it. After experimenting with the timing again because the velocity had changed, Kara found the sweet spot and that lead to our team having the most successful launches of the six teams participating!
We had a tour of the training mockups (all the big metal things in the background when I take pictures from the floor). We saw the Orion capsule, the Soyuz model (which is the Russian capsule that the most recent ISS crew returned in on Tuesday morning), and got to go inside the space shuttle trainer. The space shuttle trainer will be moving to a museum soon because with the end of the shuttle program it is no longer being used. We were pretty lucky that we got to experience it before it leaves!
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go inside of the ISS training mockups because they were being used for astronaut training that morning.
Being in the space shuttle trainer was another huge highlight of the trip. If you see pictures of the space shuttle it’s gigantic, but the vast majority of the space shuttle was used for cargo transport. Without wearing a spacesuit, astronauts could only roam about in the nose of the shuttle. There were three levels to the nose of the shuttle. The bottom was for storage and utilities, the middle level contained living quarters, and the top level was the flight deck. We were able to go into the middle and top levels.
It was an incredible experience to sit in the seats that astronauts who were preparing to go to the ISS sat in!
We heard from a flight test manager of the Orion program. Nothing can match the experience of hearing directly from an expert in the trenches of space exploration, more to come on this later.
Orion is the current spacecraft design that will carry astronauts to and from deep space (think past the moon and possibly to Mars)
Before Orion can be crewed by humans, it must go through multiple tests. We heard from Jospeh Voor, who is the the operations manager for the AA-2 (ascent abort) flight test. Go to this link to learn more about the flight test stages.
We were able to see video footage of Orion’s reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. This was the first time a video like that had ever been recorded. You can watch the video footage here. In the video that we were shown, we also heard the sounds that were recorded inside Orion. I wasn’t able to find a link to video with live sound, but if you do some internet searching you might be able to find it! It’s an incredible thing to experience the same sights and sounds an astronaut does when as they return to Earth.
We got to meet an astronaut!!! Ricky Arnold was on the floor completing training classes and he took the time to stop by. He will be launching to the ISS in a year and will going to Russia on Sunday for training. We were incredibly lucky that he took time out of his day to see us. (Again, more details to come later.)
Ricky Arnold taught high school science for 15 years before becoming an astronaut! You can find his official NASA biography here.
He told us that when he applied, he thought he would get a nice rejection letter that he could frame, but then he continued moving along in the interview process. Going from teacher to astronaut is quite the career change!
He also talked a little bit about how the study skills he learned in school (high school, college, grad school) have helped him deal with the incredible volume of information he has to learn. If you ever think you have too much studying to do, put yourself in the shoes of an astronaut.
My team also got the chance to show off of our SLED device and complete two test launches! We weren’t expecting that, so we had already taken part of it apart after we completed our final testing. On our first test, the launcher came flying out (which had never happened before). Caroline miraculously stayed cool under the pressure and put it back together. We fired our second launch, but we didn’t have the exact same location as before, and we missed.
Kara made a Twitter post about the experience and Ricky took the time to reply! He’s in the middle of training for a mission to space and was leaving for Russia on Sunday, but took time out of his day Friday to reply to people on Twitter. Astronauts are truly incredible people.
Our professional development lessons for the afternoon included javelin rockets and using conic sections to calculate the launch window to Mars. (math!)
We ended the evening with dinner at Frenchie’s Italian Cuisine. Someone recommended it as a local astronaut hangout and based on the memorabilia on the wall they were right! Not only that, but it was authentic Italian and hearing the owner and employees speaking in Italian made me feel like I was back in Italy! If you are ever in Houston, go there!
Today we will be touring the Nanoracks facility, giving final presentations to a NASA panel, and then heading home. Even though we only have half a day left, it’s still jam packed!