You’re Invited: Space Camp Alumni Virtual Fest 2020
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Tag: Alumni
NASA Rover Named by Space Camp Alumnus from Virginia
The new name for the Mars 2020 Rover was announced on Thursday March 5, 2020 and the winning name was “Perseverance”. The winning rover name was submitted by Alexander Mather, a seventh grader from Virginia. Mather is also a Space Camp Alumnus, and credits his time at Space Camp for increasing his love of space and space science. Prior to attending camp, he had an interest in video games and technology, but Space Camp opened his interests to NASA and space science.
The name Perseverance came to him, because in other rover names we had covered the spirit of exploration with Spirit and Sojourner, but had thus far missed one essential ingredient of exploration – Perseverance.
Great job to this inspiring alumnus on picking a name for the new generation of exploration! We look forward to hearing about all of the discoveries that Perseverance finds on Mars, starting in 2021.
Find out more about Perseverance and Alexander Mather in the official NASA press release: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/virginia-middle-school-student-earns-honor-of-naming-nasas-next-mars-rover
And more about the missions of Perseverance here: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
Stay tuned for incredible images to come from the surface of Mars when Perseverance has its anticipated landing in February 2021. Perseverance is the largest, most advanced rover that NASA has ever sent to another world, thus making this a giant leap forward in the name of exploration. Images from the surface of Mars will be relayed with only an approximate 15 minute delay, giving real-time data back to Earth and creating a new database about this extraterrestrial world.
Teams at NASA’s JPL, or Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California will over see the new rover, including many Space Camp Alumni working on the team. We will be following this story and its advancements in the coming months! The information gathered from this mission will be a stepping stone to future exploration, perhaps even by humans, on Mars.
Simulations at Space Camp | Space Camp Alumni
This week it’s all about the simulators we tried out at Space Camp! Space Camp Alumni are sharing their favorite simulator on social media, and sharing pictures of their experience as well! Make sure you join our private Facebook group, to meet other Space Camp Alumni in your area and stay up to date on Space Camp Alumni Events!
Some of our favorite simulators are now housed in the Astrotrek building, an open ceiling building adjacent to Shuttle Park. In here you will find the Multi-Axis Trainer, the 1/6th Gravity Chair, and the 5DF Chair.
The Multi-Axis Trainer, or MAT as it is commonly referred to, simulates what it is like when an astronaut is in a tumble spin. It keeps your center of gravity in one place, while the rest of your body spins on multiple axises. While it looks like it could make for quite the stirred stomach, because your center of gravity remains in the same place, most trainees find that the MAT doesn’t have too many negative effects for them. In fact, it seems to be a crowd favorite when the Space Camp Alumni were polled on Facebook about their favorite simulator!
The 1/6th Gravity Chair or moon chair, simulates what it is like to be on the moon’s surface and only having 1/6th of the amount of gravity that is found on Earth. You can feel what it is like to hop, or skip, across the moon like surface.
Another simulator is the 5DF Chair, which simluates weightlessness and the five degrees of freedom you might find on an extravehicular excursion in space. Trainees may be asked to complete objectives while in the 5DF chair to discovery what it is like to not have a point of gravity holding you down while working on a project.
Simulations like these are an integral part of the Space Camp experience. What was your favorite simulation? Watch our YouTube video on simulators found at Space Camp to see more:
Join our private Facebook group for Space Camp Alumni, and make sure you’re signed up here on the website to receive email notifications, so that you know all of the latest events for Space Camp Alumni in your area!
Female Scientists Across the World Celebrate Women in Science Day
Tueday February 11th, 2020 was officially Women in Science Day, a day to commemorate the advancements of females in science, technology, engineering, math. The day not only acknowledges those that have paved the way for the current generation, but also salutes those that are currently making strides in scientific fields and serves as inspiration for the next generation of female scientists.
There were a number of Space Camp Alumna that celebrated Women in Science Day, in a variety of ways. Some took to Twitter to share inspiration – or even set straight some urban myths!
Beth Moses is the first female commerical astronaut and flies for Virgin Galatic. She made this post on Women in Science day encouraging women to “Go for it!”. Beth Moses is no stranger to paving the way for future scientists and astronauts, and helps to mentor others as the Chief Astronaut Instructor at Virgin Galatic. She was inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame in 2019.
Astronaut Christina Koch is a NASA Astronaut that recently returned to Earth after almost a year aboard the International Space Station. She is a five-time alumna of Space Camp and received the distinguished award into the Space Camp Hall of Fame in 2019. She shared this photo on Twitter, expressing her joy in seeing the ocean… from a slightly different vantage point than she had seen it most recently.
NASA Scientist Sarah Noble even got in on the action on Women in Science Day, but helping to dispell an internet rumor that had started circulating the previous day. Sarah Noble and Astronaut Alvin Drew dispelled the “Broomstick Challenge” social media myth that had started circulated the evening before, stating that broomsticks would stand on end that day because of gravitational pull. (Spoiler alert, this can happen any day of the year because they have a low center of gravity.) Sarah helped to share the official word on this challege with Astronaut Drew that “It’s Physics.”. Ms. Noble is a Space Camp Hall of Fame awardee and was inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame in 2018.
All of these women and so many more have helped to shape the current landscape of women in science today. We encourage all Space Camp Alumni to follow their dreams and continue making advancements in science.
Welcome Home, Astronaut Christina Koch!
Astronaut Christina Koch has returned home to Earth after 328 days aboard the International Space Station. During her time on the Space Station, she set records as part of the first all women spacewalk team with Astronaut Jessica Meir, and also setting a record for single longest spaceflight by a woman in December 2019.
Image Credit: NASA
Image Credit: NASA
During her journey aboard the International Space Station, Koch completed 5,248 orbits of Earth, traveling over 139 million miles. She frequently shared pictures of her trip on her social media, showing images from above of cities at night, historical landmarks, and significant weather events. (Follow on Twitter: @Astro_Christina) Now home at Johnson Space Center in Houston, she will provide her team with valuable data about long duration spaceflight and be an integral part of the foundation to plan for the Artemis flights. Koch is a five-time alumna of Space Camp and 2018 recipient of the Space Camp Hall of Fame award.
Space Camp Alumna Christina Koch prepares for her return trip to Earth
Astronaut Christina Koch is a five-time Space Camp graduate of Space Camp programs. Koch is a native of Michigan and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Physics from North Carolina State University, as well as a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. She graduated from the NASA Academy program at Goddard Space Flight Center in 2001. Afterwards, she worked as an Electrical Engineer in the Labratory for High Energy Astrophysics at Goddard Space Flight Center.
In 2013, Koch was selected as a NASA Astronaut candidate and became one of the eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class. Her astronaut training was complete in July 2015 and she became a part of Expedition 59, 60, and 61 aboard the International Space Station.
Since being aboard the International Space Station, Koch has been a part of many record-breaking endeavors. In October 2018, she and Astronaut Jessica Meir were participants in the first all female spacewalk, and in December 2019 Koch broke the record for longest spaceflight by a woman by exceeding 289 days in space.
Christina Koch is set to return to Earth from the International Space Station on February 6, 2020 and a record breaking 328 days in space. She will return aboard a Russian Soyuz craft with International Space Station crew mates Luca Parmitano and Alexander Skvortsov. Her return to Earth will mark the end of a recording journey aboard the International Space Station for Koch, and the beginning of new adventures yet to come. With the beginning of the Artemis program, Koch is sure to play a role in continued space exploration as humans continue to expand their horizons in the cosmos.
Experience at Mission Control | Space Camp Alumni
Mission control is an essential part of the mission experience at Space Camp! During your time at Mission Control, you may have had a variety of positions from CAPCOM to Flight Director that help complete a successful mission. Your team may have run in to some anomalies along the way to test your problem solving and teamwork skills!
Check out our video on YouTube sharing some moments inside Mission Control:
We share some of the most beloved parts of the mission experience at Space Camp, as well as a glance at some of the new updates to the experience in recent years! Depending on when you first visited camp, it may look quite different from the early days.
When Space Camp first opened, all of the training equipment was housed in what was called the “bubble” and this was a central meeting place for all camp activities. Over the years at the Huntsville, Alabama facility, the operation grew and there were multiple buildings. In the 1990s, the Mission Training floor was housed in the Main Museum area and featured large shuttle components alongside the simulations that Space Camp is best known for.
As the camp has grown, so have its building spaces and one of the most recognizable is the Habitat, or Hab 1. This uniquely shaped living quarters is where trainees feel like they are housed in a Space Station-esque living space, there is also Hab2 and Hab3 on site as well. Missions are usually completed in the main museum space on the mission training floor, but there are also some mission components in the Astrotrek building which has a familiar bubble shape.
Inside the Astrotrek building, you’ll find the Enterprise shuttle mission setup, with the 5DF, Multi-Axis Trainers, and 1/6th gravity chairs all in one space. This new take on camp is across multiple areas at the facility, but still includes all of the signature fun that Space Camp is known for.
Make sure to sign up for our Space Camp Alumni email newsletter, to receive all of the latest alumni news! Space Camp Alumni Chapters are starting in 2020! And we may be coming to a region near you!
Announcing… Space Camp Alumni Chapters!
HUGE news for Space Camp Alumni this year! In 2020, Space Camp Alumni will be able to attend regional events in cities throughout the country to network with other Space Camp Alumni, enjoy activities together, and take on missions in each of their regions. These chapters will serve as a connection between the Space Camp Alumni Association and Space Camp campus, as well as keep alumni informed about news about Space Camp programs!
Updated on February 2020 with additional dates:
ALSO… events being planned for both CHICAGO & ATLANTA! Stay tuned for more information from those locations!
Save the date for these upcoming events, and also contact us if you are interested in events in Chicago, Atlanta – or even your own region! Space Camp Alumni Chapters can be started in any location with a group of alumni that are interested in gathering alumni together, and events in each location will be held approximately a few times a year to quarterly! You’ll be able to meet new friends – and possibly even connect with others that went to a Space Camp program at the same time!
Space Camp Alumni Chapters will be an exciting new additional to the association. Individuals that are interested in starting an Alumni Chapter in a region that does not currently have a chapter may contact the Alumni Representative ([email protected]) for more information.
Find out more about your local Chapter and sign up at this form: https://forms.gle/sM92ss6LHTb7akhf6
Right Stuff Award Winner: Stan Taylor
Written by Chad Driver, Space Camp Alumni Association Board Member
The allies had just emerged victorious from WWII. These were the days of Operation Paperclip, when Von Braun’s team set up shop in Huntsville, Alabama as one front in the Cold War. German V-2 technology would become the foundation for new military rockets – and the idea of swapping out the warhead for a pressurized cabin would soon follow.
It was in this world, in Windsor, Ontario, that Stan Taylor came of age. As a child, he was obsessed with Tom Corbett, Space Cadet – a series of comic books, radio and a TV series about a group of cadets at a fictitious “Space Academy.” Imagination was Stan’s entertainment – and he dreamed about one day, going to space.
In his teen years, Stan saw the science fiction of human spaceflight transition into real science … the sound barrier fell to Yeager’s X1 … then Sputnik … then Yuri Gagarin’s orbital flight. He still dreamed about space.
In college, Stan studied engineering – working with the emerging technology of transistors as the world shifted away from vacuum tubes. In his spare time, he studied a range of other sciences, but eventually landed in his permanent career as an elementary school teacher. His personal goal as an educator was to pass along the feelings and dreams about space exploration that still lived in him, so he always found a way to work space science into his lessons. The kids ate it up, just as Stan did in his youth.
After retiring from full-time teaching, he joined Canada’s “Scientists in Schools” organization – traveling from school to school to host STEM workshops and perform hands-on experiments designed to spark student interest.
In 2017, Stan got closer to his dream of going to space than he ever thought possible … at the age of 78, Stan Taylor attended Space Academy for Educators. Space Camp for Educators is a weeklong program that includes NASA-inspired lessons and astronaut training simulators designed to promote learning in a classroom setting. Most importantly, it gives graduates a foundation from which they can teach with authority and inspiration. This was exactly what Stan wanted.
The educators were divided into teams, Columbus and Destiny, and immediately started training for the mission at hand. Stan served as Capcom in Mission Control and would be responsible for communicating with the astronauts.
“We read our scripts, looked at monitors in the simulated mission control room showing the launch of the space shuttle, docking with the ISS, and two of our crew doing a space walk. It was intense. I had difficulty understanding most of the codes on the screen in front of me. I wasn’t alone. When the shuttle finally landed, someone announced that we had left two crew members behind. This news hit me hard. I couldn’t believe what was happening. It was at that point that I realized what an awesome responsibility the mission control people had who work at space agencies who do real missions daily. This is serious business.”
Stan also remembers his training on the MAT or Multi-Axis Trainer, where trainees see if they can keep their cool while rotating in all directions at the center of concentric rings. Some trainees opt out … but Stan loved it. “I tried everything and participated in everything.”
Photo Caption: One highlight of the week was meeting Homer Hickam Jr., author of Rocket Boys, after a lecture.
At graduation, Stan’s Columbus team earned the Commander’s Cup patch for team work and excellence. Then came time for the Right Stuff Award, given to the trainee who exemplifies the courage, integrity, and excellence of the early space explorers and test pilots. He still remembers the presenter’s wording: “Despite his age, he never let anything get in his way. This was his ‘astronaut dream’ from when he was a kid and everyone could tell he was more than happy to be living his dream!”
Stan held back tears as he approached the stage to accept the award.
“Ever since I was 8 years old, I wanted to have some kind of space adventure. Space Camp was much more than I had envisioned. It took me 69 years to fulfil my dream. What an incredible experience. And as much as I liked camp, my favorite part of the week has to be the people and friendships I made. This is the experience of a lifetime if you throw yourself into it! And I did.”
Photo Caption: Stan receives the Right Stuff Award
When Stan returned home to Canada, he put what he learned into practice and established a new space club for kids in grades 1-8. The group gets together monthly to performs missions, host speakers, do hands-on science activities … and eat pizza.
“I started the space club so kids wouldn’t have to wait as long as I did to enjoy the wonders of what is possible. Thanks to Tom Corbett, Space Cadet … thanks to Space Camp, I have so much love and knowledge about space that I can’t keep it to myself. This is the generation that will walk on the surface of Mars.”
Stan is still an active member of the “Scientists in Schools” organization. He continues to travel to approximately 100 schools per year … to make about 150 presentations per year … with about 30 kids in each class. Stan is still sharing his dreams.
Although it may seem obvious, he still isn’t sure why they picked him as the Right Stuff Award winner. But his team members know. After they returned home, one wrote on the group’s Facebook page, “Stan was awarded the Right Stuff medal for being his awesome self.”
Congratulations to the newest NASA Astronaut Graduates!
Today, a group of thirteen individuals will become the newest NASA Astronauts. Seven males and six females are the up and coming class to graduate from astronaut basic training today. The graduation ceremony will be live on NASA’s website at 10:30am EST.
Image courtesy NASA
NASA Astronaut Graduates: Kayla Barron, Zena Cardman, Raja Chari, Matthew Dominick, Bob Hines, Warren Hoburg, Dr. Jonny Kim, Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O’Hara, Dr. Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins are all from the United States. Joshua Kutryk and Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons are astronaut candidates from the Canadian Space Agency.
The graduates come from a diverse set of career fields and completed two years of multi-disciplinary training, this group is the first set of astronauts to graduate into the Artemis program and is expected to help us return to the moon and beyond.
Among the new field of astronauts are two Space Camp Alumni, both Bob Hines and Jasmin Moghbeli attended Space Camp programs in their youth. Bob Hines attributes Space Camp to “fanning the flame” of his interest in space exploration, and went on to Air Force Officer Training School. While Jasmin Moghbeli knew she wanted to fly when she attended Advanced Space Academy, and went on to become a pilot from the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School.
We congratulate all of the graduates on completing the astronaut training program and look forward to following their exploration in the future!