Day 3 at Space Camp

The day started off with this gentle and from Turkey handing out these amazing wooden boxes to everyone.  They were beautiful carved boxes, which had a picture of a famous building from his town on the top.  It was filled with Turkish delight candy.  I have to say.....as a Narnia fan, I was soooo excited to get to try Turkish delight.  I've always wondered what it is like.  But mostly I was overwhelmed by the respect and generosity of the Turkish people, who would come with tokens of appreciation for all of the teachers....wow!
      First thing of the morning was our Space Shuttle Mission!  We were all excited (and maybe a little stressed!). We had devised a complicated (NOT) page numbering system to help us deal with anomalies better, and we were ready to go!  Our page numbering system worked like a charm, and we were a lot better at the anomalies on our mission except when I accidentally gave the wrong page number...grrr.  We did well and had a great time.  The fun stuff happened at landing.  We realized pretty early as we brought the shuttle back that the cargo bay doors were open....oops!!!  But, hands down, my favorite part of our mission was when our mission control trainer said, "Uh, Commander, you need to land the shuttle."  Which Luke did....pretty well.  Which is to say that we hit the runway (yay!), but with our front wheels first....I'm saying we probably ruined the landing gear, but hey, we didn't land in the "Red Zone".  So awesome!

     So next we had time with the Space Camp Ambassdors.  These are teachers that had been to Space Camp in the past, that had been very successful in changing their practice based on the experience.  One of them was from New York, and the other was from Romania.  At this point, the Romanian ambassador described several of her successful projects she had done.  The Dave, the New York ambassdor, presented a lesson.  It started with a Kahoot....which I ended in the top five!  Emily won....nickname Tall.  Luke (allidoiswin) didn't win this time.  This had become a total team joke, as he kept getting coke cans that said "All I do is win".  I think maybe one came after our successful shuttle mission.
      Next we were training for our Orion mission.  This time I was the pilot of the shuttle.  So this is  future mission, supposedly after we have established a base on the moon. So, all I have to say about the lunar shuttle is.....like to push buttons?  SO MANY BUTTONS!!!!  Buttons everywhere......so hard to find the one you're looking for.  The script tells you a general area to look (right panel, aft.....that kind of stuff)....but still, there is probably a hundred buttons on that panel, many with similar labels.   On the upside, I will now have a legitimate reason to say "Houston, we have a problem."  Ok, technically missions control on this mission is supposedly at Shackleton Crater on the moon...but still.  Jennifer and I stay in the lunar shuttle the whole time while other astronauts come and go to do lunar missions.

          
      So next we got to go to the water area.....so exciting!!!!  I had totally been looking forward to this!  We got to do the zip line first...yay!!!  This was supposed to simulate a parachute landing in the ocean.....I'm not really sure if that is the right description, but let's face it who cares?????  I get to zip line into a lake.....sweet!!!!!  Even though I don't love heights, I didn't have any trouble climbing the tower.  Once you get to the top, you have to stand backwards on a platform that you start from, and then step backwards to the very edge.  This wasn't my favorite part, but I was already strapped in, so it wasn't terrible.  Now while I'm talking about being strapped in.....can you say atomic wedgie.  Wow was I strapped in tight...no fear!  Anyway, then you just pick up your feet and go.  They have you go backwards as that is what you would really do.  It was awesome!!
     The other two water things we did were a simulated helicopter that crashed in the water and then a simulated water rescue in the basket.  These were cool too, although not as awesome as the zip line.  It was pretty scary how fast the water filled the helicopter.  The water basket rescue.....brrrr, that water is cold.
       That evening we got together in Chasity and Emily's room to work on our mission patch.  It was fun way to relax and hang out together after THE MOST EXCITING DAY!  I mean seriously, do days get any more exciting than this one??!!  And if haven't mentioned it, I totally hit the jackpot at Space Camp...Team Columbus was the best.  We had so much fun together!!!