Day 8
We were rudely awaken by the Indian students at 5:30am in the morning when our actual wake up call was meant to be at 6:30 so most of us were not feeling warm and fuzzy towards them for the rest of the day. Breakfast was at 7.00am and we were given eggs, biscuits, bananas, apples and a random meat patty.
7:30- we went to the Thermal Design Challenge in which we were given 4 materials( a screw, a piece of copper wire, aluminium foil and a metal mesh) with which we then had to design a thermal heat shield to protect our screw from the blow torch. Most of our heat shields lasted for a while- the average time was about 30 second the best time was 56 seconds and it was a very simple design that worked really well.
9:00- Pay-load opps. was our next task where we made a container to try to stop our egg from breaking when launched from the second floor. We were given 2 materials to make it with, cardboard and duck tape, the other materials we could buy, but the group that won didn’t spend any money at all and they just made a paper aeroplane out of their card board and by luck it landed on the correct side-up.
12.00 Lunch was a KFC product that we all ate and some of us enjoyed more than others. We also had potatoes that were nice and a salad that was frozen, but still a salad.
1.00- Group photo.
2:00- Von T’s lecture- he is a 95 year old NASA retiree who told us about his experiences and he shared his knowledge with us - which was an interesting experience.(Von Tiesenhausen was won of the original German scientists captured by the USA to work on their rocket program)
3:00- Rocket Construction- most groups got a good start on their rockets and we will be launching them soon.
5.00- Alpha mission training was an excellent experience which all of us enjoyed and will be glad when we start our actual mission tomorrow. We then did another mission training (Bravo mission) in which we all moved position so no one had to the same task twice.
8.00-Aero Design-most of us designed a plane that flew nicely and we all had fun making and flying them. The lady that was teaching us was an excellent teacher so we learnt fast and we built the planes in less then 5 minutes.
9.00- Then we went and learnt about the Crew Systems and how they operate and all about the things that they can eat in space and all the new products that are going to be used in the next series of missions.
Its now 10.30pm and we’re off to bed. As you can see we sure pack a lot into our days.
Ps.notes from Mr Roberts- Anna is in sick-bay tonight; we hope she gets over some viral infection soon.
-I’ve included some photos with some of the older blogs ,(they aren’t exactly in order- but you may enjoy them anyway) with our very busy schedule there has been little time to do better.
-the kids are doing very well, Janet and I have been very impressed by their behaviour, positive attitude,etc. By Cuan and Alex R.
