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09/11/09 4:09
It all started at 13.00 hours on the 5th of November, a day ten very excited teenagers will certainly remember. We descended on the Scottish Parliament for a meeting with the First Minister, Alex Salmond, before we set out on a ten day learning journey to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The First Minister talked to us about the trip and asked us what we were looking forward to most before presenting us with a book the size of a postage stamp that contained a selection of poems by our national bard, Robert Burns. Our job was to take the book to Houston and hand it over to an astronaut who would take it into space on a mission early next year. What a fantastic way to celebrate Homecoming Scotland and the 250th anniversary of Burns' birth.
Then is was time for photos and a request from the FM for a report on our trip when we got back home. A few hours later we all met up again at an airport hotel as we had to catch the red eye the following morning.
The 13 hour journey to Houston was made all the more memorable by an announcement over the PA system that students from the Scottish Space School were on board and the captain wished us all the best as we touched down on American soil. We were also invited onto the flight deck before we disembarked, an invitation that was accepted by all of us.
Although tired we were very excited when we checked into our hotel, the Clear Lake Hilton, but we had no time to relax as we dumped our bags, and had a briefing meeting by the side of the pool (November in Houston is not like Scotland!) from Hyang Lloyd, President of the Scottish Space School Foundation USA and organiser of the programme.
Afterwards we headed out to Kemah Boardwalk for a meal and a chance to get acclimatised in the mild Texan air. We were joined by astronauts Bob Cenker and Mike Baker both of whom had been at the summer school at Strathclyde just a few months ago.
Then the jet lag kicked in and it was time for some Bo Peep!
Danielle Clyde 09/11/09 4:48
We were all up bright and early as Houston is six hours behind the UK, and just after eight we were in a meeting room in the hotel for a presentation by NASA legend Gene Kranz, Flight Director for the Apollo missions most memorably Apollo 11 and Apollo 13.
None of us had ever attended such an inspirational talk which lasted over an hour but had us on the edge of our seats as he recalled in absolute detail the events of April 1970. The facts alone are staggering, with the space ship operating at one stage on 100 watts of power and a procedures manual with 500 steps in it!
We all received signed copies of his book, 'Failure is Not an Option', and once again the by now customary photograph.
To get rid of any remaining jetlag we all went to a nearby football field and had a kickabout, before heading for the mall and an afternoon's shopping.
We are already getting used to quick turnarounds and we then had about twenty minutes to get changed for a welcome party at the home of Dr Rick Scheuring, a NASA flight surgeon, and his wife, but before we could go into their home we stood in the street and watched the International Space Station fly over!
Once inside we were joined by five astronauts and about fifteen scientists and engineers, all of whom wanted to talk to us and we all wanted to learn about their experiences and get valuable careers advice. In between times a few of us jumped into the pool for a swim, and enjoyed the excellent fare on offer.
We would like to thank the Scheurings for their wonderful hospitality and everyone who took the time to come along and meet us.
Tom Aitken
10/11/09 5:44Following a fairly late night we had a relaxing morning, which for the fitness conscious among us meant the opportunity to visit the hotel gym. Unfortunately the cloudy and breezy weather ruled out a swim in the outdoor pool.
We left at noon for the Challenger Center and George Observatory, about an hour's drive west of Houston, and in the middle of a state park. First stop was the wildlife centre where we could see and touch baby alligators, snakes and a tarantula.
Our efforts at alligator spotting in the surrounding countryside were unsuccesful, fortunately, so we headed for the Challenger Center, one of 47 such facilities across the US in memory of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger who perished in 1986.
We were divided into our two teams, with Rigel in Mission Control guiding Altair on the space station in a simulation of a moon landing. Everyone had to work on their individual consoles but communicatiing together for the mission to be a success, which it was. We then traded places and Altair guided Rigel to a successful landing on Mars.
The exercise was not only great fun but it felt real, with a buzz of excitement in both places when our spacecraft touched down, and everyone felt a sense of achievement when we sat down to a bbq dinner.
Unfortunately the cloudy weather meant there would be no star gazing but we had an enthralling talk from an astronomer on the size of the universe, with some amazing photography from the onsite telescope, which we saw afterwards. This highly impressive piece of equipment is mechanically operated and has a lens that is almost a metre across.
Before we left and headed back to the hotel after an engrossing and fun-packed day we all signed a Scottish flag which we donated to the Center.
Jo Shepherd
11/11/09 4:17The jetlag was well and truly out of the system now as we headed for Space Center Houston, NASA's official visitor centre. There we met our guides for the day on a tour of Johnson Space Center (JSC).
First stop was the Neutral Buoyancy Lab where astronauts train in the 'world's largest swimming pool', L 60m W 30m D 13m, and it was fascinating to watch them perform tasks underwater on full scale mock-ups of the International Space Station (ISS) and the Shuttle.
Next up was the Habitat Center where we saw a vision of the future in the shape of inflatable buildings that could be used if a base is built on the Moon or Mars. Equally exciting was the Lunar Electric Rover (LER) that will be used to transport astronauts on the Moon with a range of 50k compared to the 5k of the original Moon Buggy.
Lunch in the JSC cafeteria was not uneventful either as we were joined by veteran astronaut Bill McArthur who was reintroduced to us as we had already met him at the information evening at Stathclyde in May.
The Mission Control Center at JSC comprises three large rooms, one for the Shuttle, one for the ISS and the historic one used during the Apollo missions. We were really lucky in that there was a full blown simulation of a Shuttle landing which sounded exactly like the real thing, and we viewed the live feed of the ISS as it orbited the earth at 25,000 kph.
The next stop on this amazing tour was the robotics lab where we saw the latest generation of robots, followed by a walk round the mock-ups of the Shuttle, Russian Soyus, and all of the modules of the ISS.
The final port of call was a visit to Rocket Park, where the huge Saturn 5 rocket that took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon is kept in a giant hangar that is over 100m long. It was breathtaking in its sheer scale and it is difficult to imagine what it must have felt like to be on the top of it during a launch.
Once back in our hotel there was only time for a quick freshen up and we were off again, this time to Neal and Jeanne Pellis's house where we enjoyed their generous hospitality and fantastic home-made Italian cuisine. The musicians in our group showed off their musical talents and the neighbours were introduced to the sound of the bagpipes!
After such a busy day it was a great way to unwind so many thanks to Neal and Jeanne for a fantastic evening.
Ben Kerridge
12/11/09 4:49Another day at the Johnson Space Center, starting with a visit to the Space Food Laboratory where we saw the great variety of food that is prepared for the astronauts and the technology used to enable them to eat it successfully in microgravity.
This was followed by one of the most challenging and exciting activities of the trip so far - a hands on experience of three flight simulators. No 1 was landing the shuttle at Kennedy Space Center (KSC); No 2 was docking the shuttle to the ISS; and No 3 was docking the new Orion spacecraft to the ISS.
After lunch we were split into three teams, red, white and blue, plus the silver team made up of our adult minders, and for once it could be said that 'This is rocket science!"
We had just two hours to design, build and launch a rocket within a budget. I was part of the winning white team whose rocket reached the highest altitude and the parachute deployed successfully. The other teams managed to reach a good height but their parachutes did not deploy, while the silver team's parachute worked perfectly but from a height of only 10m, a consequence of trying to make it on the cheap!
Just when we thought we had had enough excitement for one day we had an evening at the movies, only this was no ordinary movie and no ordinary cinema. The movie was Apollo 13 and the venue was Mission Control where the main action in the film took place. After an hour the film was paused as Fred Haise, one of three crew members on that fateful mission to the Moon, walked in and for an hour gave us an enthralling first hand account of the mission and his illustrious career. For once the Hollywood version was not more dramatic than the real thing!
It's incredible to think that Fred Haise is one of only 24 humans who have either walked on or travelled round the Moon. Afterwards we had out photo taken with him and he signed copies of photos of him in his Apollo 13 spacesuit. After it was over he was presented with a quaich by Tom and Cameron played Highland Cathedral on his bagpipes in a tribute to a true space legend.
Lea Armstrong
13/11/09 5:45This was a day with a difference; for the first time it was not about space but the oil and gas industry.
The Wood Group is a global Scottish company with 29,000 employees in 50 countries and sales of $5bn per annum and we were to spend the day at their Houston HQ learning all about the oil and gas sector and the career opportunities within it.
Derek Blackwood, President of the Wood Group for the Americas welcomed us, after which saw a video about offshore oil production, and different members of staff from the parent company and its subsidiaries gave presentations on different aspects of oil exploration. The highlight of the morning was the display of laser scanning which produced an incredible picture of the group as we sat at the tables in the meeting room.
In the afternoon we visited two other companies, Mustang Automation and Transocean to observe leading edge technology in an industry that is every bit as challenging as the space industry.
We finished up with a Q&A session and every one of us had a better understanding of a key industry sector as a result of our visit. We then headed to Texas Land & Cattle restaurant where you could have anything to eat as long as it was steak. We were joined by staff from the Wood Group and the British Consul General, Mr Paul Lynch, who made a short speech emphasising the key role of science to the UK economy and he congratulated the students from the Scottish Space School on being selected for the trip to Houston.
Cameron Paterson
14/11/09 16:37
The United Space Alliance is one of NASA's major contractors and we spent the whole day at their facility near JSC.
In the morning we had a fascinating insight into the preparation that goes into every mission when we were allowed into the 'mall' that runs along the middle of a series of hi-tech, high security, sterile labs, stopping to view each activity through their 'shop windows'.
Our guides, Jim Travlos and Quinn Dunn, explained what was happening in each lab in great detail as we saw space suits for EVA's being tested, launch and re-entry suits being packed, food and clothing being packed into special containers.
Few people are allowed access to this facility for which we required security clearance and we were monitored by CCTV from the minute we entered the car park until we left. That also explains why there are no photgraphs of the tour.
In the afternoon the company gave us the use of their auditorium for four amazing presentations punctuated with a 10 minute exercise break between them.
Christy Hanson was first up with a breathtaking account of her job as a spacewalking engineer which involves training astronauts for EVA's, with some great pictures STS 123. the Hubble repair mission, in May this year. Christy is truly amazing; she is a flight controller in Mission Control during EVA's, she is a diver in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, and has experienced weightlessness on the 'vomit comet'.
Mike Fodroci is the Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Officer for the ISS, and he gave a very informative and humorous talk on the five orbital outposts (space stations) that have been launched since the 1970's.
the latest and most ambitious is the ISS which has been under constrruction since 1998 and is due for completion in September 2010, The scale of this magnificent feat of engineering is very impressive: weight 369,000 kilos; volume 358 cubic metres; width 109 metres; length 51 metres.
Chuck Lloyd gave us a and fascinating and comprehensive account of the Human Research Program, the latest knowledge and technological solutions for the safe and productive exploration of space by humans. What happens to the human body in short and long duration space flights alwys captures the imagination.
Last but certainly not least was the final presentation by astronaut Ken Cameron who took us through one of his missions on the shuttle to the Mir space station, and finished appropriately with a description of the rockets of the future.
With only half an hour for lunch this may have looked like it was going to be heavy going but it seemed to fly by, thanks to the variety and excitement of the topics covered.
One piece of information from a great day at USA that will stay with us for a long time was the quote from our guide to the labs: 'There are three things that no space flight can do without - batteries, velcro and duct tape!'
Leyla Manshouri
14/11/09 16:53Friday the 13th 2009 was certainly not unlucky for the Scottish Space School students in Houston!
This was the final day of the formal programme and we set off for a visit to Rice University, which was the kind of campus you only see in the movies.
After a tour of the facilities, we were given a presentation by Professor David Alexander, formerly of Possilpark in Glasgow, whose specialist subject was solar physics and the topic he covered with some amazing slides and animations was space weather. This was leading edge science that took the breath away.
The evening was the grand finale of the week with the gala dinner attended by most ot the people who had made us so welcome during the week and given us talks, tours, hospitality and inspiration!
Astronauts Michael Foale and Michael Baker presented each of us with a plaque as a momento of this fantastic experience. After the meal the astronaut band provided the musical entertainment and we celebrated in grand style until the midnight hour but we were too hyped up to sleep, but we can catch up on the plane!
Arif Nadeem
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