And now the post many people have been waiting for, my trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. It's interesting to me that so many people haven't heard of Space Camp, or those that do know, didn't know that adults could go to camp too. The season for adults is pretty short, and Victoria did an awesome job by calling in and ended up getting me in an unadvertised session of camp, one that's intended for alumni, and is the only session that is 8 days long for adults. It's only once a year, and is very special. The staff looks forward to the adult 8 day session because it's very special indeed. They get to pull out all the stops and do things they can't normally do throughout the year.

I arrived in to Huntsville a day early, which I am glad I did. I stayed next door to Space Camp at the Huntsville Marriot, a stone's throw from camp. I could see camp and was anxious to get started. I began with a trip over to the gift shop to get the "trip presents" out of the way since I wasn't sure how much time I would have during camp. The shop was awesome, plus the things I could see from outside the US Space and Rocket Center, which is all part of the same complex. The scale replica of the Saturn V standing tall sits at the entrance to the Rocket Center. I got back to my room just in time for the tornado warning to come into effect for the rest of the night. I ended up, because of the weather, of just grabbing a quick dinner in the hotel before heading to bed.

Saturday began my first day of camp, and I anxiously awaited the 1pm check in time. I headed to check in and was told to head to Hab 1, which is the "futuristic space station housing" that's a fancy name for dormitory. I quickly met one of my roommates and he took me over to meet the rest of the team. We were on Team Enterprise for the week. The first thing that struck me was that the people were REALLY into camp and many had come back year after year. I wondered what I had gotten myself into and though I am a super space geek, these people were way into it, more than me!
Later in the evening we met for a mission briefing and I got to meet the entire Enterprise Team. There were 16 of us in all. And this is when things got going. I began to meet our counselors for the week, Kenny in the evening, Candeis in the day. I learned what we'd be doing for the week...Four one hour missions on the track that we were enrolled in (I was in the mission specialist track, as opposed to the pilot track) and two two hour missions that were off track so we could experience something different. We'd also be doing lots of other things through the week. All of our training leads up to the reason why people choose to come to this 8 day program: a full 24 hour long duration mission on the final day!

Other things we got to do throughout the week included:
- The multi-axis trainer (MAT) where they strap you in and let the trainer spin you all around. It's not as bad as it seems, as your stomach is in the middle of the spinning, so it stays pretty stable. It's all in the head!
- A low ropes course where you learn a bunch of team building and team solving exercises.
- 1/6th gravity lunar chair where you get to feel what it's like to be on the moon. It's pretty tricky to move around, but very fun.
- High ropes course where we scaled a 50 foot climbing wall and then headed down a crazy zip line where you get a bit of free fall time.
- Mach 3 flight simulators that are full cockpit mockups of F-16 fighters, complete with RIO.
- Design our own mission patch. From scratch. Space Camp offers a semi-custom one, but this group likes to make their own.
- Space Shuttle landing simulators to practice all sorts of fun landing scenarios.
- Full 24 hour access to all the museums, including the stunning Davidson Center where an actual Saturn V rocket is on display.
- A lecture with Dr. VonTiesenhausen, designer of the lunar rover.
- A lecture with Ed Buckbee, former US Space and Rocket Center director, and involved in Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
- A ride in a centrifuge, pulling 3.2g!
- Underwater mission using scuba, including instruction for those that have never scuba'ed before. (Had to have a doctor's signature, and do pre and post-dive physicals.)
- A very special trip (first time ever) with curator Irene, to the archives of the US Space and Rocket Center. Definitely one of the highlights, where we got to see all sorts of old space hardware, and even touch some spacesuits!!
- A lecture and rocket firing with a gentleman from Orion Propulsion, supplier of Orion 3rd stage RCS and Bigelow Aerospace's RCS for all their spacecraft.
- Graduation, complete with music, and guests.
I could go into lots of detail about each of those items, but I don't want this post to get crazy.

The food was so so. It was cafeteria style, although the 8 day adults actually got real plates! So that was pretty nice. The morning of our long duration mission we did get the traditional steak and eggs breakfast, which I've never had.
I have to say that the 8 day adult advance space academy isn't a vacation. It's VERY intense, and there's few breaks. There is a little time in the schedule for museum time and a few short half hours for breaks. But they never ended up happening since there is so much to do and especially plan for the LDM. Was it worth it? Heck yeah! I had so much fun and wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I got to see and do so many things in such a short amount of time that hit my geek side that I was super happy.

I could make whole other posting about all the missions I did, so I'll keep it short here. On the first four missions on my track, I got to be the following positions: CATO in Mission Control (the voice of NASA and NASA TV), Space Station Scientist (Second in command of the station), PROP in Mission Control (monitoring the propulsion systems of the orbiter), and Mission Specialist (where I got to be out on the Canadarm performing satellite repair). For the two off track missions I took Mission Science in Mission Control (Talk to the station and get any information they need to reboost the station or figure out anomalies) and Commander of the orbiter (where I got to land the orbiter, and subsequently got my callsign "Chopper" for coming in bit shallow on my landing and chopped off some trees, but still ended up on the runway). On the Long Duration Mission, I ended up as Station Scientist, where I got to launch on the shuttle, and was second in command on the station, until the commander of the station got electrocuted after a meteor shower and I became first in command for the second half of the mission.

Would I go back? I would LOVE to go back. Our plans are to try and have a second child soon though, so it may not work back into the plans for another few years, but I sure hope I get to go back again. Since I wasn't sure when I would be going back, I did get a nice clothing package, and a flight suit that I get to keep. They are really nice souveniers from an excellent week.
The last thing I would like to mention is that it while the geeky stuff was soooo fun, the people really helped make the experience so wonderful. Some of these people were coming back for their 16th time! They love when new people come and to show them all the fun possibilities. You end up trusting these people as much as you can. You do lots of trust exercises and really get to bond a one big team. Team Enterprise, you rock!

I only placed a small number of pictures in this post. To see the rest, please visit the Thalimer.com website and look for the Space Camp 2009 photos.