Life at Warp Speed!

You remember when you went to sleep away camp, and you looked forward to mail call everyday, and you so hoped for a letter, maybe even a box of homemade cookies?  Well, that's how we feel.  We are telling you about all our amazing activities, and very few of you seem have noticed.  (Thank you Joe's family.) We don't need the box of cookies, but a comment would be most appreciated.  We kind of feel like we are on Mars.  Just saying.

What will happen if I push this?

 Last night we played Pig at the basketball hoop outside our rooms.  Yes, my boys, I played also and I did not lose the very worst. Almost.  Problemo: Lyle claimed injury and didn't run this morning. (It was his layup, of which he is so proud.  Don't worry.  He is faking it and will fly tomorrow.  Just needed an excuse not to run this morning or tomorrow morning when he is not supposed to.  Slacker.

Don't worry, I have Mission Control under control.

Houston, we have a problem.

Under a flag that flew on the moon.  Really.

"I've found the PANIC button and I'm going to push it!"

Two or three days of activities are crammed into each one--a true time warp. We are exhausted at the end of the day.  Today, once again, we were Early, though Monica was sure we would be Late.  There was enough time for Joe to have me hold his cup of coffee and for me to throw it on Marsha.  It was an accident.  She took it very well.  From there we boarded buses to have an in depth tour of NASA, starting with three mission control rooms.  The first one controls the ISS, the second, the shuttle, the third, the old one from the Apollo days.  The most fun: the old one.  Remember Apollo 13?  There is a plaque of gratitude from the crew, with an attached "rear view mirror," one of the pieces of junk they had to use as ballast to make up for the rocks they didn't get to collect.  

 I said blow the hatch at 13:15 not 13:14!

From there we went to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab.  Fascinating.  A mock-up of the ISS is completely submerged along with the bay of the shuttle.  Our tour was given by a tiny, cute diver who described the grueling test she had to take to get the job.  The depth of the pool is 40 feet; it took a month to fill it at a rate of 150 gallons per minute.  We will save you the math. That is 6,000,000 gallons.  Long, blond hair on that diver.  Ladies, the shampoo to use is Ultra Swim.  She swears by it.

Astronaut Finck describing the new transport to the ISS

Just a small corner of a huge pool.

 Building 9 is packed with mock-ups of the shuttle, as many parts of the ISS as they can get in there, and an area devoted to robots. One of the astronauts who had just returned in the Endeavor was being filmed as he described a trip in the Soyuz, the little beer barrel that the Russians throw into space with 3 guys in snowsuits.  It is in the Soyuz that our precious American astronauts will travel to the ISS in the future.  By the end of the month, the shuttle mock-ups will leave the building after 30 years.  The nostalgia at NASA is palpable.

Robonaut is cute but nothing like the real thing.

Haste makes waste, Ladies.

I think we got it, with the help of Fernando and Thin Mint

After our 3 hour tour, we grabbed giant teas from Sonic and flew to the hanger to complete our construction.  We had to get everything ready to load on the plane.  Luckily, we can handle some 7/16 wrenches and countless screws. Only had to start over 3 times, but we got it. 

Is it rightie-tightie, lefty loosey?

All the teams flying on Thursday and Friday had to load today.  Everything is bolted into a plexiglass glovebox, then bolted into the plane.  Each groups gets a particular spot with straps around it that will hold our feet so we can work without floating off.  These boxes were forklifted onto the plane for final testing of electricity, kill switch, and camera.  We rehearsed a bit, then went to get our flight suits (each with our name on them!) and a 30 minute instruction, with video, on how NOT to get sick.                            

What could possibly go wrong?

 

A little more tape, right here, should do it.

 






So,
Here we go.  Lyle and Marsha in the morning.  What will happen to the water, the pump, the bubbles?
Will everything stay in the right place or will knocking gravity out of the equation force us to alter our experiment in mid flight?  I think that is what we are here for.  How lucky can you get? Go Saints'!