NASA Liftoff 2013 Rockets to Robots

I spent last week in one of my most favorite places on Earth—the NASA Johnson Space Center!!  I have always loved science and space.  I remember being so jealous of our next door neighbor who got to attend space camp.  I remember writing NASA, and having them send me pictures and information relating to space travel.  I remember building a rocket in sixth grade, and participating in the ‘Name the Space Shuttle Program.’  My name didn’t win—Endeavour was chosen, but I do take some satisfaction in knowing that the Lego space shuttle is named Adventure (the one I chose). 

I find it even more exciting to be able to go to NASA during the summer, and be rejuvenated as a teacher.  To truly have that desire to spread my passion for a subject I LOVE, and to be given tools and ideas on how to do that best.  Plus, be given more information on a topic that is always growing—there is always something new being discovered or a new mission NASA is taking on.

So, I do want to share with you what I was able to do this week, and the very important people I was able to meet.

This is Jerry Woodfill.  He was the engineer in charge of the failure warning systems for the Apollo 11 & 13 missions.  He was a student at Rice University when Pres. Kennedy gave his speech about going to the moon.  He actually quoted a good portion of that speech (which IS an amazing speech—a highly recommend reading the whole thing).  Needless to say, hearing him quote those words was very powerful.  He then told of his experience during the Apollo 13 mission—where his failure system came into play, how he felt, and what his role was at the time.  He made us each take an oath, so that we could claim the title, “Apollo 13 Honorary Educator Flight Controller.”  Mr. Woodfill then gave us bracelets to wear with the inscription, “Failure is not an option!”

This is Timothy Hall, he has worked in mission control, but now is in charge of training astronauts for space walks, and ground flight control teams to be ready if something were to happen during a space walk or aboard the ISS.  He gave us a lot of information on what NASA is doing currently, and what might or might not happen in the future.  I’m still hoping we get back to Pres. Bush’s goal (the first president Bush), he had hoped to be back at the moon by the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and then we can take off from the Moon to Mars.  I guess we’ll just have to watch the news to see what happens on the political front. . . .

The second part of that day, we were able to go to the Robotics Lab at the Johnson Space Center.  Here are a few pictures:

I thought it was pretty funny that even NASA engineers had one screw left after putting Robonaut Two together.  he-he

Can you imagine spending 2 weeks straight in this vehicle?!  Two astronauts just did this as an experiment.

Robonaut and me  :)

This is the Orion capsule (George Bush started).  The Orion capsule will sit atop the SLS rocket—and I will be there when it takes off for the first time.  I never got to see a space shuttle take off—I won’t miss this.