"Experience of a Lifetime": 

Ben Mannisto's Space Camp Experience

This summer I had the experience of a lifetime. Myself and Devon Couch were selected to take part in a week of International Space Camp, in Huntsville, Alabama. This week was compiled of classes on various subjects, experiments demonstrating space science, activities based on astronaut training, and simulated NASA missions. Along with us there were representatives from 17 other countries.

The 100 or so students who attended international week were split into 5 teams. My team, Elysium, had people from Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, England, Canada, and of course people from all over the United States.

The classes my team partook in covered many, highly interesting, subjects ranging from Russian space history to emergency first aid in space. I learned about robotics and space food, astronomy and space suit dynamics, the ISS and ground control.

These classes were often followed by experiments. These experiments demonstrated many different things, and were often in the form of challenges. Our teams were tasked with anything from designing a space suit, to purifying mars water. I learned how to protect an egg from the heat of reentry using a hand made heat shield, and that if an egg's heat shield fails and it heats up too quickly, it may explode. One of these experiments involved designing a rover to drive over a series of obstacles using a lego robotics kit, another found us trying to protect an apple from radiation.

These scientific challenges were complemented with more physical ones. My team was often brought to ‘Area 51”, which contained a climbing wall, team building activities, and the “pamper pole” (a telephone pole with handholds for climbing). We were also treated to a multi axis simulator, which spins you in a bunch of different directions without you getting dizzy.  

We also had our path specific activities. Before the camp began everyone had to choose one of two paths, Pilot or Mission Specialist. These would help decide the type of experience you had at the camp. I chose the Mission Specialist path. This meant that I would be doing scuba diving. The diving was a truly incredible experience, we dove in a 40 foot replica of the actual astronaut training tank. In the tank we lifted 100 pound balls with only one pinky, played basketball with bowling balls, and attempted to throw water toys underwater, which is not as easy as it sounds. They even had specialized speakers to play music underwater, which was rather neat.

All of this training led up to our simulated missions. In our first two missions we were placed in one of three groups: ground control, the space shuttle, and the ISS (international space station) for 1 hour. Those in the shuttle had to go through a mission abort and land the shuttle after it launched, ground control had to walk them through this, and while all of this chaos was going on those in the ISS did space science. On my first mission I was in the ISS, and on my second I was in ground control.

The third and final mission was called an EDM or extended duration mission. These were simulated missions to Mars and they lasted 3 hours. This mission was also separated into three groups: Ground Control, Orion Space Capsule, and the Ouranos base on Mars’s largest moon Phobos. Those in the Orion capsule were tasked with landing on Mars and setting up a base there, Ground Control would help walk them through this. Those on Ouranos had a variety of positions, The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) had to ensure everyone everywhere was healthy, the two weather specialists had to study weather on mars, the two flight engineers had to fix ammonia tanks and drive a rover, and the Extravehicular activity officer had to help the flight engineers fix the tanks.

This was all made difficult by a number of medical anomalies given to us by the people directing the mission. These were medical problems that could be physical or mental. A few of them were: the fear of the colour white (everything was painted white), Kleptomania, OCD causing the person to flip every switch (including the oxygen supply), drug overdose, everyone in the Orion capsule breaking their arms in lift off, and many more. Even with all of these obstacles we still managed to complete the mission successfully, we were later told we were the best of the week, and the first to fully complete the mission.

Overall, Space camp was an incredible experience. I met great people and made friends all over the world. I learned many things, and experienced things I couldn’t do anywhere else. Space camp was thoroughly enjoyable and came with memories I will never forget.