Cheeburger Cheeburger

Some comments on the Pounder burger which ten students decided to order

I'll put ketchup with this because it takes away the taste of the meat - Rohan

After finishing the 1lb slab of meat, I can confirm that I am now 1% burger and 100% stupid.

Oliver 

Pounder burger was easy mode *puts on shades* - Ben  

Seriously? Was that meant to be a challenge? - James B

After finishing 3/4 of that burger, and going through the torture of eating too much, I can now say that I should not have ordered the pound burger, but a more sensible option. At least I got further than my brother!

James 

It's fine - Rohan

The 'successful' students who completed the challenge

Shubhank ordered a "delirious" burger - it did what it said on the tin. - James P

A Space Cadet's Account of their Mission to Mars

So the Mars Extended Duration Mission. The final mission. This mission was different from the others. There were medical anomalies and space ghosts. Now, a space ghost is a crew trainer that was running the simulation. There were several space ghosts in our mission. Now my position was SOCOM which is one of the four members of Mission Control.

So we started the mission, and we are running on time with the schedule, and after about half an hour, one of the crew trainers comes over with the box of skittles (skittles were the medical tablets used for the simulation) and says "take a skittle," so naturally, I take a skittle. Fifteen minutes later I receive a note with the following words "the skittle you just took has made you crazy, you now thinks that the FAO (Will) is a cute baby" which basically means that I have to pretend that Will was a baby. 

Moments later I receive another note saying "the FAO is ignoring you and nothing on mars is going right, so you are now depressed. Go sulk in the corner until someone helps you out". After receiving this message, I proceed to sit in the corner crying. Jonathan, who was PAYCOM and the only person who could speak to the Chief  Medical Officer (CMO), told the CMO my symptoms and the CMO wrongly diagnosed me as having heat exhaustion, meaning that Jonathan told me to strip. Yes, STRIP. So to recap, at this point I am crying, sitting in corner, depressed, and now I am naked, (not really naked IRL but naked in the simulation). To make matters worse, Ben (Mission Director) has another set of interesting medical anomalies, which began with, "you don't think they are really on Mars," and then "be more aggressive," which lead him to scream down my microphone (I was in the corner at the time) "get out there with your helmets off and tell me you aren't on Mars" owtte. So once I am ordered to strip, one of the space ghosts tells Ben to start slapping me violently. Remember that I am crying, depressed, naked, sulking, sitting in a corner, and now being slapped vehemently. 

After Ben has finished slapping me, I am then told to start shaking, and then later told I had died of a Grand Mal Seizure. Following this, Ben proceeds to drag me out of mission control by my feet, just as one of the space ghosts who was helping the other group walked in and she just said "I saw nothing". I was then later respawned, and I walked in to Ben taking meds when he shouldn't have been. This later caused Ben to begin defecating all over the floor and then to vomit all over the floor of mission control (note at this point Jonathan is not in the room). This then causes both Will and myself (in that order) to trip in the vomit and break both our legs. Following this I drag myself to the desk and grab the headset that can talk to the medical personnel, and get Aamaan to help us out. Meanwhile, Ben has become more and more crazy and proceeds to try and amputate Will's leg. The last funny occurrence that happened was when Jonathan  returned as our crew trainer Brent instantly told Jonathan to leave and do his whole part of the mission again as a joke. Jonathan believed him until another crew trainer told him that he was being tricked by Brent. This pretty much concludes the crazy part of the mission as this was followed by a successful return to Earth, and a "successful mission" in the words of Ben.

James B

Leaving Space Camp

Yesterday we went on a trip to a bowling alley after a sightseeing trip round Huntsville. The bowling was great fun, but I was incredibly annoyed as I came last due to some incredible luck from Zahir when he got 3 strikes in a row, a "turkey". The food was very nice though.

James P

In the afternoon, having left spacecamp following the graduation ceremony, we ate lunch at terranova, an Italian restaurant in Huntsville. As it was my birthday the day before, my parents ordered a massive cookie for me, which I reluctantly had to share with everyone else. Although I was full after the first slice, a few of us went up for seconds, and even for thirds!

Dan R

 

These past five days have been five of the most action-packed, rewarding days I have ever experienced. We did not have a moment to take a breath as we participated in many activities from 7:30 to 22:00 every day. While the cultural lessons were fascinating, I preferred the physical, interactive tasks such as the missions and the high rope activities, not to mention the exhilarating rollercoaster where we got to experience 3G. Whilst I regret being unable to do the scuba diving, I feel that I had an incredible experience which I will never forget!

Matt

Space Camp was an enjoyable trip, which at first seemed quite boring - starting off with a lesson on Russian history. But it soon proved to be an amazing  experience and I thoroughly enjoyed the many experiences ranging from scuba diving to the mars mission.
Ishan

Space Camp was really interesting and fun because of how many tasks we did ranging from Area 51 where we did leap of faith (pamper polls) and zip wiring to the interesting lessons about dark matter and black holes. Overall, it was really informative but also a thrilling five days at Space Camp.
Pranav

I thought Space Camp was an interesting experience - it was fun learning about how missions to space are carried out and I feel as if I have learnt a lot. I am also extremely happy to have gotten over my fear of heights! 

Shubhank

Space Camp Comes to an End

Yesterday Team Eunostos and I took part in the Multi Axis Training, which scared all of us at first. Luckily, we had a surreal experience, without feeling dizzy at all.

Binu 

Having left Space Camp I'm certainly sad, as it was an out of this world experience, but am relieved to have my phone back. I enjoyed it greatly and am now looking forward to a day at the mall before the long flight tomorrow.

Jamie 

Overall, Space Camp was an enjoyable experience. Somehow, my team , Eunostos won the Commander's Cup ( I suspect via bribery) . The highlight for me was the scuba diving. 

Shri 

Space Camp was an awesome experience and I'm sad to be leaving now. I'm looking forward to the trip to the mall and then the tiresome trip back home.

Zahir

So Space Camp is now over. It's pretty sad to be honest as it was an amazing thing to do, with many fun and interesting activities that we undertook. The final graduation ceremony was a long event as our team, Team Acidalia was the last team to be called up to graduate. Finally when we're called up, our crew trainer, John O'Brien used some cool intonation when he read out our names which was pretty funny.

James B

Space Camp was mad. At graduation, we all went up on stage and all our names were read out by our crew instructor. Overall the experience was amazing - but the highlight of the trip was definitely scuba.

Aamaan

Space Camp was an interesting experience consisting of the culmination of both good and funny incidents. For example the zip line was both enjoyable and somewhat terrifying. Personally my favourite part of the Space Camp was the lessons about the Soviet space program as we learnt about the wondrous and admirable feats of the Soviet Union in its former glory. I was enlightened by this experience of the USSR of the Soviet culture.

Akash

Graduation

From a young age, I have always wanted to work for Apple. I have always dismissed the idea of doing other jobs when I am older. Space Camp has been such a great experience that if I didn't get to work for Apple, I would join a space agency like NASA without hesitation.

Israfeel

The Camp overall was very enjoyable with enthusiastic crew trainers and teachers with a passion. We all learned a lot about space on the trip and how NASA and other space agencies influence over the use of space an dits importance in today's society. My favourite part of the trip was scuba by far, it was so much fun with the neutral buoyancy acting like zero gravity like a space station.

Daniel J

The Camp gave us opportunities to experience the life of an astronaut and also gave us valuable information about the mysterious of space. This was very interesting; with the missions that we had to do and the flight simulations. For me these were the most enjoyable part of the trip. 

Kaushik

During the graduation ceremony, we had to stand on the stage in the Davidson Center in front of hundreds of parents and campers to receive a handshake from US astronaut Bob Springer and a mysterious folder from the presenter. However, we had to also "sing" the US national anthem, which none of us knew. Inside this mystery folder, there was a long leaflet/book about the UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville) and a picture with our team. Half of KEGS were in the winning team Eunostos, which meant we obtained the highest number of points throughout the week's activities - probably because the had the American winning mentality!

Oliver 

Arriving in Huntsville - Sat 15th July 2017

Saturday 15th July 2017

 

We went to Cathedral Caverns state park, the Caverns were huge and cold relative to the humid air outside the Caverns, we saw some large rock formations and learnt a great deal about the area. Later in the day we went to Burritt on the Mountain which was an old Manor House belonging to a Dentist from the 1800's there was also a lot to learn about the American civil war and a live blacksmith demonstration.

Luke

     

Rocket Launch Day

Thurs

This morning our groups sung happy birthday to me in the canteen, which was very embarrassing. However, I received a present and a card signed by every KEGS student on camp, as well as the teachers.

Dan R

Today we had the training for the mission finale, Mars. As PAYCOM, my job is to communicate between Ouranos and mission control. The chief medical officer is on one of the ships, and so any communications from him to people on Orion, the other ship, who have medical problems, has to go through me. Hopefully it will be fun, albeit a little hectic!

Jon M

This morning we had to finally test our "rockets" that we have made over the course of about 3-4 hours. Unfortunately none of them flew the right way, as all groups' rockets flew backwards. We learnt that we cannot build rockets well- but it was enjoyable.

Oliver

When we launched our rocket we failed to set the second stage straight which resulted in our rocket going off course and across instead of up. Our parachute melted shut because we did put the heat protectors down far enough so the parachute did not deploy.

Luke

We made it up as we went along - Josh

It was the best said Maycie (team counsellor) - Ishan

It was all down to my glue gun skills - Akshaaye 

All my amazing contribution led to nothing  - Shri

Our rocket didn't work. We launched it okay but the parachute didn't go off until a foot before the ground and the egg smashed. It was still a fun experience though.

Jamie

Today we launched our model rockets that we built earlier. Our launch didn't go so well, as our rocket hit the ground quickly. Then, the secondary charge went off and hit the egg, which we were later told was the equivalent of hitting it with a shotgun blast. Needless to say, the egg didn't survive.

James P

Today we finally launched our rockets which we had been building for the last few days. Unfortunately it crashed and the parachute failed to deploy properly and the egg died. Lol.

Zahir

Bang. The rocket was in the air. Albeit a bit shaky, the structure held and the rocket reached incredible heights. Now we prayed for the parachute to appear. Please, please, please...it deployed! The capsule holding the egg wafted gracefully to the ground. But the egg was completely smashed. 

Matt

Our rocket blasted into the air, caught fire, crashed, burnt and then exploded - yay.

-Aamaan

More from the Space Camp Programme

We also did a robotics challenge, using NXT Mindstorms kits, which some of us had used before for the First Lego League. Unfortunately, our group was mostly unsuccessful, as the tank treads couldn't support it and it was scraping along ground. However, Benji's Boiz were more fortunate.

Don't let Shri drive.

Jamie (during robotics)

Yesterday we completed a robotics challenge in which we created a mars rover with Lego, which we controlled with a tablet. Despite our last minute modifications, including the ability to actually turn our vehicle, it was only able to run up and down an incline. However, we were one of three groups that got this far, achieving a joint first place in the challenge.

Will 

So on Wednesday we did a flight simulation which was run by the aviation challenge portion of Space Camp. We were given a run down of how to fly the F-16 USAF fighter jets ad then we were allowed to roam around a computer generated archipelago of islands and cities. After a certain amount of practice we were given 700 bullets in our guns and told to try and kill each other.

James B

Astronaut Training

We just did the scuba diving this afternoon and it was an incredible experience and I found it extremely enjoyable. I look forward to scuba diving in the future.

Zahir

I had the coveted job of watching the other scuba divers. It looked really good, but snorkelling, which I did as an alternative, was great after a day in the sweltering sun. 

Matt

I was shocked when I received a sharp ear pain in my left ear, at around 4 metres deep, and had to rise. However, the instructors kindly taught me how to push out the pressure by blowing through my nose, allowing me to fully enjoy the whole experience.

Binu

Scuba diving was a great experience - definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Rohan

Scuba diving was a lot of fun, my personal highlight being able to throw a bowling ball in a hoop, or at least trying to attempt it. Throwing toy torpedos at each other was also very fun. By the time we got down, time went very fast and it felt like we went up as soon as we had gone down! 

James M

We did scuba diving today and it was great. I played basketball with a bowling ball and got my new record for keepy uppies 12ft underwater - it was an amazing experience and a highlight of the trip.

-Aamaan

 

Wednesday at Space Camp

This morning we had to finally test our "rockets" that we have made over the course of about 3-4 hours. Unfortunately none of them flew the right way, as all groups' rockets flew backwards. We learnt that we cannot build rockets well- but it was enjoyable.

Oliver

In team Acidalia, we took the bus again to Area 51, where we went on the zip line. After kitting up in our harnesses and helmets, we endured the heat and climbed what seemed like an infinitely tall tower. From the top, we flew back and forth, demonstrating our moves to the trainers below us.

Dan R

This morning was the zip line, the taut rope the only thing separating us from life and death. I'm not one for heights, and after giving up originally, shut my eyes the whole time whilst climbing the equivalent of a 600 gummy bear-tall ladder, or so I was told. It was terrifying. Then, with sweat pouring from the hot Alabama sun, I reached the top. The zip wire was the easy part, sit down and launch! For sure one of the most exhilarating things I have done.

Jonathan  

Space Camp Activities

Today we went to Area 51 where we did the zip line and we had to climb up to the zip line which was 25m high. That was really fun and we're going to continue to do our mission in the space shuttle around the earth and we are going to continue to build our rockets.

Akshaaye

Yesterday we had mission training, where Olly and I completed an EVA. Despite failing in the real mission, we had a lot of fun, and the shuttle made it safely back.

Shubhank 

On Tuesday I had the job of being PayCom and I was entrusted with monitoring the ISS. All was smooth sailing until a fire started on the ISS and I spent 10 minutes looking through the operations manual for a solution while it burnt. Only then did I realise that I was looking through the wrong book but by that time everyone on the ISS had died, but then they came back to life and we managed to put out the fire. Next time I'm going to be pilot. What could go wrong?

Josh 

Today we have completed our second mission training session, in preparation for the mission later today. As CAPCOM, my job is to communicate between mission control and the space shuttle, a difficult task, due to the multiple simultaneous conversations! It has been very enjoyable so far. 

Jonathan

Yesterday we had our first mission training and I was a flight engineer on the ISS. It was a really cool experience and I look forward to the next 2 missions and the other activities to come.

Zahir

On Tuesday, we all died due to an administration error from mission control, which led to the ISS burning up in the atmosphere. Looking forward to the next mission, where I have the chance to get my own back. Fun times!

James P

As a final activity yesterday we went in the 1/6G chair to simulate gravity on the moon. It was surprising how little energy was required to achieve such heights. Following on today we are embarking on our second mission.

Will

Arriving at Space Camp

Today we went to "Area 51" where we did various low rope activities which were really fun. We had to work as a team in order to achieve the different tasks, and we learnt a lot. We then went on a G force accelerator simulation which was an amazing experience.

Aamaan

In the morning we trained for our upcoming low earth orbit mission in the Orbiter space shuttle and international space station, cooperating with a team of eight in mission control. In mission control we practised finding solutions to anomalies, while the orbiter team flew the shuttle to a safe landing.

Dan R

Continuing from Dan, James B and I were piloting the shuttle in which we had to learn the places of the buttons and how to deal with anomalies. I was very lucky since I was commander and I was able to land the shuttle back down on Earth. At times it was stressful, but the first mission was very beneficial.

Israfeel

With Team Eunostos, Josh, Matt and I went on the rides, such as the G Force Accelerator and Space Shot. We all had great fun, especially as we watched Matt scream as we went high into the air. The G Force Accelerator was a new experience for all 3 of us, as we were unable to move due to the pressure.

Binu 

We completed our first mission, where I was situated in the ISS station, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience, from completing scientific experiments to piloting a space shuttle. Looking forward to completing the other two!

James M

Arriving in Huntsville II Saturday 15th July 2017

The journey was amazing, well at least most of it. Unfortunately we didn't have direct flights this time. The main flight was a mix of lovely food, movies, and card and pool games. I, personally, was surprised by the fact that a 1 hour flight to Paris had inflight entertainment. Time seemed to fly by. Then we came to the US customs. A boring 3 hour queue for those with foreign passports. The 2 with US passports were able to get swiftly through in 15 minutes. Talk about being jealous! All in all the journey was good but now I have learnt to go to the loo before entering the customs queue.
Varun

   
The part that I most enjoyed at Burritt on the Mountain was learning about the struggles of the civil war from the blacksmith and the importance of iron in the 1800s. The Cathedral Caverns were amazing, the structures of stalagmites and stalactites littered the ceiling and the floor, creating beautiful columns, the biggest being 44 feet high and 26 feet wide, the cave's founder calling it Goliath.

Dan J

As we entered the heaven on Earth, also known as 88 Buffet, our nostrils were invigorated by all kinds of oriental aromas, from frog legs to exotic pizza and chips, from squid to sausages, as well as at least 20 different types of chicken. The way our tastebuds were scintillated was truly magical. 

Matt & Josh

On Saturday we went to the Caverns, which was alright. At the end of the tour, the guide turned out the light and we apparently saw some glow worms. I say apparently because we saw a green light that was shining on the rocks. The guide merely said it was a 'figment of my imagination'. If my parents are reading this, I'm fine, for now.

Shri

Yesterday, the day that we found reasonably good food at the 88 buffet for the first time in America. All of the seafood was amazing because there actually was a variety of food. The best part of yesterday was the caves because every 5 minutes, we decided to take silhouettes and took some great pictures.

Pranav

On Saturday we went around a lot of typically American places, including the Cathedral Caverns, a mall, and Porky's diner. There, we ate some delicious food including some pulled pork sandwiches and cheeseburgers. These were delicious!

James P