Good morning New Zealand,
Another perfect day here, same as yesterday ... big blue sky, not a cloud
all day, and no wind at all. We are all starting to feel more acclimatised
and sleeping better, although with the kids on the go from 6.30am to
10.30pm I can't say they actually looked full of vim and vigour at
breakfast.
Some observations from yesterday:
Emma's team congratulated her on making a perfect shuttle landing, but she
then revealed she had accidentally had it on autopilot.
We saw one team as they came out of Charlie mission at 10.10pm and their
councilor was loudly celebrating Tara's piloting skills ... the best
landing in the team so far.
Stephen commented that it was very hot in the space suit for the EVA, but
you do get an ice pack to wear on your chest. ... very chuffed with his
efforts in the suit fixing the satellite too.
Yin Zhou and Paulina were together as pilot and commander on their
mission, with Paulina struggling to cope with her more dominant partner
... it's all about teamwork guys!
Alex N was excited about being at mission control and thought it very cool
to be singing "Ground control to major Tom" ... not sure that this was any
help to the shuttle crew.
Cameron, Jasmine, Laura, Alex N and Gareth did their scuba, and I even saw
Cameron smiling with excitement and anticipation as he was getting his
dive tank on in the water. Laura was disappointed that her ears did not
clear and she couldn't get down to the bottom with the others.
Ben, Alex C and James dived in the second group and had loads of time at
the bottom. They built a pyramid structure, played with the 45kg ball and
spun a bowling ball on their heads ... amongst other things. One time that
you would really rather be a participant than an observer.
The diving instructors are all volunteers from the Huntsville community,
who support this programme for kids. The team in the pool last night were
software engineers with some of the local high tech companies. There were
up to 6 people helping with each dive session. Maybe the kids could write
some thank you messages when they get back to NZ.
Alex C said they'd had the best lecture so far ... Micro gravity DNA. Not
exactly sure what they covered, but he was very pleased to have had
clearly explained what an allele is. Ben agreed, this was a very good
lecture.
Meanwhile we teachers had a very pleasant, low key day in Huntsville ... a
spotlessly clean city centre, with no one and no shops in it! Beautiful
blossom trees, magnolias beginning to flower and a lovely park surrounding
the spring where the first setter, John Hunt, built his cabin in 1805, to
start the settlement of Huntsville.
One observation I will make, that maybe the kids won't pick up on, is that
you can appreciate what is meant when people talk about a
military-industrial complex influencing and driving American economic and
political life. In the army rocket section of the space museum here, the
following companies have displays:
General Dynamics ... Hydra air to ground anti-personnel rocket
Lockheed-Martin ... Hellfire helicopter launched anti-armour missile
Raytheon ... TOW infantry held anti-tank missile
? ... Patriot anti-ballistic missile missile!
Boeing ... ballistic missile defense systems
BAE Systems .... APKWS ie Advanced Precision Kill Weapons Systems, air
to ground rockets for soft armour targets
And when you walk around Huntsville who do you see sponsoring the art
gallery, museum, arts centre, space and rocket museum?
Lots more good stuff on today,
Cheers
David
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Greetings from Alabama,
We arise to a beautiful spring day, cool but still and sunny, with the
prospect of significant warmth. Although there are lots of fun times for
the kids here (James Alderston is having a ball! "Can I come back in 2012
sir?") there are difficult aspects too.
The major problem for many is the lack of sleep and general tiredness. On
the first night in the habitat the girls had to contend with arctic air
conditioning and shivered through the night, Laura V wished she had
brought her thermals. They changed the air con for them last night and
they were warmer but Dave M and I now received the cold. I had to put my
socks and jumper on at 1am. Regardless of the temperature in the habitat
some of the group just have difficulty sleeping anyway ... general time
zone problem. Alex N had his head on the table at breakfast and Laura M
has just gone back 'for a nap' after breakfast.
Being in the habitat is intended to be like being on a space station, and
it certainly feels that way at times. No windows, a functional metallic
feel to stairways and halls, a general background rumble of hidden
machinery, interspersed by the arrival and departure of hundreds of kids.
Another problem that we tried to for-warn them about is the military style
organisation of the whole place ... something that Ben and Alex C have
found a little frustrating. At the low ropes course for example, they put
the planks back 30cm away from the required position and were reprimanded
for this. They cannot go anywhere unsupervised, and as Ben said, there is
a lot of waiting time. We pointed out that this is the nature of such a
structure environment and that space exploration requires an great deal of
patience and control. Astronauts train for 2 years for a 10 day mission.
As an aside I was talking to one of the employees here and she commented
that although she had great respect for the office of the commander in
chief (I wondered wher she was going here) she just couldn't respect
Barrack Obama. She told her husband that he should not have voted for him,
and apparently he replied. "You're right honey, I wish I hadn't". It's not
just our kids that have trouble being in a 'military' system.
But there are plenty of highs, and Jonathan and Adam were buzzing at
10.10pm last night when I met them cleaning their teeth. They had been in
the F 18 flight simulators down at the Aviation Challenge site. Here they
have about a dozen full sized cockpit simulators so pilots can fly sorties
and have aerial combat ... Adam reckoned he'd shot Jono! While the pilots
did that from Von T, Stephen did his scuba dive, which was totally
awesome. He got down to the bottom of the 7m tank, did some construction
work, played with an underwater basketball and more!
Ben rates the highlight so far, as being on the shuttle robotic arm as
mission specialist. James and Stephen have also raved about this. If you
get the chance to see "The Dream is Alive", a short film about one of the
first shuttle missions you will get an idea of what they are training to
do in their EDM (Extended Duration Mission) ... I'm pretty sure we have it
in the school library if anyone wants to get it out ... ask Bob Tuaine to
get it out for you. They have to fly the shuttle into space, catch a
satellite and fix it on a space walk, then land safely. Apparently Gareth
and Tim Z have landed the shuttle well, while Jasmine did some kind of
loop and nose dived into the ground!
Another great activity I watched yesterday was the ablative shield
challenge. Here they were given a selection of different materials and
asked to create a heat shield that would protect an egg from a blow torch
at a distance of 2cm. Sam, Caitlin and Yin Zhou had a very serious
discussion about what would be the best materials, and how to use their
'budget' most effectively. They settled on aluminium foil over several
layers of cork, bonded with an American polyfiller called 'Speckle'....
and it worked! After 3 minutes of flaming the egg was unscathed, much to
their satisfaction. Paulina, Bojana and Tara were doing the same thing and
also succeeded, although they were so tired at 7pm they couldn't tell me
what theirs was made of. Paulina was trying to rest her head on the others
shoulders while standing up. Meanwhile the big harvest moon was rising
over the Alabama trees ... beautiful.
Well, we teachers are off into Huntsville today, while the kids carry on
with their intensive programme. Will be back to see more of them scuba
this evening.
All the best,
David
We arise to a beautiful spring day, cool but still and sunny, with the
prospect of significant warmth. Although there are lots of fun times for
the kids here (James Alderston is having a ball! "Can I come back in 2012
sir?") there are difficult aspects too.
The major problem for many is the lack of sleep and general tiredness. On
the first night in the habitat the girls had to contend with arctic air
conditioning and shivered through the night, Laura V wished she had
brought her thermals. They changed the air con for them last night and
they were warmer but Dave M and I now received the cold. I had to put my
socks and jumper on at 1am. Regardless of the temperature in the habitat
some of the group just have difficulty sleeping anyway ... general time
zone problem. Alex N had his head on the table at breakfast and Laura M
has just gone back 'for a nap' after breakfast.
Being in the habitat is intended to be like being on a space station, and
it certainly feels that way at times. No windows, a functional metallic
feel to stairways and halls, a general background rumble of hidden
machinery, interspersed by the arrival and departure of hundreds of kids.
Another problem that we tried to for-warn them about is the military style
organisation of the whole place ... something that Ben and Alex C have
found a little frustrating. At the low ropes course for example, they put
the planks back 30cm away from the required position and were reprimanded
for this. They cannot go anywhere unsupervised, and as Ben said, there is
a lot of waiting time. We pointed out that this is the nature of such a
structure environment and that space exploration requires an great deal of
patience and control. Astronauts train for 2 years for a 10 day mission.
As an aside I was talking to one of the employees here and she commented
that although she had great respect for the office of the commander in
chief (I wondered wher she was going here) she just couldn't respect
Barrack Obama. She told her husband that he should not have voted for him,
and apparently he replied. "You're right honey, I wish I hadn't". It's not
just our kids that have trouble being in a 'military' system.
But there are plenty of highs, and Jonathan and Adam were buzzing at
10.10pm last night when I met them cleaning their teeth. They had been in
the F 18 flight simulators down at the Aviation Challenge site. Here they
have about a dozen full sized cockpit simulators so pilots can fly sorties
and have aerial combat ... Adam reckoned he'd shot Jono! While the pilots
did that from Von T, Stephen did his scuba dive, which was totally
awesome. He got down to the bottom of the 7m tank, did some construction
work, played with an underwater basketball and more!
Ben rates the highlight so far, as being on the shuttle robotic arm as
mission specialist. James and Stephen have also raved about this. If you
get the chance to see "The Dream is Alive", a short film about one of the
first shuttle missions you will get an idea of what they are training to
do in their EDM (Extended Duration Mission) ... I'm pretty sure we have it
in the school library if anyone wants to get it out ... ask Bob Tuaine to
get it out for you. They have to fly the shuttle into space, catch a
satellite and fix it on a space walk, then land safely. Apparently Gareth
and Tim Z have landed the shuttle well, while Jasmine did some kind of
loop and nose dived into the ground!
Another great activity I watched yesterday was the ablative shield
challenge. Here they were given a selection of different materials and
asked to create a heat shield that would protect an egg from a blow torch
at a distance of 2cm. Sam, Caitlin and Yin Zhou had a very serious
discussion about what would be the best materials, and how to use their
'budget' most effectively. They settled on aluminium foil over several
layers of cork, bonded with an American polyfiller called 'Speckle'....
and it worked! After 3 minutes of flaming the egg was unscathed, much to
their satisfaction. Paulina, Bojana and Tara were doing the same thing and
also succeeded, although they were so tired at 7pm they couldn't tell me
what theirs was made of. Paulina was trying to rest her head on the others
shoulders while standing up. Meanwhile the big harvest moon was rising
over the Alabama trees ... beautiful.
Well, we teachers are off into Huntsville today, while the kids carry on
with their intensive programme. Will be back to see more of them scuba
this evening.
All the best,
David
Monday, March 29, 2010
First day at camp
Hello again everyone,
We are now into the routine of Space Camp proper, and the kids are well
into their activities. We teachers have woken up feeling much better after
being sort of groggy yesterday. Crisp, cool morning here with blue skies,
but still that cold wind. Locals say that spring is very late this year ..
they had a light snow fall last Monday, and the leaves are usually all out
by this time in March. Set to warm up over the next few days though.
So the the teams are: ... team names come from the German rocket
scientists who were brought here after WW2. Holderer and Von T are still
alive, and von T is scheduled to give the kids a talk later in the week.
Holderer:
James, Alex c, Ben, Gareth, Alex N, Jasmine, Cameron, Laura, Tim Z
Von Braun: Caitlin, Sam, Ashliegh, Yin Zhou, Bojana, Paulina, Tara ...
plus Pamela from Virginia, Montse from Alabama, Dagny from Indianapolis,
Patrick from Birmingham Al.
Von Tiesenhausen:
Stephen, Emma, Tim O, Adam, Jonathan .. plus RJ from Indianapolis, Bekka
from Masscchusetts, Verhelst from Huntsville, Daniel from Nth Carolina,
Clay from Indianapolis, Alyssa from Florida, Jill from Indianapolis.
They all seem to be getting on really well and integrating the new people
into their various groups. Last night I saw them begin the rocket making
task. In groups of three or four they have to design a two stage rocket to
carry an egg into 'space' but with a limited budget for materials. They
were all busy making sketches and as James said, 'its like an egg drop on
steroids!'
Here is the day one programme for Hoderer:
6.30 am Wake up
7.00 Breakfast ... scrambled eggs, potato tots, scone, cereal, orange
juice, banana
7.30 Engineering challenge ... rockets 2
9.00 Alpha mission training ... learning to use the shuttle simulators
10.30 Low ropes course
12.00 PPP/patch ... no idea what this is!
12.30 lunch
1.00pm Flight suits ... get fitted with their blue suits
1.30 Official space camp photo
2.00 Engineering challenge, ablative shielding
3.30 Lecture .. Orbiter systems
4.30 Museum mission to Mars simulator ride
5.00 Dinner ... last night was hamburger, salad, ice cream, sticky
chocolate cake, crackers, apple
5.30 Bravo mission training ... 2nd shuttle sim session
7.00 Charlie mission training
8.30 Delta mission training
10.00 prep for bed
10.30 lights out .... knackered!
So you can see there is plenty going on. Von T do Scuba at 5pm today, and
they all rotate through all the activities.
We went down to see the low ropes course this morning ... at 7.30am! with
von B, and they really do it well. They have a series of team building,
problem solving challenges ... like getting the whole group from one
'island' to another with only 2 short planks. For each activity the
instructor selects a leader (we saw Tara as leader today), and sends the
others away while she is given the task. Then she has to lead the team
through the challenge. Afterwards they have a proper de-brief and discuss
how the group and leader performed. Tara and her group did really well,
all working very cooperatively and supporting each other.
Later this morning we saw Cameron and Gareth getting instructions in the
shuttle cockpit on their roles as pilot and commander. Once again
excellent camp councilors, explaining well all they had to learn ... when
to hit which switch, when to call mission control, what do do at different
altitudes etc.
I am trying to set up the trip to the shuttle launch in Florida, and our
mini bus operator says she can get us there, so I will be using the
contingency money to pay for this ... if that is ok with parents? Will let
you know the exact cost as soon as I am able. I will contact Disney and
see if we can rearrange our YES programme on that morning, but we may just
have to lose it. The kids seem very enthusiastic about the possibility of
seeing a launch.
That's all for now, we teachers feel rather redundant, but its great to
see the kids getting right into it.
Cheers
David
We are now into the routine of Space Camp proper, and the kids are well
into their activities. We teachers have woken up feeling much better after
being sort of groggy yesterday. Crisp, cool morning here with blue skies,
but still that cold wind. Locals say that spring is very late this year ..
they had a light snow fall last Monday, and the leaves are usually all out
by this time in March. Set to warm up over the next few days though.
So the the teams are: ... team names come from the German rocket
scientists who were brought here after WW2. Holderer and Von T are still
alive, and von T is scheduled to give the kids a talk later in the week.
Holderer:
James, Alex c, Ben, Gareth, Alex N, Jasmine, Cameron, Laura, Tim Z
Von Braun: Caitlin, Sam, Ashliegh, Yin Zhou, Bojana, Paulina, Tara ...
plus Pamela from Virginia, Montse from Alabama, Dagny from Indianapolis,
Patrick from Birmingham Al.
Von Tiesenhausen:
Stephen, Emma, Tim O, Adam, Jonathan .. plus RJ from Indianapolis, Bekka
from Masscchusetts, Verhelst from Huntsville, Daniel from Nth Carolina,
Clay from Indianapolis, Alyssa from Florida, Jill from Indianapolis.
They all seem to be getting on really well and integrating the new people
into their various groups. Last night I saw them begin the rocket making
task. In groups of three or four they have to design a two stage rocket to
carry an egg into 'space' but with a limited budget for materials. They
were all busy making sketches and as James said, 'its like an egg drop on
steroids!'
Here is the day one programme for Hoderer:
6.30 am Wake up
7.00 Breakfast ... scrambled eggs, potato tots, scone, cereal, orange
juice, banana
7.30 Engineering challenge ... rockets 2
9.00 Alpha mission training ... learning to use the shuttle simulators
10.30 Low ropes course
12.00 PPP/patch ... no idea what this is!
12.30 lunch
1.00pm Flight suits ... get fitted with their blue suits
1.30 Official space camp photo
2.00 Engineering challenge, ablative shielding
3.30 Lecture .. Orbiter systems
4.30 Museum mission to Mars simulator ride
5.00 Dinner ... last night was hamburger, salad, ice cream, sticky
chocolate cake, crackers, apple
5.30 Bravo mission training ... 2nd shuttle sim session
7.00 Charlie mission training
8.30 Delta mission training
10.00 prep for bed
10.30 lights out .... knackered!
So you can see there is plenty going on. Von T do Scuba at 5pm today, and
they all rotate through all the activities.
We went down to see the low ropes course this morning ... at 7.30am! with
von B, and they really do it well. They have a series of team building,
problem solving challenges ... like getting the whole group from one
'island' to another with only 2 short planks. For each activity the
instructor selects a leader (we saw Tara as leader today), and sends the
others away while she is given the task. Then she has to lead the team
through the challenge. Afterwards they have a proper de-brief and discuss
how the group and leader performed. Tara and her group did really well,
all working very cooperatively and supporting each other.
Later this morning we saw Cameron and Gareth getting instructions in the
shuttle cockpit on their roles as pilot and commander. Once again
excellent camp councilors, explaining well all they had to learn ... when
to hit which switch, when to call mission control, what do do at different
altitudes etc.
I am trying to set up the trip to the shuttle launch in Florida, and our
mini bus operator says she can get us there, so I will be using the
contingency money to pay for this ... if that is ok with parents? Will let
you know the exact cost as soon as I am able. I will contact Disney and
see if we can rearrange our YES programme on that morning, but we may just
have to lose it. The kids seem very enthusiastic about the possibility of
seeing a launch.
That's all for now, we teachers feel rather redundant, but its great to
see the kids getting right into it.
Cheers
David
Hello again Space Camp families,
Well, we are now safely at the Space Camp, and very relieved to get here too!
The stop-over in LA was just right, with most people getting a good nights
sleep. The beautiful beach and outdoor shopping mall were a gentle
introduction to America, but the number of people sleeping on the streets
and parks were a bit of a shock. On our bike ride we saw many tramps with
pretty major temporary shacks, obviously tolerated by the police. And in a
5 minute walk from the hostel I saw at least 6 homeless people on the
Saturday morning.
The flight to Chicago was good, with great views of the snow capped San
Berdino mountains just out of LA, then over the desert for an hour, across
the Rockies all in view before the great plains became cloud covered. I
was seated next to an engineer on his way to install a giant lettuce
washing and plastic packaging machine. He was an Obama supporter and
approved of the health care reform. I discovered that US hospitals will
treat anyone who turns up, one of the reasons health care insurance is so
high ... costs are just passed onto those who can pay.
A brisk walk between terminals in Chicago saw us with only half an hour to
wait for the flight to Huntsville. We were all impressed with the full
sized apatosaurus skeleton in terminal B. A pencil thin plane to take us
south, three seats across and duck down the aisle if you are tall.
Tremendous view of downtown Chicago this time, with the Sears Tower and
Lake below. Then over the sprawling city, kids getting an appreciation of
what these mega cities really look like. Lots of photos taken on that
part.
It was lovely to sit next to Jasmine on this flight and share her
enthusiasm for the trip. She claims to have enjoyed every minute of the 12
hour flight to LA, and loves turbulence! We watched the grid pattern of
farms pass underneath and then as darkness fell we descended into
Huntsville. I had to give Tim O a good shake so he could wake up and see
the lights of Huntsville ... quite a sight, as it sprawls over a large
area.
Huntsville airport has had a big upgrade and looks very flash ...
obviously doing well from the years of war. The adverts in the terminal
are unlike any others we have seen. "When you went into combat, we were
with you" Selling military support systems, weapons systems and more. The
main ads in other airports are for cars and mobile communication
gear/providers.
It was wonderful to see the Space Camp people there to meet us. The only
negative so far has been the progressive damage to Alex C's suitcase,
which is now firmly held together with duct tape. Off on the Space Camp
bus to the camp, with little Alex N completely hidden behind his massive
suitcase on the seat beside him. Still an amazing sight to see the big
Saturn V lit up at night as we drove into the camp. The kids were given a
sandwich and drink and bundled off to bed in temporary accommodation for
the night ... will be moving into the bunk room for the week today.
Today, Sunday morning they have been shown around all the facilities while
they wait for the programme proper to start at 2.30. They are a great
group and have been taking loads of pictures of all the rockets and space
museum artifacts. Many are really excited and impressed to see all this
stuff, even though the tiredness and time zone changes are starting to
kick in. They even went on the 3G spinner and gave the operator a big
round of applause at the end ... I sat that one out!
So they are ready to become astronauts ... been put into 3 different
groups, and have already met a girl from Peurto Rico and a boy from
Belgium who will be with them. Weather is sunny with showers, cold wind,
and there are one or two squirrels about.
Thanks for the greetings from NZ, I will pass them onto the kids. One
thing different about this trip is the number of mobile phones and other
electronic devices the children have .. even compared to 2 years ago, so I
assume many have contacted you.
All the best
David
Well, we are now safely at the Space Camp, and very relieved to get here too!
The stop-over in LA was just right, with most people getting a good nights
sleep. The beautiful beach and outdoor shopping mall were a gentle
introduction to America, but the number of people sleeping on the streets
and parks were a bit of a shock. On our bike ride we saw many tramps with
pretty major temporary shacks, obviously tolerated by the police. And in a
5 minute walk from the hostel I saw at least 6 homeless people on the
Saturday morning.
The flight to Chicago was good, with great views of the snow capped San
Berdino mountains just out of LA, then over the desert for an hour, across
the Rockies all in view before the great plains became cloud covered. I
was seated next to an engineer on his way to install a giant lettuce
washing and plastic packaging machine. He was an Obama supporter and
approved of the health care reform. I discovered that US hospitals will
treat anyone who turns up, one of the reasons health care insurance is so
high ... costs are just passed onto those who can pay.
A brisk walk between terminals in Chicago saw us with only half an hour to
wait for the flight to Huntsville. We were all impressed with the full
sized apatosaurus skeleton in terminal B. A pencil thin plane to take us
south, three seats across and duck down the aisle if you are tall.
Tremendous view of downtown Chicago this time, with the Sears Tower and
Lake below. Then over the sprawling city, kids getting an appreciation of
what these mega cities really look like. Lots of photos taken on that
part.
It was lovely to sit next to Jasmine on this flight and share her
enthusiasm for the trip. She claims to have enjoyed every minute of the 12
hour flight to LA, and loves turbulence! We watched the grid pattern of
farms pass underneath and then as darkness fell we descended into
Huntsville. I had to give Tim O a good shake so he could wake up and see
the lights of Huntsville ... quite a sight, as it sprawls over a large
area.
Huntsville airport has had a big upgrade and looks very flash ...
obviously doing well from the years of war. The adverts in the terminal
are unlike any others we have seen. "When you went into combat, we were
with you" Selling military support systems, weapons systems and more. The
main ads in other airports are for cars and mobile communication
gear/providers.
It was wonderful to see the Space Camp people there to meet us. The only
negative so far has been the progressive damage to Alex C's suitcase,
which is now firmly held together with duct tape. Off on the Space Camp
bus to the camp, with little Alex N completely hidden behind his massive
suitcase on the seat beside him. Still an amazing sight to see the big
Saturn V lit up at night as we drove into the camp. The kids were given a
sandwich and drink and bundled off to bed in temporary accommodation for
the night ... will be moving into the bunk room for the week today.
Today, Sunday morning they have been shown around all the facilities while
they wait for the programme proper to start at 2.30. They are a great
group and have been taking loads of pictures of all the rockets and space
museum artifacts. Many are really excited and impressed to see all this
stuff, even though the tiredness and time zone changes are starting to
kick in. They even went on the 3G spinner and gave the operator a big
round of applause at the end ... I sat that one out!
So they are ready to become astronauts ... been put into 3 different
groups, and have already met a girl from Peurto Rico and a boy from
Belgium who will be with them. Weather is sunny with showers, cold wind,
and there are one or two squirrels about.
Thanks for the greetings from NZ, I will pass them onto the kids. One
thing different about this trip is the number of mobile phones and other
electronic devices the children have .. even compared to 2 years ago, so I
assume many have contacted you.
All the best
David
Los Angeles
Greetings from LA ... To all Space Camp families,
We have safely arrived in Santa Monica with no problems. Weather is a
balmy 17 degrees with clear blue skies. The majority of the group hired
bikes for an hour and rode down the concrete cycle way by the beach.
Lovely laid back atmosphere, with people out biking, roller blading,
walking, running etc. Also beach volleyball, open air handball courts,
skate park and more.
We walked out onto the Santa Monica pier, took in the sights, watched the
break dancers and generally enjoyed being in the fresh air ... not on a
plane for 12 hours. The group was somewhat scattered on the jumbo, but
with some seat swopping everyone had a friend nearby.
I sat next to a group of American TV hunters. They had just been filming a
show about hunting in NZ and had shot loads of deer and wallabies. They
did not consider Mr Obama to be any good for the US!
Some of the children have already relieved themselves of considerable cash
in the Santa Monica shops ... might be a good job they are locked up in
the Space Camp from tomorrow!
Best wishes,
David
--
David Paterson
Head of Science Faculty
Cashmere High School
Rose St, Christchurch
"The Earth itself is a spacecraft. It's an odd kind of spacecraft, since
it carries its crew on the outside instead of the inside.
If you're going to run a spaceship. you've got to be pretty cautious about
how you use your resources, how you use your crew, and how you treat your
spacecraft."
Neil Armstrong
We have safely arrived in Santa Monica with no problems. Weather is a
balmy 17 degrees with clear blue skies. The majority of the group hired
bikes for an hour and rode down the concrete cycle way by the beach.
Lovely laid back atmosphere, with people out biking, roller blading,
walking, running etc. Also beach volleyball, open air handball courts,
skate park and more.
We walked out onto the Santa Monica pier, took in the sights, watched the
break dancers and generally enjoyed being in the fresh air ... not on a
plane for 12 hours. The group was somewhat scattered on the jumbo, but
with some seat swopping everyone had a friend nearby.
I sat next to a group of American TV hunters. They had just been filming a
show about hunting in NZ and had shot loads of deer and wallabies. They
did not consider Mr Obama to be any good for the US!
Some of the children have already relieved themselves of considerable cash
in the Santa Monica shops ... might be a good job they are locked up in
the Space Camp from tomorrow!
Best wishes,
David
--
David Paterson
Head of Science Faculty
Cashmere High School
Rose St, Christchurch
"The Earth itself is a spacecraft. It's an odd kind of spacecraft, since
it carries its crew on the outside instead of the inside.
If you're going to run a spaceship. you've got to be pretty cautious about
how you use your resources, how you use your crew, and how you treat your
spacecraft."
Neil Armstrong
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