This email won’t make much sense if you haven’t read the first part. It contains helpful information like:
- Why was JJW in the USA?
- What is Space School?
- How good is the CADRE mission?*
All the answers are in Part 1 so go back and have a read, I’ll wait.
In the meantime, here is a picture of me and fellow mentor Tori standing in front of the replica space shuttle Independence which is mounted on NASA 905 out the front of the Johnson Space Center. You can read more about it here (obviously after you’ve finished reading part 1).
Now that you’re caught up, here are the highlights from the rest of my trip.
Houston Museum of Natural Science
The Expedition Center is one of the coolest things the students get to do. We split them into two teams: one is mission control and the other is the crew in a module and they have to overcome a challenge and collaboratively problem solve to ensure mission success.
Because one of the students had been interning at the HMNS, we got a sneak peak at their little projector dome where we zoomed around the earth, the solar system, and eventually the observable universe. Then we let them roam free around the Museum. Joest and I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at the Herzstein Foucault Pendulum waiting for it to knock over a wooden peg. Phwoar the wait was worth it. They also had a lot of cool fossils, dinosaurs, and an interesting section on human evolution.
Artemis Mission
Did you know humans are going back to the Moon?
Alongside the robot missions I wrote about last time, actual humans are going back to the gosh darn Moon by the end of the decade!
NASA’s Katie Spicer gave us an overview of Artemis, the incredibly ambitious and amazingly massive mission that will take humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972, establish a human presence on the lunar surface, and be the stepping stone for missions to Mars!
Artemis is led by NASA with the Canadian, European, Japanese, Australian, and other space agencies, countries, and private companies involved, building whole new launch systems, landers, space suits, rovers, everything you need to survive and thrive on the Moon.
A key part of Artemis is building a space station orbiting the Moon. The aptly named Gateway station will make it so much easier for astronauts to get down and back from the lunar surface and allow for much more detailed surveys of the moon and heaps of cool science to take place.
For Greek mythology buffs, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and God of the Moon, a much more fitting mission name than the OG!
Honestly, Katie was awesome and I could rave on about how fuckin’ cool it is that within the next couple of year humans will be back on the Moon. But let’s move on.
Final presentation
The second week of Space School is always interesting. We give them a lot more time in class to work on their mission and, as the clock counts down, tensions always accrue in the teams and between the teams. This year was no different when a certain team (who will remain nameless) realised they may have done a boo boo with their calculations, causing ripples of unrest among the other teams.
Credit to the students: they (eventually) found a resolution (after a polite shouty reminder from Ol’ Man Wood here) that worked within the agreed mission parameters.
The Green Team worked really bloody well together and I am very proud of them. They asked such fantastic questions, made sure everyone was included, and the level of actual collaboration was impressive.
We decided to build the habitat on Mars with a specialised geodesic dome which had some nifty features for ensuring the crew had enough space to do their work and allow for private time. The food solution was also very cool, growing algae to supplement dehydrated rations. Water, O2, and other life support systems all worked well to sustain the crew and keep them fit and healthy physically and mentally.
All that came across in the final presentation where people who work for NASA and in the space industry grill the students about their mission. I’m very proud to say that the Green Team’s methodology stood up to this inquisition (even when I was feeding very hard questions to the panel).
At the graduation ceremony, I got to make a little speech welcoming the students to the Alumni Association. Here is what I said:
Kia ora koutou katoa, whānau
Which means hello to you all my family in Te Reo Māori, the language of Aotearoa New Zealand.
I’d also like to say miri ngam, marnin? Wominjeka Wominjeka Wominjeka. Which means how are you all and welcome welcome welcome in Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, the language of the people on the land I now live in Melbourne, Australia.
I’m JJW class of 2002, and on behalf of FISE, we’d like to welcome all you students to the Space School alumni network. You join the more than 1000 former Space School students across 30 years.
Space School left an indelible mark on this lil’ ol’ teenager from New Plymouth Boys’ High School way back in 2002. It opened my eyes to this huge world and my mind to all the possibilities therein.
I made lifelong friends all over the globe and a strong connection to the community here in Houston. And those connections have taken me everywhere, helped me find me jobs, couches to sleep on, and a network of the best and brightest minds I can ask (stupid) questions to.
And best of all, I can come back here occasionally and give back to the program which has given me so much and meet some of the smartest kids around and see old friends and make new ones.
Francesco and Glenn spoke about family before, so welcome to the family and look, I could ramble on for hours about how you should most definitely get involved, stay in touch, and give back… And please feel free to reach out if you do want to talk… but I’ll leave you with a saying which I think sums up what I want to say best:
He hono tangata e kore e motu, ka pa he taura waka e motu.
Unlike a canoe rope, a human bond cannot be severed.
Welcome welcome welcome and congratulations.
Road trip to Austin
Once the school had wrapped up, I grabbed a car and headed to Paige, Texas to stay in a dreamy little cabin in the woods. I was, for the first time in two and a half weeks, surrounded by nature, trees, critters, and horses.
It was so lovely to just relax for a day or two in the heat and have literally nothing to do except read and rest. I headed into Austin, which is a much nicer city than Houston. I did a tour of the Texas Capitol building, went to the Museum of Weird (not that weird), stocked up on snacks at Trader Joe’s (anyone who sends me Chile and Garlic Cashews is a hero), and got lunch with an old friend who is working on an interesting type of small scale safe nuclear backup energy solution for essential services.
I have two regrets: 1) not getting back to Houston to use my Q Card, whoops and 2) I could have spent more time in Austin. So much more cycling infrastructure, people out and about by the river, and good coffee. It had a great energy.
Next week I’ll return to some more unhinged ravings about how AI grifters are misappropriating the term “democratisation” to further their con that AI is useful. Spoilers: it’s neither democratic or useful.
Stay safe, stay sane
<3
JJW
