NASA Space Station

NASA

Space Centre

In December 2019, I had the privilege of accompanying 9 of our senior students to an exciting expedition to NASA, Houston, USA. This added further exposure and experience to the learning journeys of our students. The two-week long program was filled with adventurous discovery, development and of course, lots of hands on learning. In addition to lectures by scientists and astronauts, the students were exposed to numerous STEM focussed activities and concepts. It was a unique amalgamation of STEM, NASA history, problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork and fun!

Divya Mrock

Early December 2019 saw 8 Nodders, as well as students from Avila and Salesian, travel to the land of the free refills, the USA. More specifically Houston, Texas, the biggest city in the biggest state that has the biggest trucks, the biggest medical centre and most importantly the biggest rockets.

Students spent a week at the NASA Space Centre University conducting experiments and challenges that gave us an idea of the scientific development and research that went into constructing NASA technology. These included flying model rockets to research aerodynamics and designing and constructing protective material worn by astronauts meant to withstand the extreme conditions of space. Most interestingly was going scuba diving to simulate neutral buoyancy and seeing whether one could eat a chicken fried steak twice the size of their own head, an unofficial experiment but one of equal importance to the rest.

In between these activities, we toured the official NASA facilities in the Johnson Space Centre used by the professionals. We were shown the actual, working Mission Control centre where we were able to see a simulation mission being practiced and talk with employees about their involvement at NASA. This included the Neutral Buoyancy Lab which is essentially a massive pool that contains a 1:1 model of the International Space Station used by astronauts to simulate Extravehicular Activities (EVA) in microgravity. We also visited the Chris C. Kraft Mission Control Centre that will be used during the upcoming Artemis Program which will see the return of humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 and have the first female astronauts to walk on the Moon.

The trip provided so many new opportunities for learning and self-improvement, such as building social and teamwork skills. During the trip, we were divided into different teams and provided with different activities, such as building a rocket that could fly, building a heat and cryogenic shield as well as designing and creating a makeshift astronaut glove. By working in teams of four to five, we were able to develop our teamwork skills by collaborating and working together to compete against other teams. Another exciting activity we did was a simulated Space mission, with students as mission controllers and astronauts. Each group of three was assigned a specific role to fulfil in the mission, which put lots of responsibility on us to problem solve and communicate effectively under pressure, while also being a fun way to understand space missions better and get involved.

For the second week most of our activities were cultural experiences, such as visiting the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas. My favourite part of the second week was when we went to an NBA Basketball game one night, which was an incredible experience. We also visited the University of Houston and some historical houses belonging to some early settlers of Texas. Overall the trip was an incredible experience and I am glad I embarked upon it, it has inspired us all in our interests of space exploration.

Overall, the trip to NASA was an extraordinary experience so (Space-)Jam-packed with great moments that we could not possibly list them all here, However, a definite personal highlight was meeting two actual astronauts: Colonel Brian Duffy and Nicole Stott. They gave us a greater insight into humanity’s continued voyage into the final frontier, Per Aspera ad Astra.