U.S Cultural Night

Tomorrow starts the beginning of week 3 at ISU. Tonight I am review the past two weeks of lectures as we have a big exam at the end of the month. On Friday we had a Cultural Night were selected countries give a 15 minute presentation about where they are from and about the culture of their respective country.

On Friday, the following countries presented: Austria, Turkey, Ireland, and the United States. Our presentation went really well and we passed out some NASA pins and space-related souvenirs. We also had some audience participation in doing the YMCA and the hokey pokey. We showed some line-dancing, went over some movies, music, and pop culture..oh and of course..sports, where we also tied in cheerleading. :)

Best of all were the fireworks we were able to find here in Barcelona. The fireworks ended the night perfectly and let us celebrate a belated 4th of July the right way! Everyone enjoyed all of the presentations and we really look forward to the upcoming ones.

Week 2 at ISU

We have only started week 2 and there is just a vast amount of information coming through that I need to start reviewing and studying for. On July 28th, we have a 4-hour exam that will cover all of the lectures and workshops we have been attending.

This week we are covering topics related to space telecommunications, the evolution of certain space activities, international space exploration, space life sciences, and satellite communication systems and regulations. (...and this is just to name a few of the lectures!!!) We also had a tutorial in a great software program called Satellite Tool Kit (STK). I used it before when I was in college, but it was good to revisit the program and understand the orbits once again.

Today we were assigned our team project. The students have been divided into three teams based on their top two choices of team project topics. The choices were Lunar X-Prize, Spaceports, and Volcanos. We found out our team assignments today and I am in Spaceports (which was my first choice). Now this is going to be what I will be focusing on during the entire month of August.

Specifically with the spaceports topic, we will generating a report that will propose viable models of commercial spaceports for space tourism. However, we need to get down to the details which will have to include international/national laws and regulations, economic benefit for the region, set requirements for air traffic zones, propellant storage, economic impact on the community, runway requirements for vehicles to be operated out of the spaceport...and the list goes on and on and on...

There are a total of 39 people in the group that will be compiling this report. We have been participating in some teamwork building skills and lectures and it has only really made me realize that this is going to be a big challenge for everyone. We all come from different backgrounds and have and different skill levels, but most importantly, a lot of the students here have had or are used to leadership positions. It will be a challenge for many to cooperate and work together with such a large group. Regardless, we are all excited about the topic and tomorrow is our first meeting as a group to start things off.

This Friday the students from the United States will be giving a 15 minute presentation at Cultural Night. We meet tomorrow to discuss what we're going to present. We were going to throw fireworks on July 4th, but it was really light outside before we all headed out to the Hard Rock Cafe. This Friday, we're definitely going to put on a show with our fireworks. :)

And now I leave you with a snapshot of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Poble Nou.

International Space University 2008

Internationally celebrating the 4th of July!

The days have been very, very, long with lectures. Tonight, the participants from the United States invited all the students to join us to celebrate the 4th of July. We were going to have a fireworks display, but it was still light outside at 9pm. This Friday, the students from the U.S will have a cultural night where we will have a 15 minute presentation for everyone on the United States culture. We decided to postpone the fireworks until then. Tonight we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe where they were celebrating the 4th of July as well. We could not make it a very late night as we still have to attend class tomorrow morning!!!

An Update from Barcelona...

You can imagine that Barcelona has been a bit rowdy as patriotic fans are thrilled about Spain winning the Euro 2008 Soccer Championships! Everyone was running around excited and throwing fireworks in the city.
Yesterday was our official Welcome Ceremony for all the participants of International Space University. Some students wore their cultural attire related to their country. 29 countries are being represented this summer and we're all having a great time getting to know one another. It is very interesting to be amongst so many cultures and customs and I am even learning more about cultures that I thought I already knew about. Here a couple of pictures of some friends from India, Germany, and England:


Today was the first day of lecture. The morning started off with a bus ride over to the campus of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

Today's lectures were on:

The Space Perspective by former astronaut and MIT professor Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman

Policy Rationales for Space Activities by Dr. John Logsdon from George Washington University

Economic Rationale for Space Activities by Professor Patrick Cohendet from University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France.

Entrepreneurial Futures by Peter Diamandis who is chairman and CEO of X Prize Foundation, CEO and co-founder of Zero G Corp., and also one of the founders of the International Space University

After the lectures, we didn't have any homework and I've been dying to visit La Sagrada Familia...so I took the Metro with my friend Shaq and went to take a tour of the cathedral. When I climbed up the stairs from the Metro and turned around it was RIGHT THERE!! The view was breathtaking and it is amazing to see how beautiful and detailed Gaudi was in his design. Below is a little slide show during my tour inside the cathedral. It's only half way completed and they're hoping to have it completely restored by 2026.

After the tour, I headed back to the residence as the 22 participants from Canada would like us all to celebrate Canada Day with them. However, I stopped at a small market and I had to take a picture of this basket. In the United States, we have baskets similar to these, but they don't have wheels on them. These were AWESOME!

I'm in Spain!

I have arrived safely and finally am situated in my room. The building I am staying at is similar to an off-campus college housing residence. I am about to go out and venture to take the Metro into the city before we all have to meet for dinner. We've already received our first week of lecture study notes. Not everyone has arrived to register, but I have met some very awesome people from Canada, Israel, and France so far!

Leaving to Barcelona

I am sitting here in the terminal waiting for my flight to board. My first stop is in London Gatwick, and then I am headed to Barcelona, Spain.

I have been very busy for the past two weeks trying to wrap up things at work as well as finalize school. By the way, I have officially completed my Master's requirements and I can now say I have a Masters in Aeronautical Science!

--Gotta GO!!! They're calling my boarding section!!! :) Here I go!!! (Sorry such a short post)

International Space University

Next week I will be in Barcelona, Spain!!! I was selected to represent the Boeing Space Exploration Division in attending the International Space University's 2-month Space Studies Summer Program.

There will be a wide variety of lectures, activities, team projects, and workshops related to space. The program will give me an interdisciplinary and international perspective of the space sector and the global professional network.

Altogether, this will be a major experience for me on many levels. First all, I have never even traveled out of the country, so I am definitely excited for that! I am looking forward to meeting new friends and collaborating with the international scientific community. This weekend is going to be devoted to packing and getting all my last minute travel stuff taken care of.

Some additional microgravity photos....

The photographer onboard our flight posted his professional photos. Here are some additional shots from Sunday. It was hard to get that smile off my face. :)

Today....I felt like an Astronaut!!!

Today was absolutely amazing. I experienced 1 Martian G (1/3 my body weight), 2 Lunar G's (1/6 my body weight), and 12 zero gravity parabolas. Workforce Florida, Brevard Workforce Development Board, Inc. (BWDB), Brevard Community College (BCC), SpaceTEC, and the Zero Gravity Corp (Zero-G) all made this possible for us to experience. THANK YOU!!! I know everyone had a blast on their flight. I seriously felt like an astronaut today!!! On Tuesday we will reunite as a group to take one big group photo and receive certificates.

Discovery Lands and Microgravity Tomorrow

We had a successful landing today of Discovery. I was not at KSC at the time of landing as I was attending a training class for my microgravity flight tomorrow. I am to report at noon and we will receive our flight suits and be briefed before the flight. On my way home from the training, I saw locals and tourists awaiting Discovery's landing along the road and at nearby parks. I pulled over to hear the sonic boom and watch Discovery land.



Here are some other pictures from landing and Discovery's track into the Orbiter Processing Facility.

SpaceTec's Florida Aerospace Microgravity Training Program

This week has been absolutely fantastic! On Tuesday, I started the Microgravity Training Program with SpaceTec. A group of 75 Florida aerospace technicians, engineers and scientists have been split up into 3 flight groups. I am assigned to flight group 2 that will be flying next Sunday morning. We have been given presentations from a great group of program coordinators related to the microgravity environment. In our presentation today, we were shown the following video related to how fluids react in microgravity. Watch the whole the thing...you don't want to miss the Alka-Seltzer reaction!!!



I am really looking forward to the flight on Sunday. We have some more training to complete next week to go over some activities we'll be performing during the flight to get a first-hand experience of how the lack of gravity effects certain tasks we are able to perform in the gravity environment. With Zero G's G-Force-One Boeing 727-200 aircraft, parabolic maneuvers will be performed in order to create the microgravity environment. The controlled ascent and descent of the plane will allow us experience Martian gravity (1/3-gravity), Lunar gravity (1/6-gravity), and microgravity.

From Atlantis's left wing

Atlantis's payload bay doors were closed and I figured it was the perfect time to take a photo of my standing on the left wing. Sometimes we'll have to "walk on the wing" to access certain tiles or parts from the upper surface. We're not allowed to wear shoes, so I have fabric "booties" on to protect the flight hardware.

What a lift off!

Well here's something we don't normally see after a launch. Numerous concrete blocks and bricks from the flame trench were blown away during the STS-124 launch and ended up damaging some of the surrounding fence and were scattered throughout the launch site. We're not sure yet what caused this to happen, but it will be fixed in time for the next launch of Atlantis on October 8th. The pictures below are amazing. Be glad you were not on the launch pad when this happened!

You can read a little more on Spaceflight now: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts124/080601pad/

A successful launch of Discovery

Yesterday I watched the launch from the beach with some friends. It was nice because we watch the launch as we were swimming in the ocean. It was a great launch and beach day!