ONWARD TO MARS!

"Dear Ben

Thank you for your application to Spaceward Bound, a joint program of NASA and the Mars Society. As you are aware, Spaceward Bound is a series of two-week training and research missions to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah to learn how to live and work in the context of a simulated human mission to Mars.

After a thorough evaluation of all applications, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to participate in the Spaceward Bound program at MDRS. You have been assigned to Crew 56 (December 9-23, 2006). I (Jennifer Heldmann) will be serving as the Commander of this mission.

In order to finalize the Spaceward Bound scheduling and begin preparations for the MDRS rotations, please respond to me by FRIDAY, 25 August 2006 and let me know if you will be able to participate in this MDRS crew.

I look forward to hearing from you and working with you in this Mars analog environment!
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions. I can be reached via email or phone.

Thanks very much - I look forward to hearing from you soon!

On to Mars!

Jen Heldmann"

I like this letter a lot better than the one I got last spring rejecting me from the NASA Summer Academy Program. I think you can figure out why.

Work Update and More Misadventures

Since the Feedback Control TA hasn't even been hired for our 7:30 Monday morning three-hour lab, and many of us left in bitter exhaustion from the early morning wake-up (by college standards, of course), I'm taking this time to eat and update.

When I started at the beginning of the summer, the person doing work and research on the Flamespeed Project was just about to leave for Germany for two and a half months. Since then, I've gone from the basic metal parts of the tube to the assembled tube complete with O-Rings to where we are now (and here in vacuum testing), custom stands carved out of a 4x4, a custom upper level of the 500-pound optical table, a system of electropneumatically-actuated ball valves, a 19" panel mount, and a brand new lab space that was definitely worth the work everyone in the Gas Dynamics Lab had to do to get and move into it.

In addition to my project, there was also a 26-feet long shock tube, 6 desks, 5 computers, many tool boxes, huge cabinets, vacuum equipment, and another optical table weighing around 1000 pounds crammed into the original lab. Now we have room for a 35-feet long shock tube (which hasn't been built yet) and a propellant mixing laboratory along with the Flamespeed Project and original shocktube. It took 8 people to move the top of the bigger optical table to the elevator on the 4th floor of the Research Pavillion, and another 5 to move the actual table. We used wheels and dollies whenever we could, but it wasn't always that easy navigating the narrow hallway with one of the carts because one of its wheels didn't roll straight. After two 10 hour days, one with 4 people and the next with 8, we finally finished moving.

We're still in the process of settling into the new area, but from what I've heard we have one of the nicest educational research labs in the nation if not the world. The good thing about the lab is that it's on the first floor near the giant garage door of an out of the way building a block away from the old lab. This way we can move the propellant mixing equipment in easily once it's ready to come in from Building 44. Either way, once the guy contracted from Rolls Royce comes down from Canada in November to work on the Flamespeed Project, I think he'll be impressed with our work.

____________________________

A few weekends ago my friend Sam and I went rocket launching. It was windy, the forecast was bad, and we really didn't have a place to launch, but we being rocket scientists and experts in flight dynamics and solid propellant propulsion decided if we angle the launch rod towards the parking lot into the wind the rockets should come back to us. We set up in a ditch out by the UCF soccer fields behind Academic Village and started firing away. Our first launch was with a recently built Estes Alpha rocket, nothing special.

Sam: Ready...3...2...1... FIRE!!
Nothing.
Ben: Lemme check the connection.... yep, it wasn't in all the way.
Sam: Alright...3...2...1... FIRE!!

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

The rocket flew above the group of girls who appeared to be cheerleaders without makeup (read: nice bodies but nasty faces) as the ejection charge blew. The first thing I noticed was that we were in fact correct in making wind angle corrections; the rocket started coming back towards us. However, it came back in two pieces. One was the rocket. One was the parachute, which somehow detatched from the rocket. The rocket crashed down at the foot of a construction dirt pile while the parachute floated off in the distance. It broke a fin, so we retired it for the day.

The next launch was my X-Cup Prize rocket, which I painted and assembled with painstaking care to make it look nice. It was my turn to hit the button.

Sam: Alright, make sure the fuse is in the engine.
Ben: It is... ready? 3...2...1....FIRE!!

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

It launched over the parking lot, the ejection charge fired, and sure enough the parachute floated off. Two launches, two failed parachute. There was no way we could catch it in time to make the envied "rocket in the hand" catch. It crashed 50 feet from the pad without breaking anything, but without a parachute I didn't feel safe launching it again.

Next we tried the tiny Mosquito rocket I had. If you remember the previous Rocket Misadventures story, this was the one that took off and I never saw again. Foreshadow, hint hint...

Sam: I doubt it will go as fast as you say it will.
Ben: Wanna bet? We're going to lose this one.
Sam: Whatever, 3...2...1... FIRE!

ZIIIIINNGG!!!

Sam: I lost it
Ben: I can see it, I see it, I see it... I don't see it.

If someone finds it, I sure hope it wasn't because it hit their car. If it did, I don't think it could even dent the metal.

With only one rocket left, the Army rocket I had launched many times over Spring Break, it was time to test my new parachute. The original one was lost on the 4th launch of the day and I barely missed catching it last time, but it was a new day. I had a new parachute, constructed entirely out of a synthetic polymer salvaged and specially contructed for optimal aerodynamic drag (read: a Wal-Mart bag I cut up).

Ben: You think this will work?
Sam: Of course it will work.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

Guy in Parking Lot 1: What the #%@$ was that?!
Guy in Parking Lot 2: A plane?
Sam: .... wow.

At first I freaked out because it went WAY over the parking lot. Had my parachute failed it would have no doubt landed on metal or asphalt. Instead, the chute deployed perfectly and the rocket sailed back towards us. It worked too well; I had to run up the construction sand hill to make the perfect catch.

Ben: YES! I CAUGHT IT!! I CAUGHT IT!!
Sam: Great, now you smell because it's 105 degrees out here.

Reload, restuff, and relaunch.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

This time, however, the winds had picked up, the rocket sailed higher, and the parachute was even more effective. Sam ran up the hill while I ran through a pile of sandburrs. He watched as the rocket floated past the hill, past the road and trees, and landed smack in the middle of a water retention pond off of Research Parkway.

Once we came close to get a better look at the situation, we realized this rocket was not just retired temporarily, it was gone for good, just like the mosquito.


After that it started pouring. We rushed to the launch site to pick up the pad and assorted supplies and managed to get in the car as soon as the rain stopped. I hate Central Florida weather. The rain managed to soak the launch pad, making the smell of burnt propellant even stronger. My clothes still smell. Not because I got the soot on me, but because I threw a pile of clean clothes on it afterwards because I forgot I left it out.

Monster DLP

A couple months ago I got an email from the Engineering Department to students about the Monster.com Diversity Leadership Program, or DLP. I applied on a whim and got accepted. Among 25,000 applications nation-wide, only 3000 were accepted for 10 programs in 10 cities, 300 students each.

To be honest, I had no clue what was going to happen. I read the website and it sounded like a load of bovine scatology, industry phrases like "high energy" and "edutainment," as if that video game genre didn't die in 1994. After a while, sponsors for the event were announced, and the only one that came close to anything engineering was Lockheed Martin (which wasn't unexpected, they shell out a lot for promotions). Everything else was geared more towards business, finance, and communications majors. The whole summer I imagined it would be a fake program with fake "energy" with unnecessarily hyped people like at a political rally. I had no information on the schedule of events except for time to "network with sponsors."

The website and emails said that there would be scholarships and prizes, but here's what the website said... "To increase your chance of winning a scholarship, come with lots of energy and be prepared to take risks, have fun and let your true leader shine through!" Now, my detectors smell something phony, but if this was in fact correct, I had two options for the weekend.

1. Sit back and laugh at (and not with) everyone for being over-hyped for no reason, hate on everyone and everything I think is out of place, display no "energy," and have peace of mind in being able to think back to this event and be proud that I didn't make a complete fool out of myself. I could pay attention during the workshops, network with sponsors, and have no chance of getting a scholarship.

2. Forget everything about a well-defined self image and act a fool. Yell, scream, dance, cheer, embarrass myself in front of people I don't know, and do whatever is unexpectedly expected from a "Diversity Leadership Program." I run the risk of getting demeaning looks, weird stares, rejection from women I'll never see again, and scaring off potential employers whom I will never see again. On the plus side, I have a chance to win a scholarship, look cool, and let loose. I can pay attention during the workshops, network with sponsors (assuming I didn't scare them off), and let loose.

As of Friday, I hadn't made a decision on which one I was going to choose. I arrived Friday evening only to get lost with 3 other guys trying to find out where the registration took place. The reason we got there on Friday was because Enterprise was hosting a pizza party, and nothing attracts a college student quite like the words "free" and "pizza" or any combination thereof. I played pool, met some people, and got weird looks from girls as I approached them. Standard routine for me. The exception on the night came with individual introductions. We went around the room introducing ourselves one at a time, and when it was my turn I said, "I'm Ben, I go to UCF, and I'm an Aerospace Engineering Super-senior." The room erupted in applause for that phrase. Throughout the weekend the Enterprise reps called me Super Senior.

I was originally roomed with another girl in a girl's dorm bathroom. Unfortunately, that had to change, not just because I wanted to stay with the girls, but also because I had to make about 4 trips back to the registration place barefoot because I locked my shoes in the room the first time, then I had to move to the 3rd floor. Oh well.

After breakfast on Saturday, I made the trek to the other side of campus where the program registration started (every time we had to go to a new event, we had a long walk because the USF campus is a lot more spread out than the UCF campus. It wasn't exactly the heat that got me; it was the 368% humidity). In front of the registration table, there were about 50 sponsors in two lines forming arches over the walkway, all too old to be dancing to Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl." As much as I think that song is stupid, it has nothing on the sight before my eyes. As I stand, awestruck and confused, I know this is the time where I must choose between options 1 and 2. Option 1 is looking a lot better right now because of the sheer magnitude of ease in which to laugh at these people.

"Aw heck... It's impossible to look that stupid," I thought. Option 2 was selected.

I ran in, posed like a pimp a few times, and ran through high fiving everyone like I was the man. Always make a good entrance, they say. Once some of us were registered, we filled out business cards (why we couldn't use a copier I don't know...) then watched the same video that came on a CD in the mail about the program. After that, we moved to the gym (long walk in the heat) and formed little groups and each of us answered a personal question. The sponsors gradually mixed in and got to know us better, and I exchanged business cards with the Lockheed people before we left for lunch.

During lunch our facilitators tried to get us to come up with cheers so the team could win the Energy and Synergy awards. What we would win along with the title is still unknown. I came up with a cheer based on a hip-hop song called "It's Going Down." I also adapted another one from an old Boy Scout cheer that was pretty popular among the facilitators. Following lunch was our first set of workshops. The first one was resume tips and organizing. Since I've done a ton of these already, but never actually had it critiqued, I was happy that one of the Lockheed people was very impressed not only with the content but the format as well. He said that normally he only reads the first half because it's boring, but read mine all the way through.

The next workshop was an interview skills presentation, which actually helped me a lot because I've never had a competitive interview. The only interviews I've ever had were for Firehouse Subs (can you breathe? Good, you're hired.), SAIC (you know Mr. Newton and he highly recommends you? Good, you're hired), and SARC (you were a good tutor last semester, you're hired). The most important thing I learned was a good answer to the question "Tell me about yourself." We had a sheet with four blocks for different aspects of our life to incorporate.

Since groups 15 and 16 were primarily for engineers (hence the Lockheed Martin staff and sponsors), we had an engineering design competition similar to stuff we had at Winterfest in Venture Crew, except there were many realistic surprises that I thought were very engineering-oriented (customer changed specs, communications blackout, another team we had to work with that was hidden from us beforehand, etc.) No team was successful, but our team was the closest to the target, and was able to hit it after the competition was over.

After dinner there was a competition to take creative pictures. It's really hard to explain, but because of this I was able to get one and only one picture of me at the event. The caption is "The Pit and the Pendulum." We had to do 10 in total, and the team who had the most creative pictures one.

The Saturday night Target-sponsored party that the facilitators had been hyping up was next. I didn't think the decorations were that great, but the Red Bull punch was delicious. There was a dance competition that I was reluctant to enter, but because I had talked about how I was in Elements and could breakdance, I got pushed in. This isn't a typical ballroom dance style competition. This is a crowd-pleasing competition. I was up against guys who knew moves to the specific song that was playing and girls that could shake it better than... a lot of things. I can't dance like that, so I knew I had to go all out. The competition was organized in a cypher (the crowd forms a large circle while the competitors danced in the middle) and there was just enough space for me to throw down a six step and a few freezes. As people started getting eliminated (and I lost my breath) the circle got smaller until the Target sponsors only had two people at a time dancing. This part was actually very unfair because the winner between the two had to dance again right after that against another person. Two girls went up against each other, and one blew the other out of the water. Then the guy who I thought would win for sure went up against the girl and lost. I was surprised. Then it was my turn.

I got in the cypher and she immediately started "serving" me. I knew that since this was a crowd-judged battle I had to hype them up, so I walked circles around her waving my arms and building up the crowd before I did a few six step patterns and headspins. Apparently this was enough to defeat her, but I was completely out of breath to dance against the last guy. He came in the circle and started pop locking and sliding like a champ. I started six-stepping, freezing, and spinning, but then he got down and started doing some break moves. Since I had the upper hand, and the best way to one-up a breaker is to copy his moves and add one more touch, that's exactly what I did. By this point I couldn't go on anymore because I was too hot, but luckily that was it. The Target sponsors announced the competition was over and we had both won, and they handed the two of us $15 gift certificates to Target.

Let me say that again... I... won... a HIP HOP dance competition. The whitest guy there beat some of the smoothest pimps out there. Ben Corbin was able to breakdance well enough to beat everyone else's normal club dancing. This is a first, and probably an only. Prizes usually aren't that important in hip-hop stuff because the glory is far more important. I finally felt it, then proceeded to the drink table to chug Red Bull punch and a few quarts of ice water. After a half hour or so I cooled down enough to start dancing again. All it all, I really enjoyed the dance and thought it was the best part of the whole experience. I wonder why I had trouble going to sleep that night.

The next day they gave away some prizes before we went to our workshops. These two workshops focused on defining diversity and communication styles. Both of these workshops were well done and I learned a lot. I liked the diversity one, even though it wasn't as useful as the communication one.

Once the workshops were finished and we finished lunch, we had time to network with all the sponsors and all the students. Since Lockheed Martin was the only engineering sponsor, I gave them my card and resume and then started talking to everyone there. We're all on Facebook so it's a lot easier to pass messaged among us all. I also tried to talk to the Navy recruiters to see if they had any civilian aircraft or pilot positions, but she wouldn't shut her mouth for half a second, so I couldn't ask.

At the closing ceremonies a motivational speaker gave a speech. I don’t really remember what he talked about, but I think I have an outline in the binder they gave us. Lockheed Martin sponsors went on stage to present scholarships right after that, and choice #2 paid off for me. Because I was “enthusiastic” and “energized” as well as a “great dancer” in the “hip-hop club,” they gave me a $500 scholarship. This was the second best part of the weekend for me, even though it should have been the best.

I said goodbye to all my new friends, thinking about how I could top this experience if I went next year. To recap, I got:

A bunch of free stuff from sponsors
A Lockheed Martin hat and t-shirt
A Monster.com hat
A $15 gift certificate from Target
Connections with Lockheed Martin recruiters
Next month's rent minus $15
New friends I'll keep in contact with.

Not bad for applying on a whim and a $15 investment in gas.

The Holy Land

"It's like what Mecca is to the Jews!" - Ali G, "Indahouse"

Yesterday was a long but uplifting day at the Kennedy Space Center. Recently I've been down in the dumps because of a laundry list of problems and inconveniences, but a good old-fashioned field trip with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) brought my spirits up.

[Update: Here's a link to all the photos.]

I arrived early at the Engineering parking lot because I misread an email, but thankfully I woke the president up and he got to the garage on time. We arrived at the Visitor's Center at 9:30 to meet Kristina Morrace, a former UCF graduate who gives us the NASA hook-ups like posters, official pictures, and in this case, discount Maximum Access passes. A $42 (I think) ticket only cost us $13.

Bypassing the Visitor's Center's attractions to get on the tour bus, our first stop was the Observation Gantry. Yesterday was a very special day because that morning they had just rolled out STS-115 Atlantis onto the launch pad via the crawler. They still hadn't closed the rotating launch pad around it, which covers most of the shuttle until close to launch time (which is later this month). Despite the quality of the images I was able to get, it looked very impressive. We were also able to see the other shuttle launch pad LC-39A, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and some of the military complex of Cape Canaveral AFB. On the bus ride there and back we were able to get a great view of the doors of the VAB, the largest in the world. They take 45 minutes to open, yet the tallest rockets only have 6 feet of clearance at the top.

They also had a space shuttle main engine on display, and I went klepto on the clothes in the gift shop for a minute.

That was actually the low point of the day. After the Gantry stop, we headed to the Apollo/Saturn V Center. Before entering, we saw a video on the historical build-up of Apollo 8 and how it was the first manned rocket to escape Earth's gravitational field. We entered a mock control room that had the actual control panels used by the people in the Apollo 8 launch and experienced what it was like when that much power rose from the pad. The back windows shook, the big screens lit up with the fire of the engines, and all the control panels came to life just as they did on the actual launch. It was tear jerking.

After the simulation we entered the hall where they have a full sized Saturn V rocket on display. Just standing next to the gigantic engines was powerful enough, but the also had mission statistics and astronaut quotes on panels from each mission all along one of the walls. I'm surprised how much I knew about Apollo and the Saturn V compared to my fellow space geeks, but I guess it just goes to show you that if you want to learn something, you learn it easier than if you don't. The Saturn V rocket with the Apollo capsule attached is 363 feet tall. That's only 5 feet less than twice the height of the shuttle and three feet longer than regulation size football fields (including the goal zones). They also had scale models of the Lunar Module, the Moon Rover, and the Command Module. Imagine being stuck in there for two days while two of your best buddies are frolicking on the moon. I'd hate to be that guy, condolences to Mike Collins and the other 5 Command Module Pilots.

Although it was not the first time in my life, I got to touch a moon rock, although I have a vague perception it was ordinary marble from Earth. I bought a poster and a pack of panoramic pictures in the gift shop, and then we went to see another movie in another theater about the actual landing on the moon. This one had a stage with a lunar module that dropped down from the top. Despite the fact that parts of it were corny as Nebraska, it actually made my eyes well up a little more than the Apollo 8 video. It was a terrific reminder of what I'm working towards, whether I'm the guy pushing buttons on a panel on the ground or the one planting the flag in the dirt in the distant future.

(Note for those looking through the pictures: The Chalet Suzanne soup caught my attention because I flew into their airstrip and got a ribbon for doing so during flight school.)

Once we got back on the bus we headed for the International Space Station Center where the station is being build and inspected on the ground before it head off into space. Now that the safety tests are done, they're ready to launch the rest of the station into space. There was no flash photography allowed because the flash might set off a fire alarm. Fires in space are similar to flashes because the heat does "rise" like it does in a gravity field, it simply expands in all directions like a camera flash, so the ISS builders designed the fire alarms to react to that kind of energy. Basically, if you wanted to cause a few million dollars worth of damage, bring a huge flashbulb. They were working on Japanese, Italian, and American modules. On the other size of the building they had life-sized models of the ISS rooms and the experiments, living quarters, and galley inside. It seems cramped on the ground, but with zero-G it doesn't seem so bad. On the far wall (obstructed by an ISS model) was Konstantine Tsiolkovsky's (the guy who formulated the rocket equation) most famous quote, one that I believe whole-heartedly. "The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever."

Once we were on the bus and back at the Visitor's Center, we saw a 3D IMAX film about the Space Station narrated by Tom Cruise ("Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft to get the fire off me!"). It was pretty straightforward, but it seemed out-dated. I thought I remembered seeing it in the Smithsonian a few years back, but I specifically remember begin outraged at the guy who shaved his face without shaving cream near the end of the movie. This happened near the beginning. However, I was even MORE outraged by the guy who spilled little tiny pieces of POPCORN everywhere. POPCORN can get into every nook and cranny, every electrical wiring system, and short-circuit your life support system. Baaahhh, my blood pressure is too high to talk about that part. Overall, despite the weird CGI 3D near the beginning, I really enjoyed the film, and once again it brought some tears to my eyes. I didn't bother stealing the 3D glasses.

The IMAX theater also had the Liberty Bell 7 exhibit. The Liberty Bell 7, piloted by Gus Grissom (who died on Apollo 1) splashed down after a successful mission, but for unknown reasons the hatch blew before the Scuba divers could get the floatation devices on the capsule. Grissom narrowly escaped Davy Jones' Locker, but the capsule was lost until a crew partnered with the Discovery Channel lifted it up from 16,043 feet below sea level on July 20, 1999, the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing. They cleaned it up and added a couple things to the display, but it is otherwise authentic spacecraft. The heat shield was burned completely off. What's eerie is the quote from Gus near the end of the exhibit with a model of his Apollo 1 spacesuit. "The conquest of space is worth the risk of life." Most people would say he ate those words, but I think he was selfless to the point of sacrifice. He was a true hero just like the rest of the astronauts with the Right Stuff.

We stepped outside to get a closer look at the rocket garden and get some pictures of the group. It was a nice sunny sight, but the rockets paled in comparison to the Saturn V. They had more fake capsules that looked worse than the Mercury one we all got in earlier.

Since we had two free IMAX shows, we caught the other 3D IMAX film. "Magnificent Desolation," written and narrated by Tom Hanks, was about the moon landing and had a pretty good CGI view of a moonwalk. The beginning was really corny though. It showed a bunch of kids who didn't even know who Neil Armstrong was saying they wanted to go to the moon and drawing pictures. Later they showed a communications failure and how astronauts would have gotten out of that situation. The end showed a possible scenario for a Helium 3 mining operation on the moon in the future (Helium 3 could be the fuel that saves our planet, and it's on the moon in mass quantities, but the Saudis don't want us to think about that). Well, let's just say that I haven't cried that much during a movie since the Land Before Time. It was really touching.

By that time we were almost out of time. We had time to get to the gift shop where I got a shot glass with my name on it (since I'll probably use it more than a coffee mug because I don't drink coffee). Lucky for us, the Astronaut Hall of Fame closes at 7 instead of 6, so we arrived there at 6:30. I really liked seeing the portrait of each astronaut with his or her mission patches underneath. What I was intrigued by was the Boy Scout display showing which astronauts were what rank. There was also a space-sickness generator that didn't affect me too much, so there's hope for me in Zero-G (it's more of the constant change in G-forces that gets me, such as when I stood at the bow of a fishing boat as it rocked that one time... later I spewed). The last thing I saw was a quote from Mike Mullane, the author of "Riding Rockets." "Even a bird is not as free as an astronaut." I cant' say I agree considering the tiny amount of space in a spacecraft, the pre-planned orbital trajectories, the minute by minute schedule you live by, and the packaged, processed food served in space... but it's close.

So that was my day. It was a good day.

Speaking of the G-Forces, SEDS has an experiment going up on the Vomit Comet that a friend of mine is going to test in zero-G. I helped him build the wood and clear plastic box so he can simulate soldiering electronics in space. This was supposed to happen in April, but Lockheed pulled the funding on the project and it was frozen. One of the SEDS guys works for Zero-G and managed to open up a spot for my friend Jason, so we had to hastily assemble the test box. Jason also had to learn how to use the Cold-Heat soldiering iron. If I'm lucky he's going to get me a flight suit, although the chances are slim. If he's lucky he's not going to ruin the experiment by vomiting all over it. He's doing 40 parabolas, some of which are Mars and Moon gravity, but most are zero-G. If all goes well and we get to try the experiment again, I'll be the one riding the modified 727 next time, hopefully with a better system.

Update: I was just accepted to the Space Generation Conference in Valencia, Spain, so I will have more on that as things develop and a huge entry with hopefully more interesting things to write about.