Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Week 3 Highlights
Tuesday our 3 lectures were 1. Remote sensing applications, 2. Remote sensing data distributions and policies, 3. Power & thermal controls. After lunch we all went to 1 of 5 workshops. Earlier in the program everyone had to pick 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice for workshops, departments, and team project. During the workshop time slots there are 4 of 5 choices. I chose Artificial Gravity and it was a very good choice! Gilles Clement and Angie Bukley taught the class. Gilles is one of the core lecturers (focusing on life sciences) and Angie is the SSP director. They make a great team....makes sense since they are married! :-) We learned that the concept of artificial gravity was first conceived in 1883 by Tsiolkovsky. Had no idea it was that old! Class highlights:
- Spinning in a chair while holding a watermelon. Move the watermelon towards and away from your body to experience the Coriolis force. Then tilt your head down - dizzy!!
- Watching scenes from 2001 A Space Odyssey, Armageddon, and Moonraker and then calculating rotational speed, artificial gravity, and diameter of the rotating vehicles.
- Eating the watermelon!
Wednesday our 3 classes were: 1. Global Navigation and Satellite Systems (GNSS), 2. Policy Issues of GNSS, and Technology Transfer, Export and Import Controls. Then we had an Ethics Panel and a participant debate on the topic: Is it ethical to mine the moon and other celestial bodies.
Thursday our classes were: 1. Attitude determination and orbital control, 2. The brain in space, 3. Astrobiology. Gilles taught "the brain in space" of course. I learned a lot! Did you know that we have sensors in our inner ear that can detect yaw, pitch and roll just like an airplane or spacecraft?! We also have something called Otolith Organs in our ears which tell us how fast we are accelerating and in which direction. Absolutely fascinating! We are so high tech! In space, however, you cannot distinguish between tilt and translation because of zero-g. This leads to confusion when you get back to earth. Being in space also causes problems with depth perception, distance perception, cognitive skills, navigation, space motion sickness, and handwriting! Gilles showed us lots of pictures of astronauts performing experiments related to the brain / cognitive skills. This was a whole new world for me since I'm not in life sciences.
Friday we had 1. Governance of space settlements, 2. Space robotics, and 3. Space & security. The robotics one was my favorite because Dr. Yoshida showed us some robots I have never seen before. For example, Big Dog, Ballroom Dance Robot, and Humanoid Walking Robot HRP-4C. After that we had a workshop in Planetary Engineering. Pretty far-fetched, but interesting concept. Some of this is a lot more science-fiction than I anticipated.
After class we had a robotics competition. Five teams of 5 built Lego robots to pick up "gems" within a square boundary. The robots were built in two days! Amazing! I have pictures, I'll post later. My roommate's team won with 490 points! Go roomie!
After the competition, 11 of us went to the city center for an Italian meal. A note about food here... We eat in a cafeteria 3x a day. It's a cafeteria, so naturally you can't expect gourmet food. But almost every day, we have fried meat and potatoes. Needless to say I'm getting fat here! Every morning we have the exact same breakfast: bread, meat, cheese, yogurt, granola, corn flakes, coffee. On the weekends we get that plus bacon and eggs. I live for the weekends. So Friday night I had my first good meal in 3 weeks. I had bruschetta as an appetizer, then shared pesto risotto with shrimp / mozzarella and a mozzarella / ham pizza.... yummmm. I can't tell you how amazing it was. Then we all had dessert - the tiramisu was fantastic!! I was in heaven.
Yes, we had class on Saturday this week. Saturday we had our last lecture from Gilles (Space Biology) and Jim Dator (Space Art). Then Angie talked about my job!! Structures!! Woohoo!! Pretty exciting. :-) After this, we have a presentation about the Exam which is a little over 1 week from now. Uh oh! Tonight we have culture night 2. I will have to do a separate post about that because this one is getting long and I'm sure that one will have lots of pictures.
Hope everyone has a great weekend! Shout out to my Houston peeps - I miss all of you. Keep in touch, I'd love to hear from you! I can skype on my ipod, but we just need to set a time.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Day 17 - Monday, July 25
Our first lecture today was by Canadian Astronaut Bob Thirsk. He talked about preparing for an Extended Duration Mission (EDM) on board the International Space Station (ISS). Everything he said applies to our SSP time this summer. Here's a brief recap:
- In order to have a happy / productive crew, it is necessary that each person takes care of himself or herself.
- It feels better to be ahead of daily tasks than behind.
- If you're not having fun you're doing something wrong.
- Put stressful situations into perspective.
- You've got to figure out how to deal with separation from family
- Be flexible
- You can interpret everything positively or negatively
- Hang out with positive people
- Pace yourself - don't be a workaholic
- Ask for help when you need it
- Preserve your personal space (at least 30 min alone time per day)
- Set realistic goals so you don't burn out
- Your team includes the ground crew (I love you, Mitch!)
- Develop relationships early
- Discuss group expectations
After lunch half of the Human-Robotic Cooperation Team had the opportunity to visit Magna Steyr where they assemble Astin Martin Rapide and Mini Countryman! We saw the Mini part of the factory. So cool!! There are about 300 robots in the Mini assembly line and only 3 in Astin Martin. I really liked seeing the body assembly robots. Sparks flew everywhere from the spot welding. It was very dramatic! We also saw the Countryman post-paint. They are so colorful in bright blue, navy blue, white, black, silver, dark silver and brown. Each one is different and is custom ordered. We saw the finished cars rolling off the line. Ten percent of them go through the rain test before shipping. This field trip was to show us robots in action. The most exciting robot they had on the Mini line was the one that puts the wheels on the car. It can "see" the incoming wheel, assess its orientation, "see" the car on the line, match its speed, rotate the tire to the appropriate angle and put it on. Pretty sophisticated!
wikipedia page
company page
After our tour we came back for dinner and then watched 4 teams compete in the Rube Goldberg competition. A Rube Goldberg machine is basically an intentionally over-Engineered machine that performs a very simple task. For this competition, the students were given no money and no supplies. For example watch this.... Honda "Cog" video
Here is a picture of their creation. For more, see my Facebook page.
So that was today! Really fun! Nevertheless, I am counting the days until I can be home with Mitch. :-)
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Week 2 Highlights
This week we had 3 classes every morning and workshops after lunch. Here were the classes from Tuesday through Friday:
- Management of Space Projects
- Cultural Rationales for Space Activities
- International Dimensions of Space Exploration
- Systems Engineering & Requirements
- Space Medicine
- Astronaut Selection and Training (Soyeon Yi)
- Space Futures
- Financial Issues / Techniques of Space Projects
- Space & Sustainability
- Spacecraft Configuration
- Satellite Imaging, Payloads, Sensors & Data
- Spaceship Earth
We had a "Team Skills" workshop on Tuesday afternoon where we did some pretty neat team-building activities. The first one was that we had to individually draw a comic based on a short dialogue between two imaginary characters. Then we had to pick a partner and draw our representation of the dialogue together with both hands on the pencil. Pretty tricky! Then our whole team (40 people) went out into the lobby where there was a circle of chairs prepared. Each of us stood on a chair and we had to arrange ourselves in order according to first name. Then we had to re-arrange ourselves by birth date and month without talking. This was a really fun activity and helped me get to know some more names on the team.The workshop on Wednesday was about report writing and presentation skills. We had to make an elevator pitch answering the question "what is your mission this summer." It was video-recorded so we could watch ourselves later. Then we had a grammar quiz. The native English speakers were each paired with 3 non-native English speakers to review actual content from previous SSP TP reports. Our last activity was to practice writing a timed essay. No biggie for me, but all these things will be challenging for non-native English speakers.
This week was the annual International Astronaut Panel. In the pic below (left to right) is the moderator, Nicole Stott (USA), Soyeon Yi (Korea), Jean-Jacques Favier (France), Chiaki Mukai (Japan), and Franz Viehbock (Austria).
On Thursday, July 21, the shuttle Atlantis made her final entry and landing. We stopped our third class that day about 5 minutes before the landing and watched NASA TV together on the big screen. It was a very special moment and I'm glad I was able to share it with other space fans. I'm sad to see the shuttle program end, but this step is necessary to move funding into developing our next human spacecraft.
The highlight of this week was Culture Night on Friday. Each culture night, 5-6 countries will present 15 minutes about their country. This week was Ireland, Turkey, South Africa, USA, and Austria. Team USA acted out 8 stereotypes of Americans: cowgirl, intellectual, military, Sarah Palin, hippie, couch potato, surfer, space nerd (me). We got a lot of laughs. Then we performed a dance to the chorus of Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA." Someone has a video so I'll post that once I get my hands on it. The Austrians followed us and had everybody evacuate the auditorium. We convened in the foyer and learned the "slap dance" in two groups. I was starting to get the hang of it but need more practice! Then the 5 countries served food and gave away gifts they had brought with them. We served hot wings from Hooters, s'mores, and drinks. We gave away tons of NASA mission stickers, NASA stickers, pins, NASA cups, and flyers about ISS and shuttle. Our table was very popular and I kinda felt like a movie star! After all the food was gone we had a dance party in the basement of that building. So far this is the most fun I have had at SSP. Everybody was just having a great time and letting go.
This weekend I decided to stay in Graz rather than take any side trips. I was really dragging this week. Definitely not getting enough sleep. I think next week will be much better since I'm going to be all rested and ready to go! I even had a chance to do some yoga with others who stayed here. But I hope the people who went on weekend trips to Munich, Vienna, Venice, Salzburg, and Innsbruck are having fun!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Day 10 - Monday, July 18
John Logsdon talked about his new book "John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon."
The most interesting part was a video showing JFK proposing cooperation with Russia rather than competition. I purchased a copy of the book after the talk and had John sign it for me!
After the book review, Soyeon Yi, the first Korean astronaut gave a really fun talk about her selection and training. Soyeon is hilarious and she strives to show the world that science / space fans are cool, not nerds. Then she served us Korean food she had prepared which was delicious! After the presentation, some students and faculty joined Soyeon on stage to play some songs like "Fly me to the moon" and "Hey, Mr. Spaceman." The band was called "Soyeon and the Space Schnitzels." :-)
Day 9 – Sunday, July 17
Today I went to Vienna with 5 other students. Two from Italy, one from Canada (but she is Romanian), one from Turkey, and one from Uruguay.
We left the dorm at 8am and took a taxi to the train station. It was a 2.5 hour ride to Vienna. When we got there we happened to stumble across a film festival. The food there was amazing! The best meal I have had so far. I had chicken cordon bleu with spatzel “hash” which was fried in a huge cast iron skillet with crispy onions. Mmm! 
We toured around led by Emre from Turkey. We saw 3 cathedrals. Two were open so we went inside. We also saw Mozart’s house. We had dinner pretty early so we could catch our train back. I really got a good feel for the city even though we only had 7 hours there. Vienna is incredibly beautiful. The buildings are so tall and ornate. Here are my pictures from the day. I also learned about Sacher Torte which is from Vienna and is very popular in Italy. We had a piece at dinner.
We took the subway / train / bus / tram back to Graz and got back at 10:30pm. After a video chat with Mitch, I did my reading homework (100 pages of the 1991 SSP report) in preparation for Monday. Late night! ISU is living up to its name so far: Insufficient Sleep University. Hopefully Monday I can get to bed early.
One nice thing about the Graz and Vienna tours was that I was able to get lots of steps for the “Boeing on the Move” challenge! Back home, I am competing with my teammates at Boeing for the most steps. I have to wear a pedometer every day until July 31 when the competition ends. You can convert exercise and various activities into steps as well. Even though I don’t have any time to exercise, I am doing lots of walking – at least 3 miles a day. The Graz and Vienna tours helped me get from 86% of my goal to 96% of my goal! I have two weeks left and I’m trying to get up to a daily average of 10,000 steps. So far I am at 268,459 steps since June 20 when the program began. :-)
Day 8 – Saturday, July 16
- Logsdon’s “From Competition to Cooperation” (International relations in space from Apollo to ISS)
- Gilles Clément’s “Environmental Control and Life Support Systems”
- Hoffman’s “Extra-Vechicular Activity” (EVA)
By far the best talk today was Hoffman’s talk about EVA’s. Here are some pictures.
I don’t know if Hoffman knows this, but US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama uses his space walk every year. I went to space camp as a camper in 2000 during high school and as a counselor in 2004. When I was in the high school camp we used a Hubble mock up and practiced a few of the steps in the first Hubble repair EVA that Hoffman and NASA legend Story Musgrave performed. After he gave this talk which was his last for the summer, we gave him a standing ovation. He really is a national hero in my opinion. He was an excellent speaker. He spoke clearly enough that everybody could understand him. The vast majority of the participants are non-native English speakers. He concisely presented his ideas and used mainly pictures and visual demonstrations. I really feel honored to spend a week with him here in Austria. It will definitely be a story that I share with my kids and grandkids.
After our last lecture for the weekend, we went on a Graz city tour. It started as a walking tour and then we rode an open air bus for the rest of the afternoon. Here are some pictures of the trip.
The really fascinating part of the trip was all the music we heard! After the tour, we broke off into smaller groups for dinner. We walked around and happened upon an outdoor concert with a symphony and an Austrian choir dressed in traditional garb. We enjoyed that for a little while then continued on to find a place for dinner. The restaurant was under a glockenspiel so we had another performance on the hour which lasted at least 10 minutes. Then live musicians serenaded the restaurant. On our way back to campus we had some delicious gelato and stumbled on yet another live music event! In a big plaza with a fountain, there was a group of about 30-40 students in a circle singing acapella. The director was standing in the middle conducting their songs. It was beautiful!
Day 7 – Friday, July 15
Day 7 lectures:
- Hoffman’s “Introduction to Astronynamics” (aka orbital mechanics)
- Madry’s “Introduction to Satellite Applications”
- Green’s “The Space Environment” (the effects of solar events, radiation, etc)
After the lectures and lunch, we had a 3-hour TP Theme Day. Our chair, German astronaut Reinhold Ewald, brought in 3 speakers
- DLR’s humanoid robot Justin [video link]
- Astrium’s automated science rack on space station: Biolab
- ESA’s automated comet lander Philae
Thirteen of us went to dinner with Hoffman and Logsdon which was really interesting. After dinner I walked back to the dorm with Hoffman. How often do you get to have the undivided attention of an astronaut? I thought it would be good to give him a chance to talk about something other than Hubble and going to the bathroom in space so I asked him about his hobbies. We talked about his adventures trekking in Nepal, scuba diving, and skiing in Colorado and the Alps. Of course, the scuba diving discussion led to him sharing about his Hubble training in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston (the pool where the astronauts train). He talked about how cohesive NASA was during the Hubble mission preparations because everyone understood how important it was to science and our understanding of the universe to have an operating telescope. It was a good lesson – when our project is science oriented, it unites the engineering and science departments. Maybe we could use this with Mars. Scientists want some samples of the Martian surface to be brought back to earth. Maybe if we work together we can get there.
Day 6 – Thursday, July 14
- Intro to Life Sciences, Gilles Clément (France)
o Very interesting! The videos of people flying around ISS (International Space Station) captivated the entire group.
o Radiation dose for a trip to Mars is 1000x exposure of the average human life
- Business Structure & Planning, Chris Sallaberger (Canada)
o Discussion about types of businesses, financial plans, and organizational structures (hierarchy and matrix as the extremes)
- The Sun, James Green (NASA HQ)
o Technical overview of sun spots, radiation, solar flares, and more
After our lectures the team projects were announced. Everybody ran out of the core lecture hall to see where they were placed.
I am on the Human-Robotic Cooperation Team – my first choice!In our first TP (team project) meeting, we divided into 5 teams which were each assigned to read a different report on Mars from past SSP’s. Our team has to review a 700 page report from 1991. Interestingly, a lot of topics that we are thinking about right now (nuclear electric power for example) were discussed in that report. On one hand, it’s sad that we haven’t made progress in getting to Mars and it has been researched for a long time. I think in one talk, we heard that NASA proposed a Mars mission in its very early days. Our other assignment was to draft a mission statement and organization structure. Each of the 5 teams will present their homework next Friday and then hopefully we can agree on an org structure and get started on our project. There are 38 people on our team with different backgrounds and experience levels not to mention different languages. So I think organizing ourselves and figuring out how to make decisions efficiently will be the biggest challenge.
In our TP session, Hoffman presented an MIT student project in which humans would land on Mars’ moons Phobos / Deimos and from there, remotely operate robots on the Martian surface. This is one type of mission scenario we could explore or we could create something new. It will be fun to watch this project evolve!
Day 5 – Wednesday, July 13
Our three lectures today were “Origins of the Space Age,” “Microgravity (Hoffman),” and “The Electromagnetic Spectrum.” The post-lunch workshop was about teamwork. But the best part of the day was Bob Richard’s talk on ISU’s origins. As I have probably mentioned, Bob was one of the 3 founding fathers of ISU along with Peter Diamandis and Todd Hawley. There are 3 phases for ISU: the migratory phase, the permanent campus phase, and the space campus phase. So far we are in phase 2. The SSP (used to be summer session program, now it’s called the space studies program) migrated from country to country. In 2000, ISU opened their first campus in Strasburg, France. So it’s only a matter of time before we have the space campus! *wink* Arthur C. Clarke was involved with ISU at the very beginning. Bob was personally mentored by Carl Sagan. Some inspiring thoughts from the talk:
- Do what you love, even if it’s hard… it’s all hard!
- Pick your passion and stick with it.
- Don’t be “pie in the sky.” Lay out the steps, have backup plans, and demonstrate progress.
- Fail to plan, plan to fail.
- Peter’s Laws
- Bring amazing people together and tell them they can do amazing things and then just sit back and watch.
What I liked most about this talk was hearing about someone who had a dream, made a plan, followed it, and here we are 24 years and 3000 SSP graduates later enjoying the benefits of that dream. It’s truly inspiring.
Day 4 – Tuesday, July 12
Our second talk was from John Logsdon, Professor Emeritus, Space Policy Institute at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, about “Policy Rationales for Space Activities.” I am really excited to learn the policy side of things. This is such a great summer to be here because of the uncertainty of NASA’s future. The last shuttle liftoff occurred the day I left for ISU and we don’t currently have a replacement vehicle. I’ve been staying plugged in to the NASA discussions in Congress via Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline, @jeff_foust). Logsdon has recently written several articles (here's one) on the current NASA mess. His talk on Tuesday was about the most common rationales for space programs since the 1950’s – national security, national prestige and leadership, and scientific knowledge. More recently the rationales are enhancing military capabilities, creating basis for commercialization of space, tangible benefits for society, and assisting in social and economic development. Sometimes people try to use exploration as rationale but so far that is not a strong enough reason. We talked about whether human exploration is more compelling than robotic exploration. Most of us agree it is. It’s an interesting debate!
The third discussion was “Economic Rationale for Space” by Michael Simpson, President of ISU. I really found this interesting because as an engineer, I have never had a real class on economics. Some of the economic rationales for space programs are: creating minimum demand for certain high tech products and shortening the very long run.
After the 3 lectures we had lunch and then an introduction to the 7 departments. After that we had a fun debate about human exploration vs robotic exploration. We all had to argue one side or the other in 60 seconds depending on which half of the room you were sitting in. Luckily I was on the pro-human exploration because I don’t think I could have argued the other side. My argument was tongue-in-cheek. I asked, “Have you seen Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and basically any sci-fi with robots? What is common in all those movies? The robots rise up and try to kill us!” After the debate we took a vote – all but one person voted to continue human exploration. Yay! Maybe a slightly biased group though. *wink*
Day 3 – Monday, July 11
Project 1 is called “Fresh Water.” This team will delve into various ways that space technologies can be applied to understanding and managing the Earth’s limited supply of fresh water. Project 2 is called “Human-Robotic Cooperation.” This team will create a mission to Mars and propose an optimal mix of humans and robots. Project 3 is called “Small Satellite Application” and they will be creating a list of recommendations for the United Nations about building and maintaining small satellites. This guidebook will also list best practices on technical issues, cost-benefit and program / project management, space debris protection and other relevant issues.
After our introduction to the 3 TP’s we were honored to have Bob Richards, co-Founder of ISU, talk to us about “why you are here” and introduce us to ISU’s operating principles called the “3 i's” which are: interdisciplinary, international, intercultural. Then we had our pinning ceremony. Bob and Angie Buckley, SSP11 Director, pinned each of us with an ISU pin that has been flown in parabolic flight at zero-g, martian gravity, and lunar gravity.
Later that night, we all changed into our professional clothes and went to a very old TU Graz building for our class picture. I only have pictures of all the girls and Team USA because only the professional photographer was taking the picture of everybody. But hopefully we'll get a digital copy of that soon.
After the class picture we were bussed to the opening ceremony which was in a beautiful old building called Alte Universität Graz. We didn’t exactly know what was going to happen at the ceremony – it was a surprise. So, we sat in a holding room until all the VIP’s had been seated. We were the “stars of the show” and were announced by country. We had a number of distinguished speakers including the representative of the Mayor of Graz, the Governor of Styria, John Logsdon, Bob Richards, and Michael Simpson, President of ISU. We also were entertained by an Austrian dance troupe named Osterwitzer Schuhplattler. Then we had a delicious reception with lots of interesting local food like mushrooms, cheese dumplings filled with strawberry jelly, chocolate mousse, etc.
The opening day was great! I am ready to get going!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Day 2
After that we had orientation. The staff and TA's introduced themselves. Then we had the campus tour, library introduction, and IT introduction. Here is the main lecture hall with the majority of the students pictured.
For dinner I went to the city center with 6 other new friends. We ate at a Greek restaurant! Who knew they'd have Greek food in Graz?! I had souvlaki with tzatziki and pita bread...yum!
So far the most impressive thing is definitely the variety of cultures. In the first picture below, we are learning sign language for "speak slower" and "speak louder" which are cues we are allowed to give to the speakers at any time. Under that picture is me with my roommate Daniella from Naples, Italy! We are standing in front of the flags of the ISU participants. There are 30 countries represented.
The highlight of my day was doing video chat with my hubby! First time we've heard each other's voices since I left on Friday. Unfortunately because of the time-zones we can only do this on the weekends.
Sleepy time...
ISU has Begun!
Check in was a breeze thanks to the efficient ISU staff! After that I settled into my dorm room. We had dinner in the cafteria. So far I have met people from India, South Africa, China, Japan, France, and Israel. I sat with one of the professors who was at the founding conference in 1985. He has taught at ISU's summer SSP (space studies program) 20 of the 24 summers. After dinner we all went into a big classroom where we all introduced ourselves. The introductions were great! There are so many space fans like me from around the world! Latvia, Romania, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Canada, Uruguay, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, the US, Scotland, and Italy! There are over 30 countries represented. We have 2 here from KSC. I'm the only one from JSC. Sounds like most people have an aerospace engineering degree. Some people just finished their Master's this year. Some people are working on PhD's. People's interests range from small satellites to space law to space medicine to astrophysics. It sounds like a really great group of folks and I can't wait to meet them all!
Today we have brunch and then orientation and a campus tour. Tomorrow class begins!
I share a suite with 2 other girls. The kitchen/bath are shared but we have separate rooms with a desk, twin bed, and a closet. It's pretty nice but man does it bring back college memories. ;-) It's kind of like a mix between space camp and college.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Made it to Frankfurt!
On the plane I read the SSP Program Handbook. I'm getting so excited! The workshops and lectures sound so interesting and vary from space life science to space policy to space architecture to business... it's crazy! It's gonna be so much fun to learn about all this stuff. There are 7 departments. Right now I'm stuck between Space Policy & Law and the Space Business & Management options. I would really like to do the Human-Robotic Cooperation Team Project because we'll design a trip to MARS! So I'll have to sign up for that right away.
Next post from Graz!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Last day in Houston
Tomorrow I leave straight from work. I have two flights. The first is 9 hours, the second is only an hour. Once I get there I have to figure out public transportation to get to Graz University of Technology. After registration, we have a welcome dinner and student introductions. There are 121 students - so that's a lot of people to meet! I wonder if I'll be able to remember all their names! On Sunday we have orientation all day. I'm hoping to post some pictures of the dorm room and the beautiful campus if I get some free time this weekend. I'll also have to catch up on sleep! We just got back from Greece for our honeymoon. I'll definitely say I prefer the trip east rather than west. I know some people are opposite. I like to just try to stay up the whole first day until bedtime, then get a really good sleep that night. Usually on the second day I'm ok. But coming home it can take 2-3 days to adjust and not wake up in the middle of the night.
What's your best advice for overcoming jet lag?
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
60 Days in Graz
Natalie! What happened to your blog?!? Well, I gave it a quick makeover for the summer. Why? Because this summer I am heading to International Space University’s Space Studies Program in Graz, Austria!
ISU was founded in 1987 by Peter Diamandis (founder and chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation). ISU’s main campus is in Strasburg, France where the school offers Master’s Programs in Space Studies, Space Management and Space Systems Engineering, and an Executive MBA Program. They also offer the 9-week Space Studies Program which is held every summer in a different location around the globe. Past SSP’s have been in France, NASA Ames, Spain, China, and Australia (to name a few). This summer it will be held in Graz, Austria at Graz University of Technology (aka Technische Universitat Graz or “TU Graz”).
SSP2011 will be home to 121 students from 31 countries – only 5 from the US! The summer will be jam-packed with learning about the space industry. There are 6 departmental tracks from which to choose. I am currently leaning towards Space Policy and Law. There are also 3 Team Projects: Fresh Water, Human-Robotic Cooperation, and Small Satellites.
This is our textbook: The Farthest Shore – it’s a free ebook so you can read the whole thing if you're interested!
This is what the summer looks like:
Yep, I have to take my first EXAM since college – uh oh! But we also have Theme Days, Cultural Nights, Distinguished Lectures and Panels (with astronauts!), and field trips!
Some of my heroes in the space industry have gone to ISU or SSP: Nick Skytland (director or NASA’s OpenGov Initiative) and William Pomerantz (Vice President for Special Projects at Virgin Galactic), and many others. ISU has a track record of producing the next generation of leaders in the space industry.
I leave in 4 days...better start packing!