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!
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