EXPO 2011

PROBE SPECIALIST

On April 12, 2011,Oak Ridge and Glen Oaks Explorations went to the Challenger Learning Center of Northwest Indiana.
Everyone got their own jobs. I was on the Probe Team. My job was to build a Probe that would get shot into the tail of a comet. The Probe would gather dust from the comet and send us information about it.
Even though I made the probe and we finished the mission, there were still a few problems along the way. The first problem had to do with the air. Beth accidently incorrectly changed the oxygen tank, which left us with only 5 minutes of air. We had to do something quickly or we would all die. Luckily, the Life Support Team saved us with only 3 minutes of oxygen left.
The second problem was a power outage. When I plugged a piece into the probe, a bunch of smoke burst out of the airlock and all of the alarms went off! There was so much smoke that I couldn’t see! Luckily, it was only a power outage in the clean room, where I was working.
The third problem was that the Navigation Team found an unknown object! We were afraid that the unknown object was a supernova so we had to get off the spacecraft. Luckily, it was a comet! We got permission from NASA to go after that comet and the Navigation Team named it Comet Expo.
After that, we got to talk to a REAL astronaut named Wendy Lawrence! She gave us tips about how to do our jobs and she told us a lot about her space missions. The field trip was really fun and I hope we get to go there again soon!

ISOLATION SPECIALIST

Oak Ridge Explorations ( Andrew, Peter, Sara, Anniel, Lindsey and Beth) went on the best field trip ever to the Challenger Learning Center. Our mission was to find comet Encke.
I was the Isolation specialist. When we were in the orbiter I used robotic arms to pick up oxygen filters and bring them over to a geiger counter so I could record and send its readings to Mission Control. I had to leave my station twice to go take some tests with the Medical Team. We also had some emergencies. There was an explosion in the clean room where the probe was being built. There also was the time we only had five minutes of air left.
We also found a new comet. Later we had to dock and switch with Mission Control. When we were back we all decided to name the new comet Expo. Instead of searching for Comet Encke we decided to send the probe into Comet Expo. We met Wendy Lawrence, an astronaut who went on four shuttle missions.
In Mission Control my partner did most of the paper work but there were still things to do. I recorded the information my partner sent to me. Then there was another emergency. A meteor shower was approaching and it would block our probe’s path. Then we successfully launched our probe into comet Expo.
After we succeeded in our mission we went to Purdue University to eat lunch. After we ate we went outside to play for a little while. When we all got cold we went to the bus and drove back to school.

LIFE SUPPORT SPECIALIST

I was a Life Support Specialist when the Explorations class of 2011 when we went to The Challenger Learning Center for Space Science Education of Northwest Indiana on April 12th. On the Orbiter I had to measure all different things, including pH values, relative humidity, and air pressure. I saved everyone on the Orbiter once because the oxygen was running out (we only had 3 minutes of oxygen remaining)! My partner was really slow sending me pictures and messages with instructions on solutions to the emergencies.
My cousin/best friend was also a Life Support Specialist on a previous mission. She said it was boring, but I disagree! I wouldn’t want any other job. I passed my visual reaction time. I pressed the space bar every time a space shuttle popped up. Naturally, I passed it.
The Navigation Team found a new comet and named it Comet Expo. While I was checking pH values, the Clean Room exploded!!! I thought it was awesome when they sent the Probe into space. It was awesome watching the Probe gather all the materials from the comet. When the Probe was sent into Comet Expo’s tail, I was in Mission Control. We completed our mission in 1 hour and 33 minutes.
During the mission, we got to meet Astronaut Specialist Wendy Lawrence! She couldn’t go on spacewalks, though, because of her height. She went on 4 shuttle missions. We video chatted with N.A.S.A. and we talked to Col. Jerry Ross, who holds the record for the most spacewalks and time in space.
After we left the Challenger Learning Center, we went to Purdue University for lunch. I ate a piece of pepperoni pizza, a garlic knot, a Sierra Mist, and an ice cream bar. I also bought Pringles for when we went outside. Most of the Oak Ridge kids played tag, while the Glen Oaks kids played giant Frisbee. When we left, I was sad. It was the best field trip ever!

REMOTE SPECIALIST

On 4/12/11 Oak Ridge Expo went to the Challenger Learning Center on the campus of Purdue University. My job was the Remote Team. I used a robotic arm and a glove box. Then we had to do to the space station because we found a different comet and named it Comet Expo. Then we had to work from the space station.
My favorite part is when we were in the orbiter using the robotic are and glove box to do experiments and take in samples. It was fun to send messages and receive them. When I used the robotic arm for the first time it was kind of hard. The gloves in the glove box were big for me.
When we were in the space station it was hard because you had to find mass, weight, and volume. My partner probably did almost what I said because I was the leader then for the Remote team.
There were lots of emergencies like running out of oxygen ,a meteorite shower, and a huge explosion.
There was an astronaut there. She went on four space mission and two to the international space station. She could of do a spacewalk but she was too short to fit in the spacesuit.
My second favorite part was when we ate with University kids. This was probably the best field trip ever!!!! Then we drove back.

MEDICAL OFFICER

On April 12th 2011 Explorations went to Challenger Learning Center of Northwest Indiana. I was a part of the Medical Team. My job was to check the team for visual reaction time, auditory reaction time, and heart rate. We also went with Glen Oaks. My partner was Melanie. While I was on the orbiter I had to send the data to Melanie in mission control. She determined if they were healthy or unhealthy and had to be retested.
To test for visual reaction time whoever was taking the test had to press a button every time they saw a picture of a spaceship. To test for auditory reaction time the “patient” had to press a button every time they heard a beeping sound. To test for heart rate they had to wear a cuff with a heart rate monitor and do exercises.
If there was a medical emergency while aboard I had to test and treat them and send the data to Melanie in Mission Control. There was an emergency with the probe while aboard because Annie plugged in the wrong piece. The clean room exploded with smoke. I didn’t really explode, but I don’t think I ever saw so much smoke. I had to check her for visual and auditory reaction time and heart rate.
While we were there we found a new comet and named it COMET EXPO.
While we were there an actual astronaut came named Wendy Lawrence, and the press came with her. She told us that she was in four space missions and she told us she never was tall enough for the space walk suit so she never got to space walk.
After the trip we went to Purdue University for lunch and played around in the grass afterwards. The teachers were nice but I think the teachers were trying to get all the sugar out of us and tire us out for the bus ride. I had A LOT of fun and I would recommend it to my friends.

COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST

Our Expo Class went on a field trip to the Challenger Learning Center of northwest Indiana on April 12, 2011.
We had to apply for our jobs. My job was the Communications Officer. I got to communicate with everyone, both on the space shuttle and in Mission Control. Our commanders kept telling me that my job was the most important because if I was not there, nobody would know the impotant things.That made me happy but also a little bit worried because it’s hard to do the work when you know everyone is depending on you. But I got through it.
One thing that scared me on the the mission was that Annie put a part in the probe that I guess was wrong and it pretty much blew up. It didn’t completely blow up, but I have never seen that much smoke before.
There was a lot of emergencies, but Beth saved us with three minutes of air left. Since there were a lot of emergencies I had to talk A LOT!!! But I had lots of fun.
We talked with a REAL astronaught. Her name is Wendy Laurence. She went into space four times. She could have done a space walk, which means you actually get out of the space craft, but she said that she was too short to fit into the suit.
We also video chatted with NASA. The guy we talked to is Jerry Ross. He went into space seven times and has had MANY space walks.There is a college there called Purdue University. Jerry Ross went there and they are very proud of that. As you can see we had an awesome field trip. I would definitley recommend going there.

LIFE SUPPORT SPECIALIST NEDDA

On April 20, 2010 I went to the Challenger Learning Center in Indiana. I was on the Life Support team. Here are some experiences I had:

Orbiter:

The first thing I had to do was to change the oxygen pipe because the oxygen level was low. Then all of a sudden an alarm went off saying that there was only 5 minutes left until the oxygen ran out. At the two minute mark I grabbed one key to change the oxygen pipes. I made it!! I changed all the oxygen pipes in time.

Now I had to take ph levels from the tap water. I used a graduated cylinder, which is a lab cup for measuring liquids. I poured the tap water in the cylinder, added the chemical that needed to go inside, and put two drops of it in the water. The ph level was 6 so it was right on target. The 45 minute mark was up. Now I had to go to Mission Control.

The Navigation Team was looking for Comet Encke, but they found an unidentified object and decided to look at that instead. The unidentified object turned out to be a comet. We named the object New Explorations.

Mission Control: When I got to mission control I saw a bank of computers. I located the Life Support computer and began to get to work. My partner left a note saying he left off on page seven, so I looked at page 7 and saw that there was an emergency.
The emergency was that the ph level was low, so I had to tell my partner to turn off tap water at Station #1.

Lastly, the Navigation Team found the comet that they were loooking for, and the mission was over. We succeeded!!

NAVIGATOR SHAWN

I went to the Challenger Learning Center in Northwest Indiana. This was the best field trip EVER in Oak Ridge history. My job was to navigate and to find comet Encke.

My job was the best job ever. I found this comet and named it Comet New Explorations.
When I was in the spacecraft I had to type in coordinates, look around in starfield to find constellaitions, and I had a cool headset. The constellation we saw was called Andromeda.

My partner was Jordan from Glen Oaks. He helped a lot. We almost died, but Nedda fixed the airlock with ONLYtwo minutes of oxygen left.

We went to the University of Purdue and had lunch with College Students. This was the best field trip ever.

COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST JOE

When I went to the Challenger Space Center in Northwest Indiana on 4/20/10, I was on the Communications Team, or Com Team.

For the Com Team I had to communicate through a headset back and forth through Mission Control and the Orbiter (space shuttle).Sometimes this was very frustrating.

My other part of my job was to see if the officer of the ISO (Isolation) Team, LS (Life Support) Team, MED (Medical) Team, and REM (Remote) Team had new messages ever 10 minutes.

A few messages I sent were, “ Iso Team needs more chemicals”, and “We see an unidentified object”. Some messages I received were “Congratulations, we discovered a new comet.” And “Oxygen is running out in 5 minutes”.

Some people I worked with were my partner, the Data Team officer, the Iso Team officer, the Ls Team officer, the Med Team officer, the Rem Team officer, the Senator, and the Captain of the Mission.

This was one of my favorite field trips!

DATA SPECIALIST KARL

We went to the Challenger Learning Center on April 20, and it was the best trip I’ve ever been on. I was on the Data Team. The Data Team is the central messaging center of the shuttle or space station. The instructions to my job are very simple. Whenever a message pops up on the computer screen I have to either send it to the Communications Officer to be broadcasted to the space station, or I send it to the person on the shuttle it’s addressed to.

Our mission was to find comet Encke, launch a probe to it, and find out more info on the comet. Sadly the comet wasn’t found so we changed course and found a new comet. That wasn’t the only problem, though. The first was that the oxygen tanks weren’t working correctly and we had five minutes of air left, but literally in the last minute it was turned back on.

The other problem was that when we were going to launch the probe, we hit a meteor shower, but the probe evaded it. We saw the probe launch from the shuttle, too.

The trip had to be the best I was ever on, but wait! We also got to eat at the Purdue University Student Union and I bought pizza with cheese fries and an Oreo ice cream bar.

REMOTE SPECIALIST JAROD

When I went to the Challenger Learning Center I was the Remote Team specialist. On the Remote Team I got to work with the robotic arm. The robotic arm is complicated to use, though. I had to use it to transport meteoroids to Mission Control. It was fun.

After that I had to work in the glovebox which is a self-contained mini- lab, used to protect delicate objects. I used gloves to touch meteoroids and put them in order by numbers in the glovebox.

When we switched jobs I had to fill out a worksheet and work on the computer to test plants to see which plant had something wrong with it. It had chlorophyll. Then I had to see what made it have chlorophyll.

Our mission in space was to rendezvous with Comet Encke, but instead we found an unidentified flying object in space. After careful testing we discovered that it was a newly discovered comet. Because comets are named after the people who find them, we named our new comet Comet New Explorations. We successfully launched a probe into the comet’s tail and brought back many different kinds of information to study when we got back to Earth.

The lunch at the University of Chicago Student Union and everything else was fun. I really liked this field trip.

ISOLATION SPECIALIST ADA

For Ms.Dembek’s class we went on a field trip to the Challenger Learning Center in Indiana on April 20th , 2010. We all had a really great time there.

Our mission was to locate Comet Encke. We supposedly got on an orbiter and launched into space. On the orbiter we had all kinds of different jobs like Data, Communications, Life Support and more. I was on the Isolation team. My job was to measure the radioactivity of oxygen filters A-E. I had to use a robotic arm to pick up the filters and bring them to the sensor of a device that measures radioactivity called a Geiger Counter. It was pretty hard to use the robotic arm but it was also very fun and interesting.

In Mission Control my job, I would think, was the easiest of all. All I had to do was to answer some simple questions on a worksheet. Also my partner, from the orbiter, sent me radiation readings of the oxygen filters that they took and I had to find the average radiation readings for them to see if they were normal, which they were (thank godness).

During our mission on the spacecraft we also had a couple emergencies. The major one was that we were running out of air, but the Life Support team fixed the problem and we were saved.

In the end it turned out that instead of locating Comet Encke, we discovered a new comet and named it New Explorations. This was one of the best field trips I’ve ever been on.

PROBE SPECIALIST KEVIN

Yesterday, we went to the Challenger Learning Center located at Purdue University in Indiana. I was placed on the Probe Team. My job was to put certain items on certain places on the motherboard. A motherboard receives signals from all components. Then I gave directions to my partner in Mission Control.

Our mission was to find Comet Enke and take pictures using the probe I was building, but we found an unidentified object. We tried to find out what it was, but the Navigation team took care of that.

After we found out that it was a comet, we flew into an asteroid shower. If we had launched the probe then, the mission could be failed and the probe would have been destroyed.

We needed to dock and then make a crew change. We went to the Mission Control, while Glen Oaks went on to the spaceship.

After we had the docking and returned to Earth, we went to a debriefing room to name the new comet we found. The group of astronauts named the comet “New Explorations”.
There were problems on our mission, including an asteroid shower. There were a lot of problems in Life Support like no oxygen, and contaminated tap water.
After we finished our mission, we went to have lunch at the Student Union. This was probably the best field trip ever.

Navigators - Hannah & Justyna

We went to the Challenger Learning Center of Northwest Indiana. This was an amazing trip, and if you have a chance, you should go. We were on the Navigation Team. Our job was easier than we expected. We used a point-to-point headset, but it was hard to hear because of the noise level.

Our job was to triangulate stars, triangulate the comet we were rendezvousing with, and send the probe through the comet to collect data. When we were triangulating the stars we found an unknown object. We figured out it was a comet, and we named it Comet Teamwork ’09.

There was an emergency in the clean room because there was smoke in it. The Probe team was in there while it happened, so they needed to be checked by the medical team. This happened in the Orbiter.

In Mission Control we needed to launch a probe into the comet we discovered, Comet Teamwork ’09. It started to get a little pressuring because we weren’t ready when we were supposed to. Everything was a success and our mission was complete!

Remote Team - Jordan and Dennis

We went to the Challenger Learning Center. Our job was easy and fun. We used the robotic arm, studied plant samples, and use the glove box. When we were on the Orbiter, we weren’t so sure what to do sometimes. In Mission Control, we did not do much. We waited for a message to arrive, but the probe was finished before they sent a message. The Navigation Team discovered a new comet and we decided to go after that one instead of Comet Encke.

Probe Specialists - Evan and Adrian

When we first got to the Challenger Learning Center, we were very nervous. Then when we got into the spacecraft, we felt calm. On our mission we had to build a probe and deploy it to comet Encke. A probe is a mechanical robot that collects high speed particles using aerogel.

Before we went into the spacecraft, we had to pass through an airlock. An airlock is a capsule that traps air from getting out of the spacecraft. Then we entered into the clean room. A clean room is a room that keeps particles away from the probe. Next, we had to build a probe from components and test cables. Later on, there was a minor explosion in the clean room which shut down the lights. Poison gases came out of the airlock. The Medical Team had to check us if we were ok or hurt.

The Navigation Team thought they have found a supernova. If the supernova would explode it would damage the spacecraft, so we had to dock on the space station. We discussed what the object can be. Some people had opinions of a comet, a planet, or a supernova. We ended up identifying it as a comet.

Life Support Team - Emily & Patrick

In the beginning we both thought that our job was going to be easy, but we were wrong.

The Orbiter: In the Orbiter we had to take water tests, test solar filters, and take measurements of ph levels. During Patrick’s medical test someone broke the air lock in the clean room. In the Orbiter the navigation team thought that they found a super nova, but it turned out to be a comet and the Navigation Team named the comet Teamwork. When we found the super nova (Comet Teamwork) the astronauts in the orbiter had to dock with the Mission Control space craft, and then we switched places with Mission Control.

Mission Control: In Mission Control we had to test results, watch what the orbiter was doing, send and receive messages, and help the students who were in the orbiter stay alive. We had an emergency on the orbiter; the students didn’t turn the water valve off in time and the master alarm went off. The master alarm also went off when there was a meteor shower. We had to use a special computer to send and receive messages and the mouse was very difficult to use. We had a successful mission. After the mission we ate at the Purdue University. We had lots of fun!!!!

Medical Team - Erica & Myah

We were the Medical Team on our fieldtrip to the Challenger Learning Center in Hammond, Indiana, which was very important on our mission. Erica expected it to be very pressured, but she also thought it would still be interesting. Myah thought that it would be hard and extremely confusing, but as it turned out, we were both VERY wrong. It was really fun and exciting because we had a chance to test many crew members.

When we were in mission control, we were waiting for the kids in Glen Oaks, which is another part of the Medical Team, to send the data from Orbiter. When we received the data, we were to record it on the data log. When we were in the Orbiter, the Navigation Team discovered a comet and named it “Comet Teamwork”. We were originally going to rendezvous with Comet Encke, but changed our minds and rendezvoused with Comet Teamwork, the once in a life-time chance. It was a great experience, and we both really would like to go back.