I went to the GT Colorado Club's fall meeting. The speaker at the meeting was Dr. John Stevens, of Lockheed Martin. He spoke about the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) project that has recently been awarded by NASA. First it will be used to dock at the space station, then a trip to the moon, and they're aiming to get men to Mars by the 2030's.
This stuff has always fascinated me. It probably all started as it did for a lot of kids in the 1980's when the movie "Space Camp" came out. Compared to the filming done for Apollo 13, Space Camp is laugh out loud funny. They sort of simulate no-gravity at the beginning of the film, but it's forgotten as the film goes on. What is so surprising is the stars in the film: Joaquin Phoenix, Kelly Preston and Tate Donovan. My favorite quote from the movie...."it's just Space Camp". You really have to see it, it's all in the delivery of the line.I think I began asking my parents to send me to Space Camp for the next couple of years after that. I finally did go the summer after 7th grade. By then I was too old for Space Camp, instead it was Space Academy. All 3 of us went. Usually you would share a room with 5 other people, but I think it was too crowded. Eileen and I shared a counselor's room. They were on the ends. There were only 12 of those rooms in the building. 
You can see in the picture, we had the bubble windows. During the camp, you simulated 2 trips to space. You had to take a test at the beginning of the camp, then rank your choices for roles in the simulation. Eileen and I were both payload specialists for the first trip. This meant we ran experiments in the shuttle. Technically Eileen was the doctor on board. She had to keep running "medicine" up to the pilot. Really, the medicine was Skittles. Then while Eileen was upstairs with the pilots I was instructed to come down with a stomach ache. Eileen was supposed to recognize this and diagnosis me. I must have been doing a bad acting job because Eileen just kept telling me to cut it out and stop kidding around. Geez Nins, after all...it's just Space Camp. We also rode in the multi-axis trainer, experienced 1/6 our weight, designed a space station and built and launched rockets. Ah yes, I am a dork at heart because I thought all of this was very cool.
