It's the OMG Nasa Pre-Apollocon Tour Report! (Part One)
I think the fact that I was the GOH Apollocon (mumble) weekends ago and am only just now posting my OMG NASA! pre-con tour report indicates very clearly that I'm a novelist not a journalist. I'm used to deadlines that are a year away. Also, this is likely to be in multiple parts because it was an amazing tour and I don't want to sell any of it short.
(warning: photo heavy; contains me)
That said:
It's the OMG NASA Pre-Apollocon Tour Report! (Part One)
First, a quick over-view. If the OMG in the title wasn't enough to clue you in, this tour was amazing. I'm not talking the "wander around peer down at distant bits from the cat-walk, finish in 90 minutes and end up in the gift shop" kind of tour, I'm talking about wearing a "Director's Guest" badge -- which we were told to guard with our lives -- and being able to get up close and personal with all sorts of cool stuff and cooler people. Tourists on the catwalks took pictures of us! In all honesty, I still drop "well, when I was on the NASA tour" into conversations every chance I get. You hang around with geeks, you get a surprising number of opportunities...
Our tour guide was Dr. Paul Abell, Lead Scientist for Planetary Small Bodies, Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center. Paul was a wonderful guide -- not only was he willing to answer a million questions but he arranged for a number of his collegues to meet with us and answer questions about their departments. He's also a great voice for NASA; I had a chance to read a recent paper of his and it was an amazing piece of writing, balancing science with accessiblity.
Also on the tour was the Apollocon Artist Guest of Honour Jael and her husband Greg. I couldn't have asked for better people to take this tour with. Not only are they truly nice and interesting and fun people, they were as excited about being at NASA as I was.
So before we got to Houston, Paul sent an email telling us to wear comfortable shoes and clothes and that he'd be picking us up at seven. AM. In the morning. And we should have a good breakfast first. Which meant I needed to get up at six. AM. In the morning. "NASA!" I told myself, set the alarm, and proceeded to wake up every hour on the hour afraid I wasn't going to hear the world's most obnoxious buzz.
I met Jael and Greg in the lobby and Paul picked us up exactly at seven. He let me take my coffee into his car. I only spilled it on myself...
Before we get going, I have to say that everyone we met at NASA was more than informative, they were welcoming and enthusiastic. I have never met people who loved their jobs the way the people I met at NASA people do. They were willing to take the time to share what they do because they think what they do is just as cool as we do.
Our tour started at the Nuetral Bouancy Lab (NBL) where Tim Holland, a NASA intern just hired on full time, joined us. (someday, I'm going to be able to say I knew Tim when)
At the NBL, we met Dan Sedej who lead us up to the pool. Yes, THE pool. Where the astronauts practice for EVA's.
Dan told us about about how the pool is used, about the mock up of the International Space Station (ISS)(that's part of it in the photo, the water is that clear), about the dive teams, about the safety measures, about the hours the astronauts clock... and then he got just a bit upstaged because...
ASTRONAUTS!
This is astronaut Jeanette Epps getting suited up to go into the pool. She's on a crane that'll lift her in where she'll then be tugged down into position by the divers.
Like this.
But that wasn't all. This is a photo of Jael and I with astronaut Satoshi Furukawa who was being suited up on the other side of the crane. (I also have a photo of us with Dr. Epps but she looks significantly cooler on her own)(which is not to say Dr. Furukawa wouldn't too but this is the only shot I have of him.)(and I ended up turning the shot with Dr. Epps into an icon anyway...)
In spite of us snatching time out of their insanely busy schedual, both astronauts were gracious although they couldn't talk long. But that's okay. Because they weren't the only astronauts at the pool that morning...
This is Jael and I talking with astronaut Mike Foreman. Captain Foreman (USN ret) was able to talk to us for awhile. He has extensive EVA experience, has spent a significant amount of time training in the pool and questions Dan couldn't answer, Mike could.
I took a lot of photos of the pool but eventually Dan got us moving again and we went up to the control room where we watched the underwater action on some very, very clear moniters.
These are Dr. Furukawa's legs moving up into the air lock mockup which he'll then exit to begin practising. How, you may be asking, can you tell one underwater pair of big white space suit legs from another pair? Good question. We asked that too. Their lines are different colours. No reason to make it complicated if it doesn't have to be.
Although we'd have been willing to stay and watch the moniters all morning, Dan did have a job to get back to and there was still a lot of NASA yet to see...
(warning: photo heavy; contains me)
That said:
It's the OMG NASA Pre-Apollocon Tour Report! (Part One)
First, a quick over-view. If the OMG in the title wasn't enough to clue you in, this tour was amazing. I'm not talking the "wander around peer down at distant bits from the cat-walk, finish in 90 minutes and end up in the gift shop" kind of tour, I'm talking about wearing a "Director's Guest" badge -- which we were told to guard with our lives -- and being able to get up close and personal with all sorts of cool stuff and cooler people. Tourists on the catwalks took pictures of us! In all honesty, I still drop "well, when I was on the NASA tour" into conversations every chance I get. You hang around with geeks, you get a surprising number of opportunities...
Our tour guide was Dr. Paul Abell, Lead Scientist for Planetary Small Bodies, Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center. Paul was a wonderful guide -- not only was he willing to answer a million questions but he arranged for a number of his collegues to meet with us and answer questions about their departments. He's also a great voice for NASA; I had a chance to read a recent paper of his and it was an amazing piece of writing, balancing science with accessiblity.
Also on the tour was the Apollocon Artist Guest of Honour Jael and her husband Greg. I couldn't have asked for better people to take this tour with. Not only are they truly nice and interesting and fun people, they were as excited about being at NASA as I was.
So before we got to Houston, Paul sent an email telling us to wear comfortable shoes and clothes and that he'd be picking us up at seven. AM. In the morning. And we should have a good breakfast first. Which meant I needed to get up at six. AM. In the morning. "NASA!" I told myself, set the alarm, and proceeded to wake up every hour on the hour afraid I wasn't going to hear the world's most obnoxious buzz.
I met Jael and Greg in the lobby and Paul picked us up exactly at seven. He let me take my coffee into his car. I only spilled it on myself...
Before we get going, I have to say that everyone we met at NASA was more than informative, they were welcoming and enthusiastic. I have never met people who loved their jobs the way the people I met at NASA people do. They were willing to take the time to share what they do because they think what they do is just as cool as we do.
Our tour started at the Nuetral Bouancy Lab (NBL) where Tim Holland, a NASA intern just hired on full time, joined us. (someday, I'm going to be able to say I knew Tim when)
At the NBL, we met Dan Sedej who lead us up to the pool. Yes, THE pool. Where the astronauts practice for EVA's.
Dan told us about about how the pool is used, about the mock up of the International Space Station (ISS)(that's part of it in the photo, the water is that clear), about the dive teams, about the safety measures, about the hours the astronauts clock... and then he got just a bit upstaged because...
ASTRONAUTS!
This is astronaut Jeanette Epps getting suited up to go into the pool. She's on a crane that'll lift her in where she'll then be tugged down into position by the divers.
Like this.
But that wasn't all. This is a photo of Jael and I with astronaut Satoshi Furukawa who was being suited up on the other side of the crane. (I also have a photo of us with Dr. Epps but she looks significantly cooler on her own)(which is not to say Dr. Furukawa wouldn't too but this is the only shot I have of him.)(and I ended up turning the shot with Dr. Epps into an icon anyway...)
In spite of us snatching time out of their insanely busy schedual, both astronauts were gracious although they couldn't talk long. But that's okay. Because they weren't the only astronauts at the pool that morning...
This is Jael and I talking with astronaut Mike Foreman. Captain Foreman (USN ret) was able to talk to us for awhile. He has extensive EVA experience, has spent a significant amount of time training in the pool and questions Dan couldn't answer, Mike could.
I took a lot of photos of the pool but eventually Dan got us moving again and we went up to the control room where we watched the underwater action on some very, very clear moniters.
These are Dr. Furukawa's legs moving up into the air lock mockup which he'll then exit to begin practising. How, you may be asking, can you tell one underwater pair of big white space suit legs from another pair? Good question. We asked that too. Their lines are different colours. No reason to make it complicated if it doesn't have to be.
Although we'd have been willing to stay and watch the moniters all morning, Dan did have a job to get back to and there was still a lot of NASA yet to see...