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I watched those commercials during Saturday morning cartoons like the rest of you, and I know at least one of you jerks grew up as stupid rich jerks, so tell me what happened when your parents sent you to Space Camp! Did you go to space? Did you get put in the thing that does like 10 G's on your skull and die? Or was it all dried ice cream and hanging upside down like a bat?
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Jul 6, 2015 08:52
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 04:30 |
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They brainwashed us to believe that the moon landings were real
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Jul 6, 2015 09:17
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What exactly do you want to know? If its about your parents, they don't love you. Or you would have gone like I did.
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Jul 6, 2015 16:41
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Grem posted:Did you get put in the thing that does like 10 G's on your skull and die? Yeah it sucked hth
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Jul 6, 2015 17:37
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epsilon posted:What exactly do you want to know? If its about your parents, they don't love you. Or you would have gone like I did. I want to know what it's like to grow up with rich parents who send you away to do fake astronaut stuff so they can hold week long swinger parties in their 8 bedroom house.
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Jul 6, 2015 19:08
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I was a super loving spoiled only child who loved space poo poo so I went to not one but two different space camps. The one in Houston was kind of poo poo. They didn't have any of their own facilities and the simulators weren't so hot. I won't speak much on that one. The one in Birmingham was fantastic. Their simulation yard had full scale mockups of a shuttle, a station, and a mission control. Most of your time was spent training for one of the big simulations. For my age group, 12 to 16 I think it was, there were two 4ish hour Sims during the week. For the older age group, there was only one but it was a whopping 10 hours. The rest of your time was split between enjoying the facilities (moon gravity tether, centrifuge, planetarium, etc) of the space center and listening to lectures. For example, the lecture I remember most clearly was one on the then-newly developed carbon fiber composite materials. They showed off a prototype carbon fiber bike and highlighted all the interesting properties of the material, as well as going into the various likely uses for it. There was also a large tank for simulated weightlessness, just like the pools they use in the for reals training, but only the over-16 group got to use it. Anyway, it was a very structured experience. They had several four story dorms full of kids to look after, so I suppose they couldn't afford to just let us run loose. There were only a few free periods during the week. Otherwise you were training, getting lectured, or taking youtrainingr group's turn using the various facilities. They got us all up hella early and the day didn't end till loving late. I was so exhausted by the end that I pitched a fit when my parents told me we were going to go hit up the beach in Florida for a few days instead of heading straight home. I just wanted to climb into my own bed and sleep for a month. It was probably the most hysterical I've ever been in my life and I still burn with shame whenever I think about it. Tiredness was no excuse, my parents spent an assload of money and time out of their busy lives to make the brat happy and the first thething he did after was pitch a loving fit. Ahem. the simulations were obviously the crown jewel of the affair and I freaking loved them. In the first, I was capcom. Don't let the position of professional talker fool you, its a bitch and a half of a job. For the second Sim I was the shuttle commander, which is sort of like being a combines copilot, nav specialist, and link with the control team. Its an incredibly exciting position and one of the ones you don't get without first serving 20+ years in the air force or navy as a pilot, in the real world. They threw us some kinks that made that particular Sim really exciting for me and my pilot. Just like in the real deal, everything you do in a Sim comes directly out of one of the illimitable procedure manuals, and rehersed to death. Nothing happens seat of the pants style, even during unplanned emergencies. There is a manual for literally everything. Apollo 13 style quick thinking simply isn't given room to come into play. If you're not doing what the manual tells you, its because everything is so completely FUBAR that its not possible to plan for. It has almost never happened in modern space exploration, and when it does the astronauts involved are usually dead before they have a chance to try individual initiative. There's lots more I could discuss, but I'm sick of phone posting for the moment. If anyone has any specific questions I'd be glad to answer them. Oh, it cost like 800 bucks. Not too much more expensive than a traditional summer camp. Also, there's an adult version of the program that's more intensive, more tank time and some truly punishing Sims, both in length and in the poo poo they throw at you. I'm determined to sign up some day, when I have more money to blow than I do right now. It was fun as gently caress and I'd love to do the balls-hard version
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Jul 7, 2015 00:10
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epsilon posted:What exactly do you want to know? If its about your parents, they don't love you. Or you would have gone like I did. 20 years later and I'm still bitter I didn't get to go to spacecamp. I hope you get a papercut or some equally painful yet not lasting injury.
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Jul 7, 2015 02:12
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HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE posted:20 years later and I'm still bitter I didn't get to go to spacecamp. I hope you get a papercut or some equally painful yet not lasting injury. If it makes you feel better I was hit by a car while on my bike April 7th. Its been all downhill since space camp.
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Jul 7, 2015 03:09
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You dont get sent to spacecamp your parent goes with you at least thats how it worked at the one in florida and at the end we watched a space shuttle launch into space at cape canaveral
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Jul 7, 2015 07:42
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also lol if you think you need to be rich to go to spacecamp since it was like 90% white trash kids from the south and like 1 british kid and me
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Jul 7, 2015 07:44
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They made a movie in the 80s named, get this, SpaceCamp. It was a documentary filmed in real time.
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Jul 7, 2015 12:06
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Space camp sounds awful im glad i never went
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Jul 7, 2015 13:46
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It was a lot of classroom time, learning from experts, with a few cool simulation things every now and then. I went on that gyroscope thing and had to lie down for a few minutes because the world wouldn't stop spinning. Also got to use a shuttle landing simulator, push buttons in a shuttle mock-up while we read a script, and jumped around in a harness that simulated moon gravity. We slept in a big open room on bunk beds (it looked like a stereotypical military dorm setup). There was one guy who did a liquid nitrogen demonstration that was pretty cool. I also remember being woken up in the middle of the night to watch a rocket launch. Oh, and at mealtime, there was unlimited soda and lemonade, which to a kid away from parents seems absolutely incredible until you drink like five glasses and end up needing to leave the next class every five minutes to use the bathroom. Was a little disappointed all week that there were no annoying robots and we were never accidentally launched into space. Some serious bullshit. Pretty fun overall. Oh, and this was the Florida one.
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Jul 7, 2015 15:00
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Nathilus posted:I was a super loving spoiled only child who loved space poo poo so I went to not one but two different space camps. The one in Houston was kind of poo poo. They didn't have any of their own facilities and the simulators weren't so hot. I won't speak much on that one. What was the male-to-female ratio?
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Jul 7, 2015 18:44
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Skeesix posted:What was the male-to-female ratio? For me it was honestly close to 50/50.
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Jul 7, 2015 21:11
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How did they keep a bunch of kids from snoozing through a bunch of boring lectures about carbon fiber?
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Jul 7, 2015 21:20
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They didn't care about sleeping kids at the one I went to. Course, they didn't particularly care since they were already paid. The kids who wanted to be there listened because the info was kinda cool. The kids who were there just because of parents wanting them to be there just kind of did whatever. Worked pretty well.
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Jul 7, 2015 21:28
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I went to the one in Florida the summer between 7th and 8th grade (early 90s). I remember thinking I was so cool because I got to fly down by myself and it seems crazy now but on the flight down they let me go into the cockpit while we were cruising and look around. When I landed there was a Space Camp councilor there, wearing a flight suit, that collected all of us and put us on a bus to the camp. That was my first time at the Orlando airport and I thought it was crazy with their monorail connecting the different sections. We stayed in a hotel, 4 to a room, near the camp and would get bused back and forth each day. I remember that we spent time in lectures but I don't really remember anything about them. What I do remember was the same things most people said above; the moon bounce, gyroscope, training for the sims. We also took a trip to Kennedy Space Center one day and went through the museum. There wasn't a shuttle being prepped at the time but we did get to see the gigantic crawler they used to move the shuttles to the launch pad. I remember that we did two simulations; one as ground crew and one a shuttle crew. I don't remember what I did for the ground crew part but I remember that I was a Mission Specialist for the shuttle crew which meant that I got to out on a 'spacewalk' to repair a satellite. I got to put on a fake spacesuit and get strapped into a contraption that simulated the jet packs they wore and go out and mess with a satellite. It was an awesome time and I still have my blue team visor that everyone in my group signed in box somewhere.
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Jul 7, 2015 22:06
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Skeesix posted:What was the male-to-female ratio? It was more even than you'd think. Girls love space and junk too. In my case, both times it was close to equal. They didn't keep kids from sleepin or zoning out during lectures. Who cares? Its not school. Everyone gets paid regardless of whether any particular kid loves the lecture. That said, everyone was there because they were a space nerd, and the lectures were about space nerd stuff, done by people who were pretty impressive. A few of the lectures bored me but I still played attention for nerd cred.
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Jul 7, 2015 22:21
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Grem posted:How did they keep a bunch of kids from snoozing through a bunch of boring lectures about carbon fiber? The lectures are like Bill Nye tv show levels of complicated its not hard.
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Jul 7, 2015 22:25
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Nathilus posted:It was more even than you'd think. Girls love space and junk too. In my case, both times it was close to equal. I figured it would have been something close to computer camp levels. That was... not equal.
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Jul 7, 2015 23:02
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Skeesix posted:I figured it would have been something close to computer camp levels. That was... not equal. You gotta remember that the US used its space program as propaganda for literally decades. Hell I was born in 82 and by the time I was old enough to think about things the cold war was nearly over and we'd won the space race 15-20 years earlier, but it was still an extremely common draw on childhood imaginations. Thus, even though its as stem-y as the hardest science, the gender parity in space based sciences have always been better than similar fields. Astronauts themselves still cant wildly toward the male side because a lot of them come directly from the military, but female interest remains pretty high, and in the last 30 or so years, at least, women are well represented among groundside staff.
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Jul 8, 2015 00:05
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I went to the Florida one in like 1993. Don't remember a whole lot but I do remember the classrooms, simulator (our shuttle's landing gear failed so we skid to a stop), dorms, and eating dehydrated ice cream. Also for some reason I got The Right Stuff award at the end. Also I remember as part of the prep for the shuttle simulator we got some ultra-detailed technical manual on the space shuttle. I remember thinking to myself "why the hell would they give something like this to an 8 year old?"
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Jul 8, 2015 02:19
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I did the program for older teens due to the generosity of a rich aunt, and my experience was basically the same as the ones outlined above: there were the space geeks and the kids who slept through lecture. As a space geek who never really enjoyed summer camp, this was a rare exception. I think the sim length had been shortened by the time I went through it (there were rumors of 48 hour sims), but the 6-8 hours we had were still the highlight of the trip. Basically it took everything I hated about summer camp (sleeping outdoors, arts and crafts, songs, quiet time, etc) and replaced it with space-themed activities. I loved it, but if you weren't obsessive about the space program it was no better than a traditional camp.
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Jul 19, 2015 06:56
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I found out a few months ago that space camp for adults is a thing that exists and now I have a new life goal.
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Jul 19, 2015 08:07
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Otto Von Jizzmark posted:Space camp sounds awful im glad i never went It was, the people were all assholes except for the Cubans who were the only kids that didn't treat me like poo poo for being Canadian. Florida is a loving hole, I assume they launch rockets from there so nothing of any value is lost if there's a catastrophic explosion.
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Jul 19, 2015 18:45
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 space camp got cancelled when i was in middle school due to 9/11.
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Jul 19, 2015 19:26
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zVxTeflon posted:also lol if you think you need to be rich to go to spacecamp since it was like 90% white trash kids from the south and like 1 british kid and me being a white trash kid from the south i can confirm this. The elementary school i was in sponsored the trip so it was like 90 bucks. if your an adult its lame if your an 8 year old it owns
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Jul 19, 2015 22:39
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Agean90 posted:if your an adult its lame if your an 8 year old it owns It owns a very limited amount. Between space camp and Universal Studios, Universal Studios kicked way more rear end and had fewer drawbacks. Flying the shuttle simulator was the major cool part, and it was only perhaps a tenth as awesome as doing a Young Eagles flight (which is free!).
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Jul 19, 2015 22:53
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ntan1 posted:
A terrorists sends his kid to space camp fast forward 30 years "a 2nd space shuttle just hit the moon"
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Jul 19, 2015 23:59
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Flagrant Abuse posted:I found out a few months ago that space camp for adults is a thing that exists and now I have a new life goal. This is the one I went to. I didn't even know Florida had one until this thread. There was an adult course going on when I was there, even, and it made me mad jealous. They got to use the weightless tank, which my age group didn't, and they did hella long overnight simulations. One day I'm gonna do that poo poo.
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Jul 20, 2015 02:03
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Nathilus posted:This is the one I went to. I didn't even know Florida had one until this thread. There was an adult course going on when I was there, even, and it made me mad jealous. They got to use the weightless tank, which my age group didn't, and they did hella long overnight simulations. One day I'm gonna do that poo poo. To be honest, it sounds way more awesome to do it as an adult than as a kid.
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Jul 20, 2015 02:10
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PT6A posted:To be honest, it sounds way more awesome to do it as an adult than as a kid. Its pretty dope even as a kid. I mean the adult course features longer simulations and scuba gear, but I assume the spark isn't all there. When you are a kid your whole future is laid out unknowably in front of you and, who knows? Maybe you could be an astronaut! When you're an adult you realize that you have to work for a living or marry rich. I'm still totally gonna do it when I have the cash, though. I mean, gently caress it. People blow money on way stupider garbage.
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Jul 20, 2015 13:39
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I went when I was 12. Like Nathilus, I went to the Alabama one (it's actually in Huntsville, not Birmingham). First time I flew anywhere sans parents, which was neat in itself. Other than some dickwad stealing my top bunk the first night (I literally came back into the room to find my poo poo all over the floor) it was loving awsome. Being a nerdchild surrounded by other nerdchildren was all I could have hoped for. I thought it was $1500 (this was ~1994). My memory is generally poo poo, and I lost my mom's camera on that trip (well, I left it somewhere and it was not there when I returned. Probably the same douche the took my bunk heh) so I can't give a ton of details. We designed and built models of moon bases. Made some rockets (RIP ladybug who had the misfortune of being test pilot). Did some trivia contests which my team always won because the five nerdiest of us there immediately found and glommed onto each other at the beginning of the week. I don't recall a lot of lectures. I do recall driving one of the counselors insane with my constant wandering all over the place. Like Nathilus said, the two simulations were the highlight of the week (though they weren't longer than an hour or two IIRC). I think I was something like 'mission specialist' on the space station, and me and the other kid in there were supposed to be doing science experiments (it was something with lasers and prisms). Generally they throw a couple emergencies at you for fun, but during our second sim it was nonstop emergencies. I was getting pissed, like I wanna pretend to do some science here, bitches! Nathilus was right-on about the manuals; when there was an emergency, you looked up the issue in the manual and had to (correctly) follow the steps to recover. IIRC one of my friends there ended up crashing the shuttle. Oops. Like any summer camp, how much you enjoy it is a combination of your attitude and the attitude of the counselors and the other campers. I managed to find a group of kids that were way into it and we had a blast.
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Jul 22, 2015 02:34
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Yeah, Huntsville. My bad. I can't tell shitholes in Alabama apart. I'm pretty sure you're right about the Sim length, too. 2 hours seems more right than what I was misremembering.
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Jul 22, 2015 15:50
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Nathilus posted:Yeah, Huntsville. My bad. I can't tell shitholes in Alabama apart. You probably flew into Birmingham so it's not surprising that's what stuck in your head. I remember when I was there they got us all real excited about the ISS. That was 7th grade. I was in college before the first ISS crew went up. Aagh! 
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Jul 23, 2015 12:21
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its HIM posted:You probably flew into Birmingham so it's not surprising that's what stuck in your head. We actually drove, and not even through Birmingham that time. I'm just an idiot. I appreciate the excuse you managed to come up with for me, though. Yeah, space poo poo takes forever to go through the pipeline. The didn't get carbon composite materials out commercially till like 10 years after that lecture and even now one of those bikes they were showing off is prohibitively expensive. I used to guess that it was the government part of the equation that made everything take so god damned long. But now we have private companies launching and developing technolgy for launches, and they move just about as slow. Turns out its just a long, expensive process.
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Jul 24, 2015 05:37
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I went in summer '97 to the Huntsville one. I was an 11 year old nerd kid and it was fantastic. It was like scout camp except replace all of the dumb tent bullshit with lectures and movies about space, and training for a shuttle sim mission. I was in charge of mission control and got to rattle off the names of the other roles, await their go/no-go, and press a green or red button accordingly. That probably stood as the finest moment of my life until I got my first blowjob. I remember seeing concept art of the ISS and a timeline for production/deployment that was not at all kept. There was a gyroscope thing that you strapped in and got spun around. It was pretty much guided activities for the entire week, you all woke up and went to bed at the same time in a barracks style room and had meals together and so on. You did most of the activities with the squad of ~10-15 kids that were on your simulator team. I only remember one sim mission toward the end that was just a few hours, although I went to the easymode version for 5th/6th graders. You could see the scuba tank and the older kids running around. The subject of the coolest rumors was the military aviation themed camp that ran in the same facility, where they had to periodically scramble into cockpit simulators and fight off attacks. One of those scrambles happened in the middle of the night and everyone got shot down, and then got thrown out into the woods and had to hide/evade the instructors because they ejected into enemy territory. It was not really a horde of stereotypically rich kids (although it's not like 11 year olds could drive up in their bentleys and make it obvious so idk). Mostly kids from the south and midwest who were nerdy and into space.
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Jul 24, 2015 17:10
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It certainly seemed a lot more expensive when I was 9 or 10 or whenever the hell I was when I actually went, because I had no concept of money, but looking at it now, it's vaguely expensive, but hardly expensive enough that only rich people can afford it. It's no more expensive than most all-inclusive vacations, really.
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Jul 24, 2015 17:17
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PT6A posted:It certainly seemed a lot more expensive when I was 9 or 10 or whenever the hell I was when I actually went, because I had no concept of money, but looking at it now, it's vaguely expensive, but hardly expensive enough that only rich people can afford it. It's no more expensive than most all-inclusive vacations, really. Yeah its just that most parents aren't willing to spend nearly a grand for a week of camp. A kid often has an easier job begging for a multigrand family Disney vacation or something. It takes a particularly doting set of parents (or desperate to get a kid the gently caress outta dodge for a week) to blow that kind of money on the kid alone, for just a week. I remember having to play up the educational angle to get my folks to see it as worth the dosh. The joke was on me in that regard, in the end. Edit: by the way, for those of you who went to the Huntsville one. Were you woken up with airhorns and super soakers or were my specific counsellors just dicks? That poo poo was pure torture. Nathilus fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Jul 25, 2015 |
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Jul 25, 2015 03:33
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