Students get a taste of space in Astronaut Academy

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By LISA MUNGER / Lincoln Journal Star

Twelve teenagers donned scuba gear and dove down beneath the water Thursday, imagining what it would be like to be astronauts in a weightless environment.

The simulation at Heartland Scuba was modeled after a training exercise used by astronauts at Johnson Space Center in Houston to prepare for space missions.

“In space, there is no floor; if you lose grip of anything — it’s gone,” said Evan Killeen, director of education for the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland.

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Giving some tips, Brian Schreve instructs participants of the Underwater Missions summer camp hosted by the Strategic Air and Space Museum at Heartland Scuba Center Thursday before completing their mission in the pool.(Cody Duty)

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Underwater Astronaut Academy

The Strategic Air and Space Museum’s Astronaut Academy was at Heartland Scuba Center to simulate the neutral buoyancy lab at the Johnson Space C...

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Thursday’s exercise was the grand finale of a weeklong astronaut academy that included a rock-climbing wall and full-motion flight simulator for two girls and 10 boys from Nebraska, New Jersey and Kansas.

In the 18-by-36-foot pool, they learned how to scuba dive and simulate weightlessness using a technique called neutral buoyancy.  To achieve neutral buoyancy —described by NASA as a state in which something has an equal tendency to float or sink — they suspended themselves in place under water.  

Astronauts training for NASA missions use larger pools at Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center in Florida to practice jobs they plan to do in space.

Astronauts do underwater training in full space gear, including cumbersome space gloves. For the campers, rubber gloves from Menards and scuba gear was tough enough.

Campers were asked to reassemble a broken satellite (in fact, a construction of PVC pipe and mesh lining) from pieces strewn at the bottom of the pool.

“All of the pieces of everything threw us off,” said Anthony Ashbridge, 13, of Bellevue.

Still, his was the first group in the history of the program to successfully assemble the PVC satellite within the allotted time period.

Some of the kids at the camp said they hope to follow in the path of Ashland native Clay Anderson and become astronauts.

“I hope to become a mechanical engineer,” said Gabriel Vasquez, 15, of New Jersey. “This has been really fun.”

Vasquez served as a de-facto team leader for the other group in the challenge. Just as his team members seemed to pull things together, all the pieces fell to the deepest part of the pool, scattershot. The mission was lost.

“It was frustrating,” he said. “We need to work on teamwork.“

Teamwork was just one of the overall lessons, said Aimee Johns, assistant director of education for the museum.

“We’re exposing them to math, science, technology and engineering,” she said. “This is a great investment in their future. It’s hands-on action that they will remember.”

Reach Lisa Munger at 473-7107 or lmunger@journalstar.com.