Week two

What a busy week!

I've only just had the chance to sit down, relax and type some things down. I've met some incredible people this last week, and been to some breathtaking places!

Last Tuesday NASA hosted the 'Soffen Memorial Panel' (Gerald Soffen was a highly influential NASA scientist) for students from the International Space University. This panel was a discussion on the key questions of the future of space with some of the brightest minds in the field. Bill Nye ,the Science Guy (unfortunately not shown enough of British TV), was one of the panelists and he's such a cool, yet slightly mad, guy. He spent the day taking part in all the activities and, after much trepidation, I got the nerve to ask for a picture!

The star of the panel, and the whole week, was Dr. (and General) Pete Warden; the director of NASA Ames Research Centre. In his multiple talks he discussed synthetic biology, terraforming and virtual presence. This is a man who has such passion to get out of our cradle, colonise the solar system and save the human race – its refreshing hearing these views which mimic my own, from a man in his position.

The panel was held in the Operations Support Building at Kennedy Space Centre. This is where everyone involved in a mission meets in the run-up to a launch. I got to go out on the balcony reserved for the president and other heads of state and VVIP's for rocket launches at the KSC. Cooler still, I'm going to the launch of an Atlas V on Wednesday and will be able to viewing it from that very same balcony! The payload of the mission is confidential as it's part of the National Reconnaissance Office, but by applying some of the things we've learnt in Orbital Dynamics and doing some research of past missions, we at the SSP think it's going to be a replacement for one of their communications satellites already in orbit.

In the picture above, you can see me looking cool, but behind that is one of the most impressive sights I've come across. It's the Vehicle Assembly building which is where manned launch vehicles are built and housed and it is the largest single story building in the world!

We had the first of our 'Culture Nights' at the SSP on Friday. These nights are a chance for the participants to present some information about their countries and their culture to the rest of the group. This was followed by a party hosted by the countries that presented, showcasing some of their best food, drink and music. Friday night saw Spain, Portugal, Nigeria, Austria and Germany showcase their countries. It's a great experience and particular highlights were the Spanish Sangria and what can only be described as dancing the German Macarena!

UK culture night is in a couple of weeks, so myself and the other Brits should probably start thinking about what we're going to say and do... We have some tough acts to follow after Friday nights performance.

The SSP is sponsored by loads of organisations such as NASA and Boeing, but we are also sponsored by Disney!

Thanks to Disney, we were invited to a free day at Disney World on Saturday and it was awesome! Before we all rushed off to our favourite rides, we got to meet one of Disney's lead engineers who gave us a talk about some of the engineering challenges at Disney – so cool! You can tell that the talk was a success, because at the end of it, so many people were asking how to apply for a job as an engineer at Disney! I don't think the lecturer realised that one of those people was none other than South Korean Astronaut Yi So-Yeon! (who is one of the staff members at the SSP!). I went to 3 of the parks at Disney World and was finally able to conquer my irrational fear of roller coasters!

Epcot at Disney World

I'm looking to set-up an account on a photo sharing website so I can post all of the photos I have taken. If anyone knows of a good one, let me know (I tried Flickr but I'm not a fan...).