I just received an email from one of the teachers on my WFOD telling us the video is up! I wish I could embed it directly into this post, but it isn’t allowed. Here are the links to the three videos! I was part of the “gold team,” hence those gold socks! Pop some popcorn and enjoy these shorts (short videos for those who don’t know that term).
Thanks again to Northrop Grumman for making this experience possible. Watching these videos brings back that day and all the great memories!
I have some interesting books to read you might enjoy. I thought it might be good to read some books about the Apollo Missions so I could gain some insight into just what I will experience in just a few weeks.
Over the summer I read “Chasing Icarus,” a book about the early days of aviation. It offers quite an amazing immersion into the flight in 1910. Imagine wooden planes not much different than kites, then think about how far we as humans have come considering today’s aircraft and our spacecraft.
I also picked up a new book yesterday: “Voices from the Moon.” It is quotes from Apollo astronauts and amazing photos describing their experiences. I have only leafed through it so far, but found these three quotes rather interesting. The third quote is most interesting and somewhat concerning since our goal is to explain it to our students. Hope you enjoy.
“I got out of my suit first, and I was flipping around, thinking, Isn’t this fun!…” – Bill Anders
“I was really, really worried about [whether I'd get sick in zero G]. And I remember the exhilaration the first time I released the lap belt, got out of the couch, and I thought, Oh God, no we’ll find out. And it took about ten nanoseconds to recognize, I’ve been here all my life. This is absolutely natural. And I never gave another thought to it…I must have beamed from ear to ear when I realized. Got it made. This is perfect. I know exactly where everything is. Upside down, right side up, it looks perfect to me. It’s beautiful. I can move anywhere I want, I can do anything I want, and there aren’t any problems associated with this business. And I remember what a euphoric feeling that was.” – Ken Mattingly
“No matter what I say, anybody says, about weightlessness, you cannot relay that to somebody who hasn’t had the experience. You just cannot relate to it until you’ve had the experience of being in zero G. It’s absolutely delightful. But how are you gonna explain it? You can’t explain it!” – Ron Evans
Many students and teachers have been asking lots of questions. For example: How do they create zero-gravity? What happens when they turn on the gravity switch? How many people are going on this flight? Do you have a strong stomach? Lots and lots of questions, which I will try and answer over time here. Of course, feel free to post your own questions in the comments section. I will definitely do all I can to answer them.
