SSP15 week one - Increase The Awesome

On a sunny Saturday morning we arrived in Athens, Ohio at the green and beautiful campus of Ohio University. We were greeted by the highly interesting staff of ISU SSP15 who welcomed us by waving from the first floor balcony of Adams Hall, our home for the next nine weeks. Coming down from the bus we got a welcoming handshake from John Connolly, SSP15 director.

- SSP15 arriving to Adams Hall

After entering Adams Hall, we started the registration process which was quick, informative and efficient. The next step was a visit to Shively Dining Hall, our main source of food which unfortunately consists of lots of pizza and too much ice cream.

Later in the day we got to meet and introduce ourselves to the other SSP15 participants. So many interesting and inspiring people from more the 25 different countries – I’m happy now to call them my new friends!

- Participant introductions

- Adams Hall

- Shively Dining Hall

- The inside of Shively Dining Hall

The next day, still jet-lagged, we got a campus tour to acquaint us with the campus. To my dismay, all of buildings have beautiful red brick fronts which makes it very confusing and impossible to distinguish one building from the other. The SSP stuff were kind enough to write for us the directions to the important places nicely written in colorful chalk on the campus’s pavement. In my case, I will just continue following my new friend around the campus in order to get around.

Monday afternoon we all switched to formal dress code, so I proudly put on my pink jacket and my space shoes and headed to the chosen location for the official class picture. Since we rarely get the chance to dress up and some of my Israeli peers bought new suits (to wear for the first time in their lives), we took advantage of the sunny beautiful day to pose. I personally was quite happy with the results.

- The Israeli team

- The ISU class of SSP15

Next on the agenda was the opening ceremony in which we’ve been honored to be welcomed by Walter Peters, ISU president and Roderick McDavis, Ohio University president. We were also honored to meet with former Ohio astronaut Sunita L.Williams. That was followed by remarks from James Free, NASA Glenn research Center director. Dennis Irwin, the Dean of Russ College of Engineering and Technology of Ohio University and a video address by Peter Diamandis, who is an ISU co- founder.

- The opening ceremony

- The Israeli delegation at the opening ceremony

- The opening ceremony

Then we all gathered in the ball room for the reception. I must say that it was well organized and set up beautifully making it a very impressive affair. The local bar of Athens “Jackie-O’s” surprised us by unveiling a special beer brewed in our honor and named it “The Rye of Jupiter”. We all got a taste and a poster.

- Unveiling Jackie-O’s“The Rye of Jupiter”

- The reception

The core Lectures

Tuesday morning we went to Walter Hall to start the first day of the academic core lectures series which included lectures from: Prof.Jeff Hoffman Professor of Aerospace Engineering in MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, and former astronauts, Dr. Ray Williamson who is a Senior Advisor and former Executive Director of Secure World Foundation, Dr. Christian Sallaberger who is currently Chairman Elect of the ISU Board of Trustees, Prof. Chris Welch Director of the Masters course, Dr. Su-Yin Tan who is a Senior Lecturer in the Geomatics Program and Director of the Applied Geomatics Research Laboratory at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and Prof. Walter Peters, ISU president. The core lectures series will cover the 7 disciplines of ISU; Space Applications, Space Engineering, Space Humanities, Human Performance in Space, Space Management and Business, Space Policy, Economics, and Law, and Space Science.

- Walter Hall classroom

- Prof. Chris Welch Director of the Masters course during an orbital mechanics lecture

Later on this Tuesday evening we had a great talk with Bob Richards one of ISU’s Founders. After his opening greeting about ISU, Bob just sat there comfortably and allow us to ask him questions. The atmosphere was great and there were many interesting questions, even including some personal ones, but Bob was happy to answer them all. Peter Diamandis once again addressed us via video to welcome us to the ISU family.

- Bob Richards

- Bob Richards

- Peter Diamandis addressing us via video

On Wednesday after lunch, we were divided into our TP’s teams for three fundamental workshops that will occur during the following week: Team Building, Report Writing and Presentation, and STK workshop.

Later on Wednesday, after the workshops, we heard the Athens orchestra play a “Sounds of Space” concert, after which we returned to Adams for a movie night on the lawn. The movie of choice was “Interstellar”.

- Athens orchestra play a “Sounds of Space” concert

- Movie night on Adam's Hall lawn

On Thursday evening, we got an amazing talk from Jeff Hoffman about his flights to space to fix the Hubble space telescope. The talk was open to the public which was interested so that there was not a vacant seat in the auditorium. I personally found the talk very interesting and inspiring.

- Amazing talk from Jeff Hoffman about the Hubble space telescope

The following day, the evening activity was the local Copperheads baseball game. For most of us, including me, this was the first time in life to see a baseball game. We were prepared for the event using you-tube videos, to explain us the many, many rules of the game, and there are so many rules to this game…

- At the Copperheads baseball game

During the weekend, we continued course activities, and we went on a field trip to the Ohio Air Force Museum, there we could see the original design of the Wright brother’s airplane. The original pieces of the plane are located in this museum since Ohio was the home state of of the Wright brothers. At the space sections of the museum stood an astronaut suit that was modified for visitors to take a picture as if they were inside of the suit and it obviously became a pilgrimage for all of us the SSP participants who rushed to change their Facebook profile picture.

- Ohio Air Force Museum

- Yours truly as the first Israeli female astronaut

As a perfect end to our first week, after the museum visit, we headed to the Russ College of Engineering and Technology of Ohio University to be hosted there by Dean Dennis Irwin for a great dinner.

- At the Russ College of Engineering and Technology lawn

See you all in the next post...