SSP15 week two - Core lectures and evening events

Vera Gutman
Aug 5, 2015
5 min read

As we entered the second week we realized we somehow already got used to the hectic daily routine of SSP and it is hectic!

Monday morning we got back to Walter Hall to continue the academic part of the program, the core lectures series. This week we still had with us Walter Peeters ISU president and Prof and Chris Welch Director of the Masters course. And Prof.Jeff Hoffman Professor of Aerospace Engineering in MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, and former astronauts from whom we parted with a group photo.

- Saying goodbye to Jeff Hoffman

And a nice addition to this week was the astronauts that joined to the wonderful panel of lecturers, we had Dr. Bob Thirsk has a 28-year career experience as a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, and another fellow astronaut Mr. Paolo Nespoli is a former Italian ESA’s astronaut.

Among the new lecturers this week we had Prof. James Dator who is among many titles is the Director Emeritus of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, Department of Political Science, and Adjunct Professor in the College of Architecture, of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese who is a Professor and former Department Chair of National Security Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, RI. Dr. James Green who is the Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. Dr. Angie Bukley who is a Senior Project Engineer for The Aerospace Corporation in Hampton, VA, USA providing technical and programmatic support to the NASA Space Technology Missions Directorate and the NASA Engineering Safety Center. Mr. Gary Martin who is the Director of Partnership Directorate at Ames Research Center.

This week on the campus we had a unique, Alyssa Carson she is 14 years old and her dream is to become an astronaut. Alyssa is in the 8th grade at Baton Rouge International School, where she studies all her subjects in 4 different languages.

- Alyssa Carson at the ISU campus

On Monday’s evening agenda we had a lecture from Dr. Robert Thirsk about Expeditionary Behavior at Baker Theater.

- Dr. Robert Thirsk about Expeditionary Behavior lecture

On Tuesday after lunch we’ve been presented with the different Departmental we can choose from. The Departmental activities provide a deeper examination of some of the topics covered in the core lectures though in this case the groups are smaller than in the core lectures, allowing for exchange of knowledge, ideas, and opinions, as well ashands-on activities.

The different departments we had to choose from are:

• Space Engineering (ENG)

• Space Sciences (SCI)

• Human Performance in Space (HPS)

• Space Applications (APP)

• Space Management and Business (MGB)

• Space Policy, Economics, and Law (PEL)

• Space Humanities (HUM)

It’s not an easy choice all the departments have so much fun activities on the agenda!

Later this Tuesday evening we got acquainted with the term “Splashdown Party”, Splashdown Party is something that’s don when the astronauts coming back to Earth splashing down after a mission in space. So we got some astronauts and a party I don't see how you can go wrong with this wonderful combination. So for our Splashdown Party at Adams Hall lawn we had the great chance to mingle with CSA’s Bob Thirsk, ESA’s Paolo Nespoli and Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmitt.

- Splashdown Party group picture

On Wednesday we got our first TP (Team Project) session. TP is something that all been warning us from. It been promised frustrating at some points, and that there will be tears. Indeed it did not took us long to know they’ve all been wright. TP is NOT an easy task! The idea of getting 30+ highly inelegant people from more than 25 countries, with such big cultural diversity with so much people involved in a single project and on top of that no hierarchical structure.

I’m a proud member of TP Vision 2040 lead by Gary Martin who is the Director of Partnership Directorate at Ames Research Center. The task TP vision 2040 was given was to envision what would the year 2040 would look like and who we can make ISU relevant and counting edge in this future. The first thing we did as a team was bowling, a fun way of getting to know each other.

- TP vision 2040 going bowling

The two other TPs are Tracking Fracking which will investigate ways of tracking the environmental effects of fracking, and Planetary Defense which will research the potential hazards Earth might face by an asteroid, comet or other celestial bodies and will offer ways of dealing with them.

Later this Wednesday evening on the agenda we had International Astronaut Panel at Baker Center Ballroom, on this panel we had Sergei Krikalev, CSA’s Bob Thirsk, ESA’s Paolo Nespoli and Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmitt the event was open to the public and very active in the social media. We as the audience could take an active part in the panel by sending questions to the panel moderator by hashtagging our questions #AskAnAstronaut, cool hashtag if ask me :)

- Ask an astronaut panel

Me personally, I admire strong driven women so meeting Soyen Yi, the first South Korean astronaut was definitely THE highlight for me.

- Me with Soyen Yi, the first South Korean astronaut

On Tuesday The first Participant Talks series had started at the Stocker Center by one of our own, Israeli Roy Naor a 29 years old graduate student from Weizmann institute of since who conduct research on mineral simulate forming environments on Mars. I know Roy practiced a lot for this talk trying to perfect it. Personally I think his efforts paid off it was great!

- Roy's Participant Talks

Later this Tuesday evening we had The New Economics of Space Access moderated by David Bearden, Debra Emmons, Bob Bitten, Jim McLeroy, Tom Adang from the Aerospace Corporation and Rob Alexander from NanoRacks. The experts in the panel explored the current and planned efforts to expedite getting payloads to orbit in a more streamlined and affordable way and innovative means of space.

-The New Economics of Space Access

On Friday evening to top off this week the closing event of this week as will be for the next five weeks is the Culture Night. The Culture Night offer participants a fun way to showcase their nation and culture while allowing everyone else an understanding beyond the stereotypes. On our first culture night we had resented with France, Ireland, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway they were all awesome! They definitely raised the bar for the rest of us!

-Culture Night

This weekend we've been deprived from resting as well as we had the midterm exam schedule on Monday morning. Though we had also a refreshing initiative initiated by Remco Timmermans one of the TAs and the head of the social media team to go and support the local charity event. So seven of us participated in the run collecting four out of the twelve medals.