SSP15 week three - Robotics competition

We started off the week tired after just a few hours of sleep because we were all studying till the last moment for the midterm quiz. The quiz started exactly at 9am, and I was anxious and couldn't wait to finish it

AAfter the quiz we resumed our course lecture routine. This week’s lecture highlights have been human performance in space with Dr. Erin Tranfield, who is the head of the Electron Microscopy Facility at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, and an ISU SSP06 alumni. The other highlight of the week was the space architecture of both shuttles and space stations and the future design requirements for extra-terrestrial settlement. The lecture was given by Mr.Brent Sherwood who is a space architect with 25 years of professional experience in the space industry.

Some other lectures where about robotics and were given by Prof.Kazuya Yoshida who also led the workshops for the design and building of the robot for the robotic competition later this week. On the topic of Entrepreneurial Space we had Mr.Chris Stott who is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ManSat, an orbital frequencies and regulatory services company with clients throughout North America headquartered on the Isle of Man with offices in London and Houston.

Another honorable visitor was Dr. John Logsdon who came to lecture about policy and law in space. Dr. Logsdon is a Professor Emeritus at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he was the founder and long-time director of GW’s Space Policy Institute. The word goes around that he is the father of space politics.

- At one of Erin Tranfield's lectures, Simulating the musical tissue

The next evening we had the "Armstrong-Aldrin Panel", both, the son of Neil Armstrong and the son of Buzz Aldrin came to talk to us and answer some question...​​

This week, our TP’s vision had a crisis. After some hectic texting we all decided that the best way to solve it is with a group hug, so just like that we got up and formed a group hug in the middle of the classroom in during the lecture, leaving the rest puzzled.

- TP Vision group hug

The next day after Lunch we started the workshop series, each one of us chose out of a pool of available options. For my first workshop I chose the social media workshop with Remco Timmermans, the leader of the social media team of the ssp. I personally learned a lot from this workshop and now I’m a proud owner of a twitter account.

- Remco Timmermans's social media workshop

Later this Day we had the Entrepreneurial Space Panel with Will Marshall from Planet Labs, Jeffrey Manber from NanoRacks, Adil Jafry from Chandah Space Technologies and Christ Stott from ManSat who was the panel chair. An evening of insightful conversation with proven space entrepreneurs who are leading advances in the global space markets with new services, products and technologies and all with deep ISU connections.

Later this week on Tuesday, we had the second workshop session. I've enjoyed Remco's first workshop so I decided to stick with him for his second one, this time about New Business Models - How New Space is Organized. Once again I wasn't disappointed, it was a great workshop. In the room next to us, they were having lots of fun as well at the Microgravity Drop Tower Experiment workshop. The teams designed and built an experiment that will be conducted in NASA Glenn’s 2.2 Second DropTower. Video results of the experiments conducted will be shared with the participants during their visit to NASA Glenn.

-Remco Timmermans's Business Models - How New Space is Organized

-Microgravity Drop Tower Experiment workshop

Later, on Tuesday evening, we had the "Arthur C. Clarke Panel - Where Space Meets Popular Culture" the event will focus on the intersection of Hollywood and science, where STEM meets STEAM (Science,Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics). As the moderators of the panel we had Harry Kloor, who is the CEO of Jupiter 9 Productions and SSP88alumni, together with Michael Potter who is a film producer and SSP88 alumni as well.

On the panel we had five time Hugo Award winning science fiction author (from a record of 36 nominations), Mike Resnick. Resnick holds the world record for the greatest number of science fiction works ever published. Together with John Beck-Hofmann who has been an award winning Producer/Director/Editor/DP and Composer at NASA/JPL for over 20 years. His most famous work "7 Minutes of Terror", viewed over 20 million times, won him NASA's "Exceptional Achievement Medal" in 2013. Hofmann received an Emmy for his work on National Geographic's "Five Years on Mars" and just recently aired his latest documentary, "Red Planet Rover", on Discovery Channel. Dr. Joe Pelton, Pulitzer Prize nominated author, and author of nearly 40 books, including a recent book about Arthur C. Clarke entitled, The Oracle of Colombo, who also conducted a book signing. Dr. Pelton is also Founder and Vice Chairman of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. Daniel St. Pierre, partnered with Christopher Reeve on the animated feature - Everyone's Hero. Directing credits also include -Quantum Quest - A Cassini Space Odyssey with Dr. Harry Kloor andLegend’s of Oz – Dorothy’s Return - also serving as Production Designer on each. “Legends of Oz” was honored with a ‘Best Animated Feature’ award nomination – the coveted Annecy “Cristal” in 2013.

On Friday evening we had the legendary John Logsdon Distinguished Lecture and Book Signing - "John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and the American Space Program". Though it was a hectic week full of events from morning till night, this was definitely not one worth missing

-DR.John Kennedy lecture about the American Space Program

To top all week's events we had the ISU LEGO Robotics Competition. We had five teams who designed, programed and operated a robot. The robots where designed to be autonomous in order to accomplish the given task, which in this case was to collect as many gems as they can, avoid as many obstacles as possible and remain within the boundaries. All of this within a given time frame, for each of these objectives they will be given a score that will determine the winner.

-ISU LEGO Robotics Competition

Later that day, we got to here from one of our own - Niamh Shaw. Dr Niamh Shaw, a performer, scientist and engineer, is passionate about awakening people's curiosity. Formerly a full-time academic and published author in peer-reviewed journals, she embarked on a career which merges science, art, technology and humanity and is currently the Artist in Residence at CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork.

-Participants Talk with Niamh Shaw

And once again the week ends with a culture night, today we got to learn and laugh about the UK, Nigeria, Mauritius and Japan.

During the weekend some of us got together and headed to Washington DC, we have been to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the white house and the national mall & memorial parks. I will leave you with some pictures...

Oh, yes, on the way back, the bus broke down, leaving us waiting for three hours to be rescued... We arrived back to Adams hall at 7am and all fully attended the 9am lecture.