No cameras allowed!!!

Well, since they wouldn't let us bring cameras I have no pictures, but today was Young Minds at Work day for Lockheed. I got to take Emma to some events at the Cape and she got to see what kind of work Lockheed and ULA do for the space programs here. We signed Em up to participate in a Delta II virtual countdown, an Atlas V mock countdown, and a Build and Launch a Water Rocket event. We checked in at 6:45 this morning and they gave the kids a Lockheed backpack and some goodies and then some speakers talked about the days events and the rules... They did take a group picture and gave everyone a printout of it, so I'll scan that and post it (DONE!!! Em is in the front row, pink shirt on the far left...) . It looks like it was printed on a "work" printer so I'll e-mail the guy that took the pictures and see if I can get digital copies as well.

Delta was our first event, and it was basically a playback of the launch of the Dawn spacecraft. Em got to sit in one of the controller chairs and put on the headset, but since it was a playback there wasn't really any participation on her part.

After that we went to the Atlas countdown, and that was a bit more interesting for her. The Atlas crew provided a script and Em sat in the CEC seat. That's the person responsible for monitoring the Centaur (which is the upper stage of the Atlas V) Engine Cool Down. The Launch Controller was on the headsets with the kids and they were prompted for their status. They answered based on their lines in the script. She liked that one a lot.

Following that we had a demonstration of the K-9 dogs that they use on the base to search for explosives and other contraband. That was interesting to me but I think it was too much talking and not enough action for Emma. They talked about how the dogs are trained and what they are supposed to do and then did a really quick demo where the dog found a bag that smelled like drugs.

Next we had some time for lunch and went and ate in the car by the Air Force museum on the base. It has rockets from throughout the base's history like Atlas I and old Titan rockets. Emma and I walked around and so got to see how big some of the rockets are since she could stand right next to them.

Finally, we went to the water rocket thing. Em got hosed on this one a bit... We built her rocket out of a 2 liter bottle and some water fountain cups. They had this complex contraption that injects water and air as a pressurized propellant and then you yank a cord and it releases the rocket. Well, Em's rocket was on the pad and the launcher was starting to stick a bit, so by the time hers was cut loose, a lot of the pressure had already been expended. The EMMA VII rocket went about 20 feet and all the other ones went about 150! Oh, well. Em still said that was her favorite activity of the day. Hopefully Lockheed will do this again next year and Paige will be old enough to go as well. 6 was the cutoff age this year so she missed out.