Dean chats with Pat Ammons, Senior Director of Public and Media Relations at Space Camp—yes, THE Space Camp! Listen in to discover how this iconic educational experience began and what exciting developments are on the horizon.
Have you ever wanted to be an astronaut? Did you go to Space Camp? Dean wants to hear from you! Send us your thoughts at lookingup@wvxu.org or post them on social media using #lookinguppod
Additional resources referenced in this episode:
- The First International Space Camp in 1990
- Space Camp 1994
- Go - USSRC Promo
- Aviation Challenge Promo (1997)
- Can you SURVIVE? Aviation Challenge
- Space Camp Robotics Promo 2013
- U.S. Cyber Camp
- Blast Off! A Kids Introduction to the Space Program
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Looking Up is transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
Dean Regas: Mission Control, this is Colonel Regas. I'm on the Canada arm of the Space Shuttle and about to release the Hubble Space Telescope. Wait, wait. Can we make the audio sound a little more scratchy, you know, like when the astronauts are talking from space? Roger all, Discovery. Oh yeah, that's way better. Regas, you are go for release of HST.
Releasing in 3, 2, 1. And it is away! Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope is successful!
Now, I'm probably not going to be an astronaut, but I got to play one for a week in Huntsville, Alabama. That is correct. I went to space camp! Why in the world would you want to attend space camp? After all, you'll be thrown, tumbled, tossed, and launched. You'll have fun, and at the same time, you'll even learn a thing or two.
Okay, it was more than 20 years ago. I was still an adult, but I remember every mission. Launch your imagination in Huntsville, Alabama at the U. S. Space and Rocket Center, home of Space Camp.
From the studios of Cincinnati Public Radio, I'm your host, Dean Regas, and this is Looking Up,
the show that takes you deep into the cosmos, or just to the telescope in your backyard to learn more about what makes this amazing universe of ours so great. My guest today is Pat Ammons, the Senior Director of Public and Media Relations at the U. S. Space and Rocket Center, home of Space Camp. Yes, the Space Camp.
Now, before you start in with me by saying, Dean, when did you go to Space Camp? It was way before the Hubble telescope. Ah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm not that old. Hubble launched in 1990. I went to Space Camp in Hmm early two thousands, but they still had the space shuttle as this kinda like mock-up space shuttle where you could pretend like you're doing missions on it and communicate no time to waste.
You'll have two shuttle missions this week, so training will begin almost immediately upon your arrival. And yeah, I did actually get to go on the arm and, and retrieve a satellite in the simulated viewer, so I got to control it with the hand controller and everything.
[Archival Audio]: with simulators. So real fantasy becomes reality.
Dean Regas: That was pretty cool. I got lucky. I, that was like the one that I really wanted. I didn't, I didn't slip them five bucks or something, but I got it. But that whole week was really pretty amazing. And I mean, this was a long time ago, but I still think about it, and I still think, you know, I should go back.
It's almost like being in space. It was so cool. Pat, thanks so much for joining me today. It's great to be here, Dean. So, let's say you have a kid who's really into space, science, engineering, math, adventure, what does a kid get to do and experience at Space Camp?
Pat Ammons: Space Camp is one of those experiences. It's, Almost hard to describe until you get there and experience it, but it is an immersive week long all things space all the time. So if you've got a kid who is just fascinated by astronomy, one of those kids who can recite all the solar system, and maybe isn't one of those kids who necessarily finds, you know, his or her peers in a school setting, they will find themselves and their group at Space Camp.
[Archival Audio]: A couple of days ago, I never even met this person. And now here we are, depending on each other to get this mission accomplished.
Pat Ammons: It's the kind of place where kids really connect with other really smart kids and people who are fascinated by the same things they are.
Dean Regas: Are there different kinds of camps, like different themes, missions, age groups, experience levels, that kind of thing?
Pat Ammons: Absolutely. So, Space Camp is the original program since 1982. So, we're in 42 years of providing this STEM education to kids. But we found that our kids also have varying interests. You know, it's really typical for a kid to come who says, “I want to be an astronaut. But there's also lots of kids who have Related STEM interests are really fascinated by the idea of flying.
So back in 1990, we started Aviation Challenge.
[Archival Audio]: Aviation Challenge. Grab a whole new altitude. In Alabama and California, from the people who brought you Space Camp. Must be 18 years or older to call.
Pat Ammons: And then, after a while many years later, we started Space Camp Robotics, really focusing on the engineering aspects of space exploration.
Because, of course, going to space is one thing. Getting there is something that's really also very necessary. So, somebody's gotta be building those rocket engines and the vehicles that are gonna take them there.
[Archival Audio]: Advanced robotic development may seem like something out of the future. But here at Space Camp, it's the here and now.
We're even opening up a brand new robotics camp this season. Devoted exclusively to developing the robotic innovators of the future, today.
Pat Ammons: And then finally, our last program that we added in 2017 was cyber. And again, leaning into that STEM kind of program, but this time with a focus on cyber security, which of course is just absolutely critical to our world today.
[Archival Audio]: At US Cyber Camp, students will learn the fundamentals of cyber security, including hardware and software principles such as how to build a computer, how to establish a basic network and how to do some basic Python programming.
Dean Regas: I went to space camp as an adult. It was part of the program for educators.
Space Academy for educators gives teachers a chance to earn additional college credit while collecting materials and experiences they can use to inspire their classroom. Can I go back for more extensive training?
Pat Ammons: Yeah. Yes, you can. And so, if you went to the adult space camp for educators, that is a week long program.
But a lot of people attend our three day space camp program for weekends. We have that for families and also adults, kind of that long weekend experience. But we do have, for the really hardcore adults, we also offer a week long program in the fall that's really popular for those who really need it. I really want to spend an entire week just completely immersed in space.
Dean Regas: That sounds good. I was thinking more like a couple months, but I will, I'll do, I can do a week. That'd be fine. Yeah, for starters. And then I'll come back again. Maybe. We'll see.
Pat Ammons: Maybe you just need to get a hotel and just stay in Huntsville for weeks on end and just visit the Rocket Center every day.
Dean Regas: There we go. There we go. Speaking of that, so what kind of special features and facilities are there at the camps that make it unique? And are there multiple locations around there?
Pat Ammons: Of course, Space Camp is located in Huntsville, Alabama. Sometimes people don't really understand necessarily the role Huntsville has had and continues to have in space exploration.
Of course, this was the origin of the team that built the Saturn V, which was our original moon rocket. And the space launch system that is taking us back to the moon is all being managed out of Marshall Space Flight Center here in Huntsville.
[Archival Audio]: In Huntsville, you'll tour the birthplace of America's space program.
NASA NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. This is where Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team created the powerful rockets that launched man to the moon.
Pat Ammons: So, this is the sort of the birthplace of certainly rocketry and engineering propulsion and continues to this day. And so that's the reason why Space Camp is here.
And Space Camp itself has probably grown since you were last there. And we have a beautiful new Space Camp Operations Center, which is sort of our home base for space exploration. for presentations and classroom experiences, but we are breaking ground right now on a brand new simulations facility that will be done in 2025.
We're going to be upgrading our simulated experiences and creating a lot of things that we could previously only do outdoors, which can be a little bit of a challenge in Alabama weather. We are going to be able to do some of those indoors now.
Dean Regas: You know, I mean, for me, it was, you know, doing these simulations and simulate missions.
And you mentioned you're having a new facility that's going to be opened up. Are there ways that you can kind of simulate different gravities and different environments? You know, like what it's like to be on the moon, one sixth gravity, or even microgravity. Is there ways you could do that?
Pat Ammons: Of course, the microgravity is one of the more difficult things to simulate. The truth is, I'm from the future. A lot of times we'll get questions about microgravity rooms and I'm like, you invent that, and we're, we're in. But what we do for microgravity simulation is the same thing that the astronaut training does, which is underwater.
[Archival Audio]: Engineering track and technology track trainings will practice experiments in the simulated microgravity of the U. H. S.
Pat Ammons: So, we have a deep scuba tank that our advanced level students do scuba in, and that simulates the experience of microgravity. But we also have a one sixth gravity chair, which you probably remember experiencing, which provides that experience of walking on the moon, which is one sixth the gravity of the, on Earth.
But in our new building, we're also going to have a Martian gravitational chair, because the four little stars on our fast horseback And I mean in other words, Martian Mars has sans a quarter, is one third that of Earth's.
Dean Regas: Do you know, with the changing technologies that's out there and new missions, how have the simulated missions changed over the years?
Are there these new skills and technology that the campers get to experience?
Pat Ammons: So, we do, are always upgrading our missions. curriculum and as we are able to also put in new simulators, which this new building is going to help us do. A few years ago, we added an Orion capsule. We actually have two Orion capsules now and one of those goes to the moon as we focus on going back to the moon.
And then we also have a Mars mission. So, our other Orion capsule takes us there. to Mars, and kind of creating that scenario where they have to think about what it's going to take to live on a planet that's not going to be very friendly to us.
[Archival Audio]: And get a feel for what it might be like to explore another planet as you perform experiments on
Pat Ammons: Mars is going to be a pretty tough place to live, and so you never know when that spark is going to create the connections that they're going to need to have later on to help innovate towards those experiences in real life, because it will be their generation that will continue to advance our exploration of space.
Dean Regas: At the end of the camp, what do you hope that kids, adults, whoever's doing this, what do you hope that they take away from their experiences?
Pat Ammons: We want them to be obviously inspired to think about possibilities. How can I contribute? Even if it's just becoming fascinated by the idea of space. Without fail, we want them to walk away saying this is important work.
Space exploration matters, and we have gained so much in our lives and our, our world through space exploration. You and I are talking right now because of that. But like I said, that. Teamwork, that problem solving, critical thinking, knowing that things aren't always easy, but when you are able to work together and persevere, you can be very successful.
And so regardless of what anyone goes on to do in life, those are great skills to take with them.
[Archival Audio]: Bringing about the fruition of our dreams of life in space, allowing us to make lasting friendships along the way.
Dean Regas: Pat, this has been awesome. Thanks so much for taking me back to space camp and being such a great advocate for this.
Pat Ammons: Thanks so very much for giving me the opportunity. It was an absolute pleasure.
Dean Regas: I don't know about you, but I'm ready to go back. I don't know if I ever really wanted to be an astronaut, but my experiences there were really, really cool.
[Archival Audio]: So, this is what it's like to be an astronaut.
Dean Regas: Did it make me want to go to space more than I did before? I actually don't think so. I think that I kind of like the, the behind the scenes people a lot more because if you think about the Apollo mission, sending people the moon, this is, this is an undertaking that took Hundreds of thousands of people just to build, design, communicate, respond, all the stuff to that mission.
And now we're embarking on a new one. We're embarking on a new mission to go back to the moon called the Artemis Missions. And so these are going to be happening in the next couple years where we'll be sending people out to the moon and around the moon. And then eventually landing back on the lunar surface.
And so, I was kind of wondering about you all. Have you ever wanted to be an astronaut? And did you ever go to space camp? If you did, and you want to share your experiences with us, we'd love to hear them. You can email us at lookingup@wvxu.org, you can send audio, video, pics, whatever you want to do.
Tell us about your experience at space camp, we'd love to hear it. And you can also do it on social media by using #lookinguppodcast. Looking up with Dean Regas is a production of Cincinnati Public Radio. Kevin Reynolds and I created the podcast in 2017. Ella Rowen is our show producer and editor and communicates with me from Radio Mission Control.
Marshall Verbsky assists with audio production and editing and wants me to totally do the vomit comet. You know that plane that dips and dives just for the audio. Sorry, man, but I got an iron stomach. You're not gonna get much audio other than me yelling. Jenell Walton is our vice president of content and Ronny Salerno is our digital platforms manager.
Our theme song is Possible Light by Ziv Moran, and our cover art is by Nicole Tiffany. I'm Dean Regas and keep looking up.
